Back to the old days

My job today started in this shippon that housed 42 cows. You don't see much of this type of cow housing today and it was nice to come across something like this and work in the familiar atmosphere with it's own sounds and smells.

At one time most cows were tied up in shippons. In the Winter they can spend up to 24 hours of the day tied up, most were fed in situ but others might be turned out to feed at a trough. During the Summer the cows are tied up twice a day at milking time and turned out to grass in between.

If you look carefully you will notice a lot of swishing tails, the flies were taking cover in here as there was quite a nip in the air outside and the cows were unsettled.