又到了一年中的这个时候，与牲畜度过冬天是所有农民最关心的问题。

恶劣天气在整个冬季，这些天几乎恒定的特性，那就是可以在最好的时候是具有挑战性的问题，以及一个可以测试甚至农民最警惕。对于汉密尔顿的家人在Aikengall在Innerwick邓巴附近，虽然，这个冬天的信号变化 - 希望更轻松地来 - 因为他们在自己的东洛锡安设立欢迎令人印象深刻的新货棚到steading。约翰·汉密尔顿农场Aikengall沿着他的三个儿子，詹姆斯，查尔斯和哈里到整饰，旁边一个2000头的羊群跑380头suckler母牛和他们的追随者。“我们一直有一个有点效率问题的”约翰解释说，“在冬天的时候喂牛是东西，我们花了时间和它正在成为当我的子孙们希望增加数字，将有更多的股票饲料有问题“。“我们已经知道了很长一段时间，一个新的棚将是理想的解决方案，但事情他们是如何在目前的环境下，这是不是我们可以抢进，而那件事，我们必须确保我们的计划和正确执行，我们最高的优势。它真正实现了詹姆斯，查尔斯和哈里2年认真考虑有关情况，并规划它，为项目如期实现“。今年是今年，虽然，利用每年投资津贴今年£500000，大多数项目的手段可以对税务，开工建设五月对自己品牌的第一个新畜舍注销。的专业技术下制造VE-技术 - 所有的混凝土浇筑 - 和威廉史密斯工程 - 基于在Stewarton在艾尔郡一家公司，专门从事钢结构的制作，该项目已经建成，没有政府补助的帮助。它有牛660头的容量，并于11月的12，牛首被安置“棚屋可容纳300头奶牛，以及约360只六个月大的小牛犊”约翰告诉我们，“它也有能力18个股票多头在一个专门设计的机柜系统，这意味着公牛可以在三分球操刀设计，或轻松，安全地四处移动，并分别执笔。” Health and safety was a massive consideration in the design and construction of the project, and one eye was always kept on how efficient the building could be. Spanning 300 feet by 70 feet, with specially tailored features that should streamline its day to day use. "We used to out winter some cattle, which had cross compliance issues and we also had cattle in rented sheds as well as straw bedded courts, we wanted to centralise everything, and this shed does exactly that. Everything is in one place, and is adjacent to the silage and crimped barley pits" explains John, "this shed means that feeding the cattle takes a fraction of the time that it would have done in the past!" In the new set up, the cattle are fed with a TMR every third day, which takes two hours, and it will only take half an hour on the days in between to push the feed in and check the stock, with labour averaging overall an hour a day. "It's already seen us make huge savings in labour terms" admits John, "at the end of the day it was built out of necessity, and it's already proving to be worth it. The way we were working before was inefficient and at times ineffective because of that. This makes a world of difference." One technical aspect of the shed is the water system that constantly keeps the cattle in water. A nipple feeding system is in place, which means that there is a continuous flow of water through the shed that the cattle can access at all time, something that was very important for John. "We never want the cattle to have access to dirty water in order to improve health and welfare" he explains, "so this way that will never be an issue. The water will always be flowing clean, and will be freely available. The fact its flowing should also help in the coldest months when the last thing you want, or need, is a frozen watering system!" The cattle will all also be on slat mats, to keep them clean, and improve comfort for the cattle "At the end of the day, out of all the money you spend on a slatted shed, I think the matting is one of the most important aspects", Willie Smith, of William Smith Engineering, tells us, "they remove stress for the cattle, and there's no point in building new sheds if livestock comfort isn't at the forefront of your mind." "The cost of straw was also one of the major deciding factors" admits John, "what we were spending on straw was getting well out of hand. Although we are next door to arable farmers , the cost of buying the straw, baling, carting, storing, bedding, mucking out and eventually spreading was enormous, the annual repayments on the loan for the shed will be a lot less than what the straw cost was. Furthermore the arable farmers are being advised by their agronomists not to sell their straw and chop it back into the ground, hence they don't really want to sell the straw." The new set up should also mean that the slurry collected under the slats will be able to be spread at the most efficient time in the spring. "There is a 'bubbler system' in place" explains John, "which is on a timer switch and blows air through the slurry ,which keeps it well mixed and ready for spreading and more importantly reduces the issue of poisonous gasses." "The slurry tank is 70 feet wide, by 250 feet, and 10 feet deep, it has a capacity for 1.1million gallons - or a whole year's supply, in other words." It's clear that the contractors involved are equally as proud of the project as the Hamilton's are. "Because we're based in Ayrshire, the vast majority of our projects are on dairy units, so this being a beef concern was a wee bit different for us" Willie tells us, "it's been quite a technical project, but it just goes to show that the expertise needed in one area does translate successfully across the board." The link to dairying is one confirmed by John: "To be perfectly honest, we definitely drew on ideas from dairy sheds when we were thinking about this project. The dairy boys have been ahead of us when it comes to sheds and buildings, so it was the obvious place to look and get concepts from." Attention to detail in the project is one thing that both the Hamilton's and Willie couldn't be happier with, with Willie saying, "I would like to think that the attention to detail on the project has really been second to none. It's what we pride ourselves on generally, but I think in this case it has really shone through. I would suggest that there isn't much in the UK to beat this project just now. It's been a bit of a ground breaker, and - although we're not ones for blowing or own trumpets - we are proud of that" He also can't praise the work of Malcolm Noble and Alastair Ireland enough, Vetech employees who have seen the project through from the start and have been instrumental in the shed's construction. John wholeheartedly backs up this view. "Their workmanship is first class he tells the SF, "everyone on the project has done an incredible job, and you have to give credit where credit is due. Only three men worked on the project all summer and their professionalism and skill level has been second to none. You can see that by just looking at the shed." It's certainly clear that the utmost level of effort has gone into the project from all concerned, and that it wasn't a venture that was undertaken lightly. "To be honest, it was something that we didn't have a lot of choice in" concludes John, "it was something that we had to build out of necessity, and fingers crossed both ourselves and our stock can reap some reward from it!"