In this tie-up stable the cows stand on concrete with a little bit of straw (too hard)

too hard litter material

Problems wit claws because the laying area is too small

Cow is laying on the slatted floor

This cow has problems with her back caused by seperation bars

This cow is too big for the box

Problems and solutions

Tie up stable:

Size:

In old tie up stables one of  the biggest problems are the sizes of the box. The cows are getting bigger nowadays and the boxes are getting too small. One solution to put longer rubber mattresses into the box and they continue the length of the box. That's a cheap solution but it can be done only in the stables which have enough slatted floor behind the laying area.

The best size depends on the breed you have; for Holstein there must be around 1, 25 meter per stand.

A too big box can also be a problem, because the cow and the box  get dirty. That problem is usual when you have to put smaller cows, for example heifers, into these boxes. Also when you have different races in your stable, there is also a problem, because not every race has the same size. It is difficult to make the box smaller, but you can try it adjusting the neckrail, if it works with the kind of model.

Construction:

Cows can have a lot of problems with rising and laying down, since most of the time the space is not big enough. Try to make it as easy for the cow as possible due to slipp resistant floors and enough space infront of the cow so that there is enough place to move her head.

Free stables:

Size:

Free stables have not so much problems with sizes. The main reason is that they are pretty new and they are build with present knowledge.

But we have noticed a couple of problems which are easy to fix. One point  is that the cow can´t get up and lay down naturally. As you maybe already know, a cow needs a lot of space for doing that. In free stables behind the box there is a high step down to the walking area, which limits the moving space, too. In the front it's limited by the neckrail. This problem is easy to fix: just apply a flexible neckrain, which gives more moving space to the cow.

Seperation bars/ neckrails:

One of the problems that we have seen is that the cows get stuck on the separation bars. Also a lot of cows have problems with the neck. The cows get wounds and that's a big problem for the animal welfare.

Problems on the back are caused when the seperation bars has sharp edges or is too high so that the cow slipps under it. For the wrong separation bar you can do two things, the easy but expensive way is buy new boxes, the second is to change the position of the separation bar or height from the floor of the box and remove the sharp edges. There are also flexible bars available.

Problem on the neck can come from 3 things:

1) too low feeding rack, more about this you can find that under food storage.

2) The neck rail is to far to the back site of the box.

3) The neck rail is too low.

Solution:  you have more possibilities: you can make the neck rail higher (around the 1,25m high for Holstein cow) or you put your neck rail more to the front of the box (2,25m from the back side of the box for a Holstein cow. Another solution is to make flexible neckrails

An odder problem is that the bars are broken or they’re riving.

This can to be due to three things, the quality, the strength of the boxes or the spase is too small. For the strength its can to bee also two things, the quality is not good or your cows are to strong. Something other is that the space or walking area is too small so the cows haven’t not enough space for walking, so when there is a little fight they can harm the boxes.

Solution: You can try to make the bars stronger or solve the problem with new boxes in the right sizes 

The most separation bars have the form of an R and some are flying types. The flying form is very good for the cow and you can install “endless” cow mattresses.

Wooden bars:

The advantage of this kind of separation bar is the price. The farmers can take their own wood and they can produce it by themselves and so it is cheap. Another reason is that the Wood is not as hard as the metal.

Flexible bars

This kind of separation bars can be moved, it is flexible. It is very comfortable for the cows because it is not confining. The cows can’t hurt themselves so easy. It is often a wooden plank which is fixed with rubber.

Bottom material:

The most used material we have seen is concrete. In every farm we have visited, was on the concrete any material to make it soft, because when you have only concrete is it too hard. If you don't protect the cows they will get wounds, first on the back legs and also on the front legs. Most of the time the laying areas were too hard.

When you have too hard boxes the cows don’t like to lie down and when you want that a cow is laying for 14 hours a day you need a soft bottom. When the mats are to hard you can put more sawdust on the mattress, that makes it softer and also dry, and that’s better for the udder healthness.

Another type we have seen is sand with chaffed car tires. The car tires will be prevent that the cows are not going to dig.

Other material we have seen that’s brooked for bottom is cow mattress. When you look for that, you have the choice between a lot of different mattresses. You can choose between a rubber mat, a rubber mat with a soft stuff under or the water mattress. All this mats you can take for free stables and tie up stables, because it’s for the laying areas. In a tie up stable you see mostly the common rubber mats, and in the free stable you see the rubber mats with a soft material under and the water mattresses.

An other bottom for boxes that we have seen is a wooden board, you can take this but when it is getting older there is the danger of a splinters, which can hurt expecially the udder.

Litter material:

If you have dusty litter material your cows could get some breathe infection, that means that you have sick cattle in your stable. But on the other hand you get problems with moulds and bacterias (udder healthness!) if it is too wet

Solution: you must check that yours litter material is not dusty or wet. Another way is that you can change your litter material.

If you have too sharp litter material or a too hart surface, the cows don't like to lie down (they stand in the box most the time ).

Solution: Maybe you should use a softer sort or you can put more litter material (10-15cm) into the box. Maybe you have to modify your box so that it is no problem to have 15cm litter material in the box.

Cleaning of the boxes:

For good results for udder healthness you have to bring every day dry sawdust or straw in the box and clean it minimally 3 times a day. You have to pay attention that the box is allways good filled with sawdust, so the cow lies comfortable.

In the interviews to the farmers we cleared up that cleaning boxes takes much time. Most of the farmers clean the boxes and put fresh litter material in two times a day. And that all have to be done by hand because there isn’t any kind of a robot to do that work. Especially in loose stall stables it can be dangerous to work between the cows.

Light and dusty litter material, like peat and sawdust could be difficult at summertime, because the doors and the windows are opened, so the wind can blow the material away or mess it up all over the stable. When you are planning a new stable, it is good to take care of this kind of problem.

In a new stable you should think about the refreshment. In some stables we saw a straw storage above the boxes, so you have only to drop down the straw. Maybe you can drive on the walking space so you can do this with machines.

On some farms we have visited, the farmers put chalk into the boxes. This is only used in deep boxes. The chalk makes the structure of the litter material better and has a desinfecting effect.

Back to "laying areas"

Page updated 23.5.2006