CONTINUING uncertainty about water availability has driven many dairy farmers to set up a feed pad for their dairy herd.

Others want to take it a step further and house their milkers in a barn.

Department of Primary Industries state dairy nutrient manager Scott McDonald said it was difficult for farmers to find information on how to build and manage such a facility.

"We've had hundreds of inquiries," he said.

"Farmers are screaming out for this information."

To address the gap, the Gardiner Foundation has funded a project to develop a set of guidelines for Victorian dairy feed pads and freestall barns.

Mr McDonald, who is the project manager, said recent workshops at Kyabram, Terang and Ellinbank in Victoria identified demand for information on a range of issues, such as design principles, shedding, slopes on pads, spacing requirements for cattle, technical diagrams and pitfalls, and how high the shed roof should be.

The guidelines also need to cover topics that include specialised machinery, cow comfort, waste removal, cleaning and maintenance, sick cows, separation distances from waterways and flood wash capacity.

"Animal welfare was also a common theme. For example, what are the consequences of having cattle on concrete pads 12 hours a day and sitting on sand beds for most of their life in a barn," Mr McDonald said.

"Feed pads are common in the (state's) north.

"They're importing a lot of feed and looking at building a facility that will enable them to maintain production and feed the cows without relying on their pastures.

"They want a Plan B, so in a dry year when they can't grow pasture they can maintain production and keep the herd going."

Mr McDonald said many farmers had set up temporary sacrifice paddocks and lanes, but were losing as much as 30 per cent of the feed because it was unprotected.

Mr McDonald said the number of requests for information about barns had also risen in the past eight years.

Large-scale facilities to house 3000 cows have been proposed for Shepparton and Warrnambool and numerous 1000-cow barns are now "scattered around the state", he said.

Each chapter of the guidelines will be written by specialists and completed by March 2010.

For details, phone Scott McDonald on (03) 5852 0544 or Joel Spry on (03) 5036 4800.