Williams - cattle housing and slurry storage facilities

The objectives of the project is to provide the facilities to increase the number of suckler cows from 30 cows to 60. 

• Slated building and slurry store, this is the main investment that will allow the cows to be increased from 30 to 60 cows. The increased slurry storage is essential to allow better use of nutrients.

• The building will also house finishing cattle and release the use of old cowshed buildings from keeping cattle. The old buildings have poor ventilation and are very labour intensive to use.

• Covering at outside feeding at Parc will significantly reduce the amount of dirty water produced.

• The intention is to build a building for grain storage, the farm grows 20 acres of barley for their own use. This investment is important to meet Farm Assurance standards and will speed up the process of filling the grain silo at harvest and will make the rolling process less labour intensive.

• Cattle crush and handling system, this investment will make routine husbandry tasks safer and more welfare friendly especially since the finishing cattle are weighed regularly. An EID reader is also included in the investment which can be used by cattle and sheep.

• The water pump and water tanks are sound investments to reduce water purchase costs and reduce the carbon burden of mains water. 

• Sward lifter, this will reduce the effects of compaction and improve soil drainage.  The result should be an increase in the production of grass dry matter and an improvement in animal growth rates and slaughter weights. This investment will also help reduce emissions.

• GPS technology, this will allow more accurate field operations when carrying out tasks such as fertiliser application, silage mowing etc. The aim is to be more accurate in applying nutrients, save diesel costs and reduce soil compaction