It seems lots of farmers look at the problems caused by last years wet winter and decide the only solution is a Big Loafing Barn - "I know it'll cost me, but its the only way."

The problems last season were huge - mud, pasture damage, reduced production, heifers and "battlers" particularly affected, cow disease and deaths, low butterfat test, high concentrate bills, pugging of pastures, low silage and hay yields, low conception rates, early drying off.

Plus lots and lots of WORK - getting bogged in the lane, repairing feed out machines and wagons and front-end loaders.

Rain is the main contributing factor to many of these problems, but are you sure a roofed area is the only solution?

Some of the loafing barns I've seen only seem to change the problems to a different set of problems. For example effluent disposal inside a loafing barn is often a major issue, or else they end up fairly putrid places. Ventilation is often just as difficult.
Also it is difficult to arrange the numbers properly:-

• Is there a feeding space per animal?
• Can you use big square bales or whole rolls?
• Can the cows get through a bale in the feeder in 2 or 3 days - 3 days is a pretty good figure for silage.
• Or is it still around 6 days later.

In most of the "Waste-Not" Feed pads as we currently set them up, the whole roll is gone in 2 - 3 � days. Result - no need for a roof to protect the hay or silage. If - bottom line - the main use of your roof is to keep rain off the hay in the feeder, it's a pretty expensive piece of equipment.
Now, of course, if you've spent $30,000 on a Big Loafing Barn, you're going to be looking or other benefits, but often we find that the cow benefits can be much more easily gained by:

1.    A relatively small "Waste-Not" Feeding Pad.
2.    A cow "storage" area like a sawdust pad, close sacrifice paddock, or even the yard and lanes.

Alternatively, an even more elegant solution is summarised by some of our feed-pad owners: "We have always stood cows off every night for 2 months (June and July) because it's so wet here in winter. But when we put the Feed Pad in, the cows have had their ration of feed as they leave the shed - they are much gentler on the pasture so it grows better. We haven't had to stand them off once this winter and the pasture has come away much quicker."

If you've got an urge to build a big loafing barn, talk to us first.

Even if you do have a shed, you still need a feeding system. Often we can set up Feed Pads which solve many of the problems, without the $20,000 plus � plus � plus � inflexible, fixed, relatively single use piece of capital sitting there unused for most of the year.

"Waste-Not" Fair Go Dairy Feed Pads usually work out at about $25 - $40 per cow total cost for Feeder . Concrete & fencing can usually follow later or not at all.