[Illustration: FIG. 42—A complete dairy barn, with silo.]
Modern dairy farming means an up-to-date dairy barn, and we give
herewith the plans of one which is warmly endorsed by the owner and
carries fifty cows in perfect comfort. This is a truss-frame barn,
ninety-three feet long by forty feet wide, the basement (or ground)
floor being wholly occupied by cow stalls and calving pens, the main
floor being a hay-storage room. Two bays on one side are used for grain
storage, all the remainder of the bays on both sides being for hay; a
drive-way fifteen feet wide extends through this floor, and inclined
driveways at each end give access from the fields in either direction.
The ground floor is concrete throughout. A walk five feet wide extends
along each side and cross walks three feet wide are between each row
of stalls at both front and rear, one for breeding and the other for
the cows and the milkers. A shallow gutter, eighteen inches wide by
six inches deep, extends along the rear of the stalls to receive the
droppings and urine, which is removed twice a day and drawn at once to
the fields or heaped for tramping over and rotting under wide-roofed
sheds. The calving stalls, four at each end of this floor, are eight by
seven and three quarters feet in size, and one or two of them can be
occupied by bulls, if desired.
The watering system may be either a wooden gutter extending along the
front of each row of stalls or a cast-iron semicircular pan set between
each pair of stalls so as to supply a cow on either side. Whether
troughs or pans are used there should be an automatic cock and tank,
which keeps the water always at the desired level, and check valves
which prevent the water once in the trough or basin returning to the
pipe and contaminating others.
[Illustration: FIG. 43—Cross-section showing truss-frame
plan.]
All the food is stored on the main floor, whence convenient chutes
convey it to feeding troughs or push-carts on the walks below. The
ensilage from the silo is loaded directly into the push-carts just
outside the door, or could be chuted to the walk inside. The soiling
crops fed in summer are cut up on the main floor and sent down to the
waiting push-carts in the walks below. The roof and sides of this barn
are covered with Paroid roofing.
[Illustration: FIG. 44—Ground floor plan of basement story.]
[Illustration: FIG. 45—Floor plan of main floor.]
The tying arrangement may be either chains, straps, or swing stanchions
as desired, and all three methods are in use on up-to-date dairy barns.
The stock kept may have an influence upon the length of the stalls;
those given are seven and one half feet long by three feet three inches
wide.