“In 2018, we built a new building for the young stock so we could bring all the animals together at the same farm site,” explain the partners of Gaec du Tilleret. The new building, measuring 60 metres long by 17 metres wide, has 110 cubicle spaces and the same number of headlocks, and houses heifers from 3 months of age, from weaning until calving.
Designing a building with cubicles for heifers is fairly unusual, and doing so with slatted flooring is even more so. “The slurry system does not seem very widespread in the Comté region, but it works very well for us,” the farmers say. “We wanted a comfortable building for the animals that would also make our work easier.”
The farmers spend no more than an hour a day managing the 100 heifers, and the result is very clean. “What takes us the most time is scraping the cubicles. It takes 15 minutes in the morning and evening.” Hay and aftermath hay are distributed in the morning using the mixer wagon, and the forage is pushed up manually every evening.
Another advantage: there is no need to bed the animals with straw anymore. “In addition to the time saved, it is a significant source of savings, around 20 tonnes per year.”
No heifer lies down on the floor
The building, which has an insulated roof, has two back-to-back rows of cubicles with mattresses. It is divided into three sections for three age groups. The cubicle equipment is the same throughout. Only the settings for depth, withers height and width differ.
“In terms of animal welfare, this building is excellent,”says Jean-Charles Roussey. The atmosphere is good, there is no odor, and the animals are clean. The heifers adapt very well to the stalls. Even at the beginning, none of them lie down on the floor. And once they arrive in the dairy cow barn, they have already gotten into the habit—it runs smoothly on its own.
Economic aspect
The building cost 450 000 € in 2018
-265 000 € building
-140 000 € manure pit and masonry
-17 000 € scrapers
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-10 000 € mixers
-18 000 € mattresses
Farming Profile
3 UMO
85 cows producing 8 000 l
55 heifers raised per year
152 ha of utilized agricultural area (UAA), including 40 ha of permanent grassland, 102 ha of temporary grassland, and 10 ha of barley