WOODCHIP CORRALS

Woodchip corrals are outside (topless) enclosures, bedded with large woodchips for over-wintering cattle. The woodchip bed appears to work as a "digestion unit" similar to a septic tank. As the dung and urine is washed through the woodchips it appears to be digested by microbes so that reasonably clean water enters the soil. This breakdown of the dung means that the bed is never "mucked out" but is just "topped up" with 2 - 3" of fresh woodchips each autumn.

Potential Advantages

  • Low initial capital cost (approximately £50 - £80 per cow).

  • Low annual maintenance cost (approximately £5 - £10 per cow per year)
  • Eliminates the cost of straw bedding.
  • Eliminates labour involved in bedding.
  • Reduces labour for feeding compared with out-wintering.
  • Reduces feed wastage compared with out-wintered cattle.
  • A healthier environment.
  • A welfare friendly environment.
  • Minimises housing/turnout check.
  • Eliminates winter poaching problems.
  • Provides more spring grass compared with out-wintering.

Site Preparation

The site should be

  • Free draining.

  • At least 50 metres from a watercourse and 10m from underground drains.
  • Reasonably open without being too exposed.
  • Collect all the winter sun.
  • Easily accessible for feeding in bad weather, snow etc.
  • Have an adequate water supply, e.g. piped from a stream above.

The top 6 - 12" of soil should be scraped off and tipped to form a small bank around the most exposed sides of the corral. If the site is slightly sloping, the feed area and water supply should be positioned at the bottom of the slope.

To avoid tractors running on the wood chips cattle should be fed outside the pen through a feed barrier.

As cattle produce most dung and urine while they are eating, an 8-foot wide strip inside the corral should not be bedded with wood chips but left so that the animals stand on the sub soil or a concrete apron. This sub soil/concrete feeding stance should slope so that the slurry flows out of the pen into a collecting pit.

The fences of the corral can be made with standard wooden fence posts and strands of high tensile electric wire.

Until we have more experience it would appear sensible to double the area of bedded chips per head compared to traditional straw bedded building allowances.

Recommended Space Allowance
(Excluding The Feed Stance Area)

Dry Cows
Store Cattle (300kg)
Finishing Cattle (450kg)

12m²
  6m²
  8m²

Key Points for Success

  • Select a free draining site.

  • Use large woodchips (minimum size 3" diameter and around ¼" thick)
  • Use at least 0.3m depth of woodchips.
  • Use a low stocking rate.
  • Feed outside the pen, not on the woodchips.
  • Do not bed the strip on which cattle stand to eat - leave as sub-soil base or concrete
  • Make provision to collect the slurry from the feeding stance.
  • Ensure that the whole corral has exposure to all winter sun.
  • Less shelter from-wind is better than too much shelter.

SPEND AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE UNTIL YOU ARE SURE THE SYSTEM WORKS FOR YOU

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