ITHACA, N.Y. Good dairy housing provides
animals with a clean, dry, and comfortable area for
resting, eating, drinking, and exercising. In addi
tion, it is cost-effective to build and maintain, pro
vides safe and efficient working conditions for
caretakers, and protects the environment. Penn
State Dairy Housing Plans, NRAES-85, offers
twenty-nine plans developed by faculty and staff of
the Department of Agricultural and Biological En
gineering at Penn State and Penn State Cooperative
Extension. The plans provide information that can
help design a more successful freestall barn, heifer
barn, or dry cow, and maternity housing facility.
A revision of Penn State Freestall and Heifer
Housing Plans (1994), this 106-page publication
offers twelve freestall housing plans, six heifer hous
ing plans, four dry cow and maternity housing
plans, and seven plans for details and components.
For this edition, all plans have been revised to incor
porate recommendations for freestall design, venti
lation, and cow movement.
Also in this edition are introductory discussions
for each section and a list of suggested readings.
The freestall section offers plans for various two
row, three-row, four-row, and six-row freestall
barns. Included in the heifer section are plans for
bedded-pack housing, counter-slope housing,
single-slope housing, and three types of heifer free
stall barns.
Dairyman Shares
(Continued from Page 30)
The life expectancy of Knigge’s Lely robot is
about 10 years. Lely offers routine maintenance and
emergency service as needed, as well as providing
numerous software and component updates.
What about the profitability of the operation?
As on any dairy farm, “with current milk prices,
it doesn’t leave room for many mistakes,” Knigge
said.
There are about 1,000 robotic milkers in the
world with the majority of them in Europe. Canada
has more in operation than the U.S. Several dairy
producers in Pennsylvania have installed them
within the last two years.
At this point, a certain number of robotic milkers
are allowed in each state, pending wide-scale ap-
Penn State Book Offers Range Of
Dairy Housing Options
The section on dry cow and maternity housing
contains ideas for housing dry cows in bedded pack
groups, multiple pen barns with drive-through feed
ing, pre-fresh/maternity pen areas, convalescence
areas, and post-fresh housing facilities.
Included in the detail and components section are
sidewall curtains/drainage, watering locations, floor
surfaces, feed barriers, freestalls, and ventilation
openings. The plans are drawn for specific numbers
of animals, but in most cases they can be changed to
accommodate the numbers of cows or heifers need
ing housing.
Authors of Penn State Dairy Housing Plans,
NRAES-85, are Robert E. Graves, Agricultural and
Biological Engineering Department; Dan F. McFar
land, Penn State Cooperative Extension, York
County; and John T. Tyson, Penn State Coopera
tive Extension, Erie County.
Penn State Dairy Housing Plans, Second Edition,
NRAES-85, is available for $l5 per copy, plus ship
ping and handling and sales tax, from NRAES, Co
operative Extension, P.O. Box 4557, Ithaca, NY
14852-4557.
The shipping and handling charge is $3.75 for a
single copy within the continental U.S. New York
residents, add 8 percent sales tax (calculated on
both the cost of publications and the shipping and
handling charges). If ordering more than one copy
or if ordering from outside the U.S,, contact
NRAES (Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engi
neering Service) for shipping rates and possible
quantity discounts. Orders from outside the U.S.
must be prepaid in U.S. funds. All major credit
cards are accepted, and checks should be made pay
able to NRAES. For more information or a free pub
lications catalog, contact NRAES by phone at (607)
255-7654, by fax at (607) 254-8770, or by e-mail at
NRAES@CORNELL.EDU. To learn more about
NRAES and browse through our entire publications
catalog, visit our Website at www.nraes.org.
This and other information about Penn State
Dairy Housing Plans is available online at
www.nraes.org/publications/nraesBs.html.