Summaries from our countries

Austria:

Rubber floor is a new thing in Finland but in Austria and in the Netherlands some farmers are using it already. In Austria we visited two farms with rubber mats.

One of the farms had a one year old loose stall stable with rubber floor. The outside walking area was made out of concrete and the cows walk through it when they have to go to the milking parlour.

The change in cow’s behavior on rubber floor compared to others is good. They are not afraid to move any more and that’s why their behaviour is normal. Cows are walking with their heads up and the steps are long. Some are even running and looking really active.

Austria and Finland has a lot of common things in farming. The size of the farm is the same- rather small.   One problem in both countries is that old stables are still used and that is not good for cows (space, too dark,…)  Farmers should make old stables as animal friendly as possible and farmers who are building  new stables should think about the best way how to improve animal welfare, because this is also important for their success.

Outside walking area:

In Austria a lot of young cattle are kept outside during the whole summer on alpine pastures. There are also special pastures for dairy cows (with a milking parlour in a alpine hut). This kind of housing is very important for the health and it is also cheaper than keeping them inside.

Finland:

General

Today at least 80% of the Finnish farms use the stall stable system for their cows. In earlier times it was normal to use this system because there was no other system available. Now at the moment there is so much research for the best way of farming and also the best kind of stable. The loose stall stable is introduced in Finland for many years ago and also the cows will be chanced in the last years. So moust of the new stables are loose stall stables.
Earlier in Finland the first priority of breeding was to breed a cow with a high milk production. This way of thinking has of course her own disadvantage. One of the disadvantages is that the farmers were only focused on the milk production and forget some other important things. One good example is the legs and claws.

There are farmers who still likes stall stable better then loose stall stable. Stall stable is good obsession for small cattle. Cows can be feeded individually and they can eat on peace. Cows are not spreading bacteria's and cattle is easier to handle, like in insemination.In stall stable there should be possibility to let cows go out every week.  

Claws 

In the winter period the cows will stay the whole winter on the concrete floor or rubber mats in the stall stable. You can see when you walk in some stall stables that the claws are heavy loaded and stand more backwards. This gives problems with the claws that will grow the wrong way and causes swellings above the hoofs.
Related to the subject “floor and walking space” can we say it is very important to give the cows the best comfort as possible in the stall stable because the cows are standing the whole winter without any walking. There are also farmers who lets the cows to go out walking every week and that is really good for the cows. So when a cow is walking the claws are less loaded then if the cow is standing. Try to give the cows the most comfortable laying and stand area and you can prevent this kind of problems.

Legs

In Finland are probably the same problems with the legs as in other countries with the same stablesystems. We have seen swollen knies and wounded legs. The caus of these problems could be: hard laying area's, difficult lay down and stand up, obstacles in the boxes or mats where the cow can harm herself. The problems will grow when "modern" cows are standing in old fashioned stables. They are bigger then the stable build for and so they have less space to move in, for example, the boxes and roast floors. This can give many problems so the farmer has to be alert  every time.

Netherlands:

Free stall stables:

Today most of the stables in the Netherlands are loose stall stables. The cows can follow their natural behaviour and look really happy. In spite of this there are some problems we have seen related on the subject floor and walking area, because it is very difficult to manage your farm in a way that no problems can exist.

Problems: Some floors are very slippery so that cows can’t move in a normal way.
 We also saw a stable with too little eating places for the cows which cause troubles, because the weak cows can’t eat if stronger ones like to eat at the same time. Some cows have open wounds on their ankles because the mats are too hard.

Tie-up stables:

There are also some stall stables in Holland, which is a good system, if the cows have enough space.

Problems: Today Dutch farmers have the problem, that their dairy cows become more and more bigger, so the lying mats are much too short, the cows don’t like to stay on the roaster for cleaning behind the mat, which causes backbone problems, claw problems, open wounds, etc.

We have also seen cows in stall stable which can’t reach their food when they stand normally, so they have to eat on their knees, which is a main contributor for swollen knees and ankles.Others cows have problems with their claws because they stand on the same place the whole time.

There are advantages of tie up stables too. You can observe your cows easily and you can feed every cow equally.

Problems with calf-housing:

In loose stall stables for calves the slatted floor shouldn’t have too big openings.
Some of the calf boxes are too small so that it is very difficult for calves to turn around.     In some farms already the young calves where tied up, sometimes very short. It was nearly impossible for them to move a lot.

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Page updated 23.5.2006