The Rural Voice, 1998-05, Page 3834 THE RURAL VOICE
Jocelyn and Ken deBoer (left) built an affordable barn (top
and bottom) when they decided to expand their dairy herd.
Tailor-made expansion
When Jocelyn and Ken deBoer decided to
expand their dairy operation they chose a
design to meet their needs and their budget
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
Both the people and the cows seem to like the new
tie -stall barn Ken and Jocelyn deBoer have added to
their Lucknow-area dairy operation. The good part
is their bank account doesn't seem to be suffering too much
either.
Until a year ago, the deBoers' herd was stabled in a
traditional Ontario bank-bam that was far from efficient.
With 33 stalls in three different rows and one gutter that
needed to be cleaned out by hand and forked to another
gutter cleaner, the barn was a labour hog. Lack of space
made it impossible to make use of large round bales so lots
of muscle power was required for small square bales. It
was also impossible to change to a Total Mix Ration
(TMR) system in the old barn.