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northeastern Ohio | I like my neighbors design too, except for the feed area being open to the elements. His is open to the east, as mine would be too, and that helps. But there are probably 20 days a year when I get an east wind with rain. Feed is never cheap, and I want them eating EVERY day.
I had the exact same setup that you do before I went to hutches. It was a 63 cow tie stall barn up until 1988. We then converted 30 stalls into calf pens. Pitched the manure by hand into the gutter. It was a nice setup, except for the manure handling. The biggest problem was calf mortality was averaging 7%, which is way too high. Air quality was poor and growth rate was not ideal. We moved to hutches in January 2004 and mortality went to 1%.
The calves seem to do ok in the cold. I have a few (3 our of 200 head) with smaller ears due to minor frost bite on the coldest days. We bump up the milk replacer on cold days to provide more energy. | |
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