With cleanly milk and butter producers, it is no longer a matter of floor or no floor; it is merely a question of which is the best floor for the cow barn. The best dairymen long ago decided in favor of concrete. On account of many epidemics of “catching” diseases, directly traceable to milk, city authorities are forcing the careless dairyman to decide—concrete floors are one of the requirements for certified milk.
The stalls of dairy barns are arranged with the cows in the opposite rows of stalls standing with their heads or their heels toward each other.
The stall plan depends entirely upon the arrangements for bringing in feed and removing manure. The plan below is for a barn with the cows’ heads toward each other. If the dairyman prefers the other arrangement, the same plan can easily be adapted to it. A width of 8 feet 6 inches provides sufficient room for a manure spreader.
How to Build Dairy Barn Floors
Consider a barn planned to have the two rows of cows facing each other.
Remove all manure and other foreign matter together with such humps of earth as may be necessary to give the floor a slight slope in the direction in which the manure will be taken out. Begin the construction of the floors at the two sides of the barn so that the middle and ends may be used as working space.
On the earthen floor, at a distance of 4½feet from the side walls of the barn, set on edge a line of 2 by 6-inch boards, extending the entire length of the building. Support these boards by stakes driven firmly in the ground on the side of the board away from the barn wall. By means of a carpenter’s spirit level and a grade line, see that the tops of these boards have an even slope (say ⅛-inch per foot) toward the manure pit. Allowing a clear intervening space of 10 inches, set up in a similar way a line of 2 by 8-inch boards with the supporting stakes inside of the 10-inch space and with the top of this board 2 inches higher than the 6-inch board. In this space the drop gutter will later be constructed.