Highly engineered buildings for high yielders in Kilkenny

The townland of Ardboy lies just minutes outside the marble city of Kilkenny, where James Tynan farms with his sons Jack and Stephen and his sister Hilda.

His other sons Sam and Conor also help out when required. The herd has doubled in the last 10 years, with 360 cows being milked currently on a liquid milk contract. The herd was based off high-yielding Holstein genetics, but as numbers grew, a more manageable cow type, while retaining good yields, was chosen.

As part of this expansion, facilities were being constantly upgraded, but in the last four years three major projects have been undertaken; an underpass to give access to a 60-acre block, a new cubicle shed with slurry storage and a new 60-point rotary parlour and collecting yard.

In relation to the cubicle shed and rotary parlour shed, the Tynans worked closely with O’Dwyer Steel in the design of the buildings, with O’Dwyer designing, manufacturing and erecting both structures and roofs.

Building 1: Rotary parlour

A 60-point DeLaval E100 60H parlour was commissioned back in August of 2024. The ‘H’ in the parlour spec stands for ‘high yielder’, with the stall work adjusted for a slightly bigger frame of cow. The DelPro management system was installed, alongside a three-way DeLaval drafting unit from where cows exit the rotary. Originally, a 50-point parlour was to be installed, but at the last minute the Tynans opted for a 60-point instead, with this parlour still fitting within the same building.

The building to house the rotary and all associated plant was designed as clear span portal, with a 22.7m clear internal width, with the building running four-bays in length, and each bay measuring 6.1m long. The height to eave is 4.3m over slat level.

O’Dwyers proposed to use 254mm x 254mm (10’’x10’’) UC pillars as the uprights to carry the portal frame.

These UC section pillars are a good option on portals this big in comparison to using UB sections – once designed and sized correctly they provide a much tidier and neater finish, as walls can be poured flush with the stanchion at 10in width, with this preventing excessive wall width, or stanchions sticking out past the wall, a hazard for livestock. X-bracing is fitted within the roof itself, with channel iron tie beams running from stanchion to stanchion.

Beams have also been used to support the six roller doors that have been installed throughout the building, with access for both fitting the parlour and should an accident happen, as well as allowing fresh air to enter the building on warm, stuffy days cited as the reason for the doors by James.

Due to the 6.1m long bays, O’Dwyer Steel specified galvanised white purlins to be used.

Non-drip fibre cement roof sheeting was used on the roof, with 0.6mm steel cladding used on the sides of the building. Jerry Maher, agricultural division manager with O’Dwyer Steel, explained that fibre cement sheeting is a popular choice for parlours for both the non-drip properties as well as the thermal regulation of the building, especially in the warmer summer months.

Safer occupation

As part of making farm building working a safer occupation, O’Dwyer Steel has a dedicated team to install netting underneath the roof trusses once they are erected, with pre drilled holes made in the bottom of the rafters during fabrication used to secure the nets in place.

Closed fitted crank crown pieces were fitted along the apex, with two ventilated crank crown pieces fitted per bay in order to release any stale air built up inside the building.

Eight translucent sheets per bay were also fitted to maximise natural sunlight in to the parlour, with high bay LED beam lights also fitted.

Collecting yard

To the rear of the parlour building is the new collecting yard and drafting area. Pillars have been stood for the future extension to cover the collecting yard at the back.

Full-height pillars stand at both external walls, and have been bevelled and plated on top to carry future rafter with a tie beam running between them at the top to keep them in position during the pouring of the concrete walls.

Shorter pillars stand for the middle line, again plated on top for future extension. An angle was also fitted between these pillars as a temporary measure to keep them in position during pouring of walls.

The entire collecting yard and drafting area is slatted, with a 9ft deep tank in the collecting yard, with a shallower 5ft tank in the drafting area.

There is over 338,000 gallons of storage in the collecting yard with the new tank, while having a fully slatted yard has reduced water usage as well. The older parlour, which is located at the upper end of the yard, with the new parlour and cubicle shed on a green field site at the lower end of the yard, had a backing gate, though the new yard does not. The Tynans are currently looking at modifying this gate to work in the new, wider collecting yard.

All the concrete work, including the ducting for the parlour, was completed by Geraghty Plant Hire, with both James and Jack quick to praise the crew for the quality of work completed by the firm.

Building 2: Cubicle house

Across from the new parlour is the new cubicle house, built in a lean-to manner, The shed measures 15.7m wide, plus a 2.5m feed overhang on the lower side and extends to 43.2m in length (nine bays).

The future plan is to mirror this building and make one A-type roof, with several features within the shed designed around this.

Currently, there are 60 cubicles spaces in the shed, with row of head-to-head cubicles in place and feeding on three sides. When the shed is complete, there will be three banks of cubicles to bring the total cubicle capacity to 180, with feeding on all four sides.

With the building floor area all being a tank, a freestanding frame was required yet again.

For the lower side 203UC pillars (8in x 8in) were used, with the stub wall poured underneath the feed railing running flush alongside it.

The RSJs on the higher side of the building (which has a 15° pitch for airflow) are positioned so that eventually it’ll be located in the middle of a double cubicle bed, with the plates drilled to carry future extension.

The top timber purlins at the apex of the roof were positioned to suit the fitting of a raised canopy sheet on the A-type when complete.

A 2.5m wide gable canopy has been fitted across both gables. Extra stanchions were included here to support this gable canopy and also to support neck rails. Vented sheeting has also been fitted underneath the feed canopy on three sides down to level of the neck rail, while the Tynans opted once again for fibre cement non-drip roof sheeting with two translucent sheets per bay.

Slurry storage

Bar the canopies, the total area under roof sits over a tank. Originally, the plan was to fill in the area under the cubicles and pour the cubicles in situ, but the fact that this area would be dug out anyway for the double tank made James change his mind and opt to use this area as additional storage, with a solid slab used as a base for the precast cubicle beds.

In total, there is 432,932 net gallons of storage.

For optimum cow flow to and from the parlour, the Tynans opted to remove a full bay of cubicles at either end of the banks, with a tip over water trough installed at each end. When the shed is fully completed, it will be envisaged that the cows in winter milk will be housed here, close to the parlour.

Verdict: strong investment backing the future of the farm

All these projects have been completed to a high level of finish, with an eye always on the future. Creating over 750,000 gallons of storage, with more to come when the second part of the cubicle shed is built, shows that the Tynans are serious about investing back in to the farm, while the new parlour has cut milking time from eight hours per day in the old 20-unit herringbone to less than three hours. It’s refreshing to see commitment to the future of dairying, and a hat tip goes to the Tynans themselves, O’Dwyer Steel for the keen engineering work, and Geraghty Plant Hire.