I had forgotten about rotary palors. Its been many years since I worked on a dairy farm but when I did (on a Kibbutz in Israel no less) the average herd was 500 milked 3 times a day thus the factory analogy.
Most of the cows were of the US holstein variety bred with the local Arabian breeds for warm weather hardiness. There was no grazing food was brought in to the herd a lot of times they were fed cotton.
Joe Staten Island West
joe323 Modern Dairy Farm are more like milk factories than farms Wondering How one would Represent a double herringbone milking parlor in HO
Modern Dairy Farm are more like milk factories than farms Wondering How one would Represent a double herringbone milking parlor in HO
Or even a rotary...mind it would be a little easier...
Hay bales are pretty much a standard, besides round bales that are odd in width, being, 4ft, 5ft or 6ft chamber widths, squares are made to a size that suits cartage on the road... As trucks are standard widths, a large square bale measures 4ft wide, 8ft long and either 2ft high or 4ft...
Small squares are around the 3ft 6in long, 2ft wide and 18inches high... The length can be altered by adjusting the trigger for the knotter but most stick to a standard length...
One of the standard breeds around here are the Holstien Friesian, which are black and white... Some dairies cross them with other breeds(Jersey) for higher cream content... The Holstien friesian is a common breed in the US, you may even have the red and white blood line but I haven't seen any here, only the cross breeds throwing red...
A very good representation of sugar beets can be had using aniseed, available at most bulk food stores. I'm not sure how well the mice will like it, but they're usually not too fussy. The seeds smell like licorice, and the scent lasts for some time.
Lots of mice around here, but none in the house: find out where they're getting in (any hole larger than the size of a dime), then plug the hole with cement, wood, or whatever building product is most suitable. Another very useful thing for plugging small holes is steel wool - pack it into the openings using a screw driver or other suitable tool. Once you think that the holes have all been sealed, put out traps and keep emptying them and re-baiting until business has completely died off for at least a week. If it doesn't, there are holes which you haven't yet found. Mice can breed up to ten times a year, with up to six in a litter. They carry parasites, bacteria and disease, and breathing the dust from their droppings or dried urine can cause serious diseases. Mice will also quickly contaminate stored food, but you won't have to worry about any of those things if they start chewing on the household wiring and your house burns down.
Get rid of them!
Wayne
bnsf0823 I was thinking of using a corn meal or something to represent feed. Is it ok to use a food material on the layout? or is this a bad idea.
I was thinking of using a corn meal or something to represent feed. Is it ok to use a food material on the layout? or is this a bad idea.
I think everyone is aware how clever squirrels are at stealing food from bird feeders. Well, mice in basements are cleverer.
A friend models a former sugar beet processing plant in southeast Wyoming. Beets are teardrop shaped sweet-potato-looking things. Larger than grapefruits and a little smaller than footballs. They are delivered to the plant in double tandem dump trucks and radial stackers store them outside in giant windrows hundreds of feet long and about 30 feet high. In HO scale grains of wheat are perfect.
How the mice managed to climb the legs of the benchwork and shimmy their way upside down along the L-girders and swing themselves over the fascia like gymnasts is a mystery . . . but they did.
I'd say bad idea. Your call.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
Thanks for all of your replies. A lot of good ideas i will pick through and use on my layout. I have already built the cattle holding parlor from scratch almost done. I did use a sort of h channel idea with small diagnel bars where the cows heads can just fit in to get to the feed. I also used floral wire and cut small sections and bent them in the shape to replicate the individual stalls in the parlor. I was thinking of using a corn meal or something to represent feed. Is it ok to use a food material on the layout? or is this a bad idea. If anyone is interested ill post pictures in the near future.
i model modern so my dairy farm is a little bigger. With more of a modern day feel and atmosphere.
I have had cattle operations on adjacent and nearby property for the last 20 years. Also several dairies. Let me pass on some observations and a factoid or two.
When I see "pastures" on model railroads, they are almost always small with too many cows standing around, all equidistant from each other. That's a pen, not a pasture, and the grass will soon be eaten and trampled out of existence. Think a sea of mud full of hoofprints.
When the cattle are in an actual multi acre pasture with plenty of room, they tend to congregate in small mobile groups. There may be a straggler or two, but the vast majority of the pasture will be cow free.
The groups will usually be all female except for the calves, which will be a mix. It is not unusual for a rather large bull to stand watch over his cows from a short distance away.
Unless the cattle have only been in that particular pasture for a short time, the grass will have been grazed down, so tall grasses would be inappropriate. Since the pasture probably won't be nearly large enough for cattle to overwinter on its grasses, there will likely be feed rings, bins, or troughs in which the farmer will place hay or other feed in the winter.
As to herd size, the last time I saw the stats for Tennessee, the average herd size was only 16 head. To sustain a cow and calf (no, not that kind) year 'round, it takes an average of one and a half acres, so only slighly more than one head per acre. Out in the arid West, it takes much, much more land.
CG
To add to the above Riches post. Modern farms have slurry pitts and large slurry storage tanks (just an oversized short silo).
Folks have done a good job of covering the era issue. One other consideration are the cows. A dairy will have one type of cow, so regardless of which type you pick, be sure to paint them all to match. Oh, and look up dairy breeds for painting ideas so as not to confuse them with beeves.
jim
Era does make a big difference in the look of a farm. Yes, used to put out cans at stops along the railroad. My uncle used his pick up to take them to the local creamery. Some creameries processed the milk, some transferred it to milk tank cars. Then came bulk tanks and shiney tank trucks come to the farm. Farms were a little larger. Small creameries disappeared and trucks eventually took over even the long hauls of milk. At one time there were farms as small as 4-5 cows that would ship a can or two of milk. Farms have grown over the years so that 1000 cow farms occur even in our small state of Vermont. There are many even larger in the western states.
Used to keep the cows in the enclosed barn to milk and for the winter, then came milking parlors and freestall housing where a large covered shed was the shelter for the cows that would go into the paror to be milked.
If what you are looking for as "rows of silage" is where the feed is fed to the cattle along the edges of the exercise area, get some H channel styrene to represent the concerte feed bunk. Put some very, very fine ground foam or fine sawdust in to represent the feed.
The silo seems to be well covered. Now feed is often stored in bunks or packed stacks, covered with plastic and old tires. Easier to model, since that many tires would be hard to replicate, would be the long white bags (up to 200' long) that the silage is stuffed into by a special packer. They often have some wrinkles, which could be represented with careful shaded painting or if you used a dowel, some filing. I would also flatten the side setting on the ground. If it is being fed, one end is open and silage visible. Another thought that just came to mind would be to roll some modeling clay between your hands, need not to be to careful to make it smooth.
There are also round bales 4'x4' up to 6'x6', a cut up piece of dowel would represent them nicely. A greenish to brownish for bales in the field, if they are wrapped, they are either white or a light green. Wrapped bales are stored on end and can be stacked two high, unwrapped bales are stacked on their sides so the water runs off better. Small quare bales are not nearly as popular as they once were (too much handling). There are now large square bales, my guess is about 4'x4'x6', maybe someone else has worked with them and has a better idea of the actual size. If dry hay they can be left a brownish green, if wrapped they are also in the white wrap.
Good luck,
Richard
The big blue silos that you see are A.O. Smith "Harvestore" silos. Go to Google Images and type that in and you'll see lots of great pics that you can use for modeling ideas.
Rix has a model in its catalog that is pretty close.
https://www.walthers.com/big-blue-storage-silo
But yes you could likely scratchbuild a plausible model possibly using stuff you have on hand.
One thing you see on today's dairy farms are the small white plastic (I assume) huts, somewhat like a cross between a small Port-a-potty and a big dog house, that the calves use while growing up. This might sound odd but it might be that they could be scratchbuilt using parts of dental floss containers as a basis -- they have just the right waxy plastic look to them.
Dave Nelson
What is your era? Lots of difference between today's dairy farm and those of years gone by.
Here is a link to a grain bin manufacturer. This company installed several bins at a dairy down the road from my last place of residence. I always got a chuckle out of the name on the bins when I drove by.
https://sukup.com/Products
There was an RMC article a while ago about doing an HO farm. He did a silo out of PVC pipe with a hemispherical top which he made from a wood ball shape, from a craft store, cut in half with a saw. If you have a lathe, you could turn one. I'd want some cattle out in a pasture, perhaps a fence to keep them off the tracks. And a milk platform, where the dairy could set out chilled milk cans to be picked up by the daily milk run. And some milk cars. And some haying, a reaper in a field, with some haybales scattered about.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Hey everyone, looking for ideas i can use on my dairy farm scene that im creating. I have a cattle holding facility that i built from scratch, and i need to model some silage that i could put down in rows on the floor of the shed. Also i need to figure a way to build a grain silo like the big tall blue ones that dairy farms usually have. Any ideas would be great. Thanks,