A free stall barn is pretty much what it sounds like; a barn full of stalls that the cows are free to go in and out of. A dairy cow spends most of her life laying down resting between milking and eating. I know my bed was a serious consideration for me, so it should be as important for these girls who are paying my bills, or so goes my opinion. As you can see in this picture, the stalls were a mess and dangerous for the girls. Cows can get tangled up in this sort of mess. Now they are safe with stalls that are all in working order.
Another consideration for this renovation is financially driven. I will have cleaner cows; this should improve the quality of my milk giving me more money. New sand that stays in its place reduces the waste of sand and the amount that I have to buy.
We have also hung new gates where they are needed. Instead of just replacing them on the side of the barn, we placed new hinging posts. This creates an opening we can walk threw but the cow cannot. This opening is going to save us time and probably prolong the life of the gates because nobody will be tempted to climb over them.
As you can see in this picture, we also needed to repair the outside walls of this barn. Now our old barn should last another 50 years.
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