This summer, the Simmes family’s new dairy barn was completed. In July 2025, the cows moved into the new barn. The facility has space for 240 cows, allowing room for future growth. The goal is for the cows to produce an average of 35 liters of milk per day. This Spinder barn is equipped with, among other things, Fitboxes, Highline safety feed fronts, Pingo drinking troughs, Slider partition gates, and a Spinder rope-driven manure scraper system.
The new barn is largely automated; the GEA milking robots, the manure separator, and the bedding system take over much of the work for the family. Several family members work on the farm, which helps to distribute the workload.
The cows lie on dried manure between our flexible Fitboxes. Jelle Simmes is very satisfied: “You can easily see the cows through the thin bars of the Fitbox. The boxes are flexible, but not too much. The cows cannot get stuck in the box, and they hardly touch the sides.” This provides a high level of comfort for the cows.
The cows lie down a lot, and it is clear that they are comfortable. “Despite the box width of 1.15 meters, there is still plenty of space in the boxes because the bars are narrow,” Jelle explains. This way, without sacrificing too much space, there is enough room to provide sufficient comfort for many cows.
Since the new barn was put into use, the new manure scrapers have also been installed. The barn has solid floors, which is why a combi-scraper suitable for this type of flooring was chosen. “It was easy to set up the scrapers. It’s a simple system, and the scrapers keep the floor very clean,” says Jelle.
The family is also very satisfied with the Pingo drinking troughs. “They are easy to clean, and installing them was straightforward,” says Jelle. Several Pingo drinking troughs have been placed throughout the barn, allowing the cows to drink water at any time.
Planning a new build or thinking about renovation? We’d be happy to think along with you!
