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Know How / Housing and handling

Advice and information on livestock housing and shed design to ensure your animals’ welfare and productivity. Compare different types of housing and bedding and read case studies on other farmers. Get tips on stock handling equipment, including cattle crushes and races, dairy parlour design and robotic milking.

Case studies

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HOUSING AND HANDLING

What's in your Livestock Shed? visits £115k lambing shed

Investing in a lambing shed might seem extravagant for a sheep farmer renting all their ground, but Annie Carr of The Brays in Herefordshire has costed the expense down to…

WHATS IN YOUR LIVESTOCK SHED

Beef shed design combines low effort and high welfare

A beef housing system in Powys is designed to minimise labour, maximise animal health and welfare, and protect the farming system from increasingly frequent weather extremes. The Morris family replaced…

BEEF

How beef-specific foot health focus cut herd’s lameness risk

An on-farm review has enabled beef farmers Jonathan and Delyth Crimes to prioritise areas that will benefit foot health, resulting in easier day-to-day management and a 90% reduction in antibiotics…

DAIRY

'Little wins' improve milk and protein yield on Cornish farm

Milk quality has not been compromised as yields have increased on a 550-cow dairy farm near Bodmin, Cornwall. In fact, while yields at Treveglos Farm are up by 1,200 litres…

DAIRY

Grant brings 'excellent' improvements to youngstock handling

For his youngstock, spring block-calver Rupert Major installed an “excellent” curved handling facility instead of an “average” one to meet the requirements for Defra funding two years ago. Farmers Weekly…

WHATS IN YOUR LIVESTOCK SHED

What’s In Your Livestock Shed? Comfort for 50-point rotary

Prioritising cow comfort and wellbeing in the design of new housing has boosted average annual milk yield by 1,000 litres a head at a Carmarthenshire dairy farm. Features include waterbeds,…

Practical advice

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DAIRY

Advice on dry cow shed management for high yielders

The high-yielding cow faces immense metabolic challenges. Transition diseases such as milk fever, ketosis, and displaced abomasum cases remain costly threats, and poor fertility results in inefficiency. The transition period…

LIVESTOCK

How hock and neck sores can limit milk yield potential

Hock lesions and neck rubs could be depriving high-yielding cows of their ability to achieve their full genetic potential. An additional two lactations will also be forfeited, according to Cow…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Advice on dairy buildings designed for weather extremes

Vets and consultants are urging a rethink on building design to future-proof against greater heat stress risk and drought, while allowing the cow to express her natural behaviour. Recent modelling…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

What is the future for flexible farrowing systems?

Uncertainty remains about potential new farrowing regulations requiring the industry to switch from conventional to flexible farrowing systems. These provide sows with extra space and enable them to be confined…

DAIRY

Advice on siting a new dairy building in the farmyard

Location, logistics and taking a long-term view about potential future expansion will ensure that any new building added to the yard will work for cows, people and the farm routine.…

PIGS

6 ways to help protect against African swine fever

Pig producers are starting to draw up contingency plans to reduce the risk of African swine fever coming onto their farms. These plans will also minimise the stress of being…

Insights

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DAIRY

How farmers can benefit from advances in milking tech

In the busy world of dairy farming, the milking machine is often just an everyday tool that fulfils its purpose, then is turned off and forgotten about until the next…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

How data analysis helped dairy herds cut mastitis cases

A project involving multiple dairy farms across Wales has demonstrated why collecting data to establish the mastitis “red flags” specific to an individual herd can be key to reducing disease…

LIVESTOCK

Benefits of giving dairy calves toys on farm

Giving dairy calves plastic “toys” to play with helps them express their natural behaviour which, in turn, benefits their mental wellbeing. As a result, they are less likely to display…

PIGS

Pig tech promises 5-day advantage detecting coughs

A listening device that monitors coughing in pigs can alert the producer to the onset of respiratory disease up to five days earlier than farm personnel. SoundTalks, launched across the…

POULTRY

8 new products to enhance layer and broiler performance

Margins are under pressure like never before in the poultry sector, which faces high input costs and static prices, and some businesses are operating at a loss. Could it be…

LIVESTOCK

How rising costs threaten future of Icelandic sheep farming

Tough and resilient – the farmers in Iceland are much like the sheep they have bred to cope with the rugged terrain and sub-Arctic winter conditions. But many, like 44-year-old…

POULTRY

The poultry industry's response to total cage ban proposals

A strong industry response to a vocal home-grown animal welfare lobby has already propelled the UK to the forefront of the global move away from cage systems. Despite that, pressure…

POULTRY

Why the industry is fighting Defra's poultry transport plans

Parts of the broiler industry could be severely threatened unless the government adopts a more commonsense approach to Defra’s Improvements to Animal Welfare in Transport consultation, according to the NFU.…

LIVESTOCK

Best dairy bedding for minimising mastitis-causing bacterium

A study carried out at the University of Nottingham has shown sawdust to be the best bedding for minimising the survival of the mastitis-causing pathogen streptococcus uberis (S. uberis.) S.…

POULTRY

A guide to improving poultry shed insulation

Good insulation will keep poultry housing at an even temperature throughout the seasons, reducing heating and ventilation costs. However, older types of insulation may be less efficient due to outdated…

HOUSING AND HANDLING

Video: Inside a state-of-the-art transition cow shed

One USA dairy has converted a shed, originally built for calves, into a state-of-the-art facility for transition cows. The shed at George DeRuyter & Sons dairy in Sunnyside, Washington State,…

LAYERS

A poultrykeeper's guide to ground-source heat pumps

With farm carbon emissions under the spotlight and an increasing emphasis on sustainable agriculture, many producers are moving away from fossil fuels. Ground-source heat pumps offer a good solution for…

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