Building cattle barns nowadays focuses more and more on health, comfort and well-being of the animals. Since we need to take the zoo-hygienic norms into consideration and enable the animals to express their natural behaviour. In the first part of diploma thesis we studied various housing systems for dairy cattle and got familiar with modern milking systems. We studied the functional elements, which need to be included in a modern free barn for the cattle. In the second part of this thesis I present the current state on the family farm Bebar. The main focus of the farm is milk production and fattening of bulls. On the farm we have always around 90 cattle. The rearing of dairy cows is currently happening in the old barn, with a tied-in housing system. We prepared a design for the reconstruction of the barn, which will raise the well-being and comfort of the animals while simultaneously lowering the amount of labour needed for maintenance. The proposal is to build an extension to the existing barn, with 40 deep lying cubicles for dairy cows, as well as a fishbone milking station 2x3. The floor of the barn will be concrete, which will enable us to clean it with mechanical manure pushers. The new part of the barn will hold the feeding area, calving area as well as a separate room for sick animals as well as cubicles for young cattle. New-born calves will be accommodated in separate cubicles outside of the barn. The thesis consists of the dairy barn design as well as the proposal of the young cattle enclosures.
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