Over the last two years, our cows have grown from 2 to 6. We had got 4 more cows from the People For Animals shelter, and our first cow was pregnant! As Gopi was pregnant and expecting her first calf with Nandi, the farm help demanded that we build a structure for her and the little calf! The absolutely refused to have her deliver and rear her calf in the open, specially as it was monsoon season.
So we got down to designing yet another structure - we wanted it to be able to house at least 10 cows in case we have more babies in the future. But more importantly, we built a slope and channels to capture all the cow urine, in a tank built towards the back of the cowshed. This tank had a tap at the bottom, so we could fill up the cow urine in buckets and use it to make jeevamrit and neemastra.
While most of our cows graze in the open everyday, we built a trough for feed and water, on the days they cannot step out for a graze or when the grass has all dried up. We left the floor unfinished, and added a green tin roof to the structure.
Gopi gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Bansi! More about him in another post!
Update: We built a paddock around the cowshed in Dec 2020. Do watch a video of it here: