Ready to make the smart choice?
It’s a fact – sheltering your livestock from the elements is good for business. Healthy animals are simply more productive, so housing them in the best conditions, whether for the short term or long term, is in a farmer’s best interests. In fact, the benefits of a covered wintering or loafing area extend far beyond the health and productivity of your herd. A SmartShelters covered shelter is easier to maintain, facilitates more efficient management, and allows your pasture to grow, unencumbered by constant grazing. SmartShelters are used widely around New Zealand as an effective way to winter dry cows on farm as an alternative to wintering cows on winter break crops or sending cows off to a contract grazier.
These soft floor barn systems are the ultimate way to hold cows 24/7 during winter and provide a soft, warm, and dry surface to lie, and eventually, calve on.
Dry cows in a wintering barn can gain 1 BCS in 28 days because they aren’t burning the energy; they are warm, dry, and out of the weather.
Most wintering barns have a concrete cow lane down each side where the cows stand while they feed. This is connected to a weeping wall/bunker-type system at one end of the barn and catches the effluent.
Farmers often milk for a week or two in Autumn using the barn to stand off and feed in to reach the lactation target of 305 days. The cows then live in the barn for the 6-12 week dry period. Cows are split into calving mobs two weeks out from their calving dates and, once calved taken out of the barn into the colostrum and milking herds.
Only a relatively small maintenance diet is required, intakes are usually 8-11kg DM/cow through winter. Compared to a winter crop with 16-18kgDM offered/cow, this is a considerable reduction & consequent quick return on investment.
What is the best loafing shelter?
The best loafing shelter is one that is built by an experienced team, using the finest materials, and to suit your specific needs. And at SmartShelters we tick each of those boxes. A SmartShelters loafing shelter can be custom designed to suit your herd and your site.
With large spans of up to 45m available, a comfortable shelter can be created for your herd (we recommend providing 10m²-12m² per head) without centre poles for livestock to knock and damage. And while they’re designed to protect your herd against the elements during the winter, our shelters also keep your herd 5-10 degrees cooler in summer.
A SmartShelters structure is an excellent way to provide shelter from the elements.
Install a membrane liner beneath your drainage system to future proof against regulation changes.Ridge vents are required for removal of moisture accumulation10-12m2 recommended space allocation per cow800mm of feed face/cow recommended for fair feeding
Increase milk production and reduce feed costs
Avoid expensive off-farm grazing
Make winter milking viable
Improve cow condition and comfort through winter
Eliminate respiratory problems
Reduce mastitis
Cleaner udders and improved herd health
Heavily reduced nutrient leaching in the wet months
Fully contained system provides total effluent capture
Off pasture wintering eliminates pugging and leaching
In terms of animal health, a SmartShelters covered loafing area offers the following benefits over a traditional uncovered area:
But the perks of a SmartShelters covered loafing area don’t end with the animals. A SmartShelters construction will also offer the following environmental benefits:
How do these advantages play out in a business sense? The animal and environmental benefits will increase your bottom line in the following ways:
The major increase in production is in cases where winter milking is made viable. If you can milk your herd at a time when you previously hadn’t, the benefits of wintering your herd in a sheltered space become obvious.
But even if you already milk in winter, or you have no plan to do so even with a wintering/loafing shelter, the cost savings that a SmartShelter construction can offer are compelling. Dramatically reduced feed expenditure, pasture growth and efficient herd management can see the cost of the shelter quickly paid back through savings alone.
Boasting a team backed by 100 years of experience, and working with the finest materials available, SmartShelters are able to rapidly design and construct covered stand off pads of the highest quality, enabling you to work smarter, sooner.
Contact a member of our experienced team today to discuss a truly smart shelter solution for your property.
Protect what matters with New Zealand-made shelters built on 100 years of trusted expertise. Contact us today!
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