Cowhouse

Cowhouse 

the main building of a cattle farm, designed for keeping cows. A distinction is made between cowhouses with and without stalls. Cowhouses may have one, two, or three stories. On the first floor (or semicellar) is the storage area for manure or root fodders, the second floor is the area for the animals, and the third (the loft) is a storage area for rough feeds and litter. One-story cowhouses are most common in the USSR.

Cowhouses in which the cows are confined to stalls are subdivided into double-row, four-row, and six-row types, depending on the arrangement of the stalls. The rows of stalls ordinarily run lengthwise in the building and are divided into sections by passageways. Cowhouses are also built with transverse stalls, and sometimes there are round barns with a silo in the middle and two rows of stalls. The stalls in the cowhouse are equipped with ties, feeding troughs, and waterers (one for each two stalls). Auxiliary areas are located at the ends of the cowhouse; they include a forage room or feed preparation room (if the farm does not have a feed shop), a heating room (if there is no central heating), and rooms for service personnel. The milking unit may be built near the cowhouse.

Stall-less cowhouses are closed and heated. The area is divided into sections by movable barriers. Each section is intended for not more than 60 cows. A passageway goes through all the sections for mechanized delivery of feed and litter and for removal of manure. An exercise and feeding yard, as well as large feeding troughs and waterers with electrically heated water, are adjacent to the cowhouse. The milking room is built near the cowhouse.

With the transition to new technology for producing livestock products, large specialized complexes for milk production on an industrial basis are being built in many regions.

REFERENCE

Spravochnik zootekhnika, 3rd ed., vol 1. Moscow, 1969.

V. V. FILASOV