Dairy Initiatives

Dairy

Department of Animal Science

D A I R Y   I n i t i a t i v e s   N E W S L E T T E R
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Candid Camera on Cow Comfort

Video recordings offer valuable clues to improving
cow health and milk yield

NEIL ANDERSON
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture

Video recorders are helping improve dairy farming in Canada. By videotaping cows on pasture and in barns, researchers are learning about cows' space needs. That information can then be used to design facilities to minimize stress and abnormal behavior and improve cow comfort and productivity. The payoff? Less culling, more milk, and better health.

Cow Ergonomics
Cow ergonomics concerns the improvement of a cow's health and performance through the careful design of her work environment. Ergonomic innovations in dairy barn design and construction aim to increase cow health, safety, and longevity. To build ergonomically correct stalls, we need to recognize normal resting positions, rising motions, and lying motions. We also need to know cow size and space requirements.

What Resting Cows Need
Video study of pastured cows indicates that cows normally assume several resting positions. To accommodate these positions, the resting area must provide cows six freedoms:

1. the freedom to stretch their front legs forward
2. the freedom to lie on their sides, with unobstructed space for their neck and head
3. the freedom to rest their heads against their sides without hindrance from a partition
4. the freedom to rest with their legs, udders, and tails on the platform
5. the freedom to stand or lie without fear or pain from neck rails, partitions, or supports
6. the freedom to rest on a clean, dry, and soft bed.

The resting area also must provide cows with free vertical, forward, and lateral movement so they can get up and down without obstruction, injury, or fear.

Freestall Recommendations
W.B. Faull and J.W. Hughes observed Friesian-Holstein cattle freely lying and rising in a field in the United Kingdom (Table 1). They concluded that freestalls should offer 95 inches by 47 inches of living space and 24 inches more of lunging space for rising.

One problem in many freestalls is that cows tend to stand and lie sideways in short side-lunging stalls or in stalls where the neck rail is too low and/or too close to the rear of the stall. As a result, they defecate on the stall corners.

Point to Ponder:
We all like clean stalls. But the cleanest stalls are those with the lowest occupancy rate. Innovative producers are willing to design stalls for cow comfort and invest more labor in stall maintenance.

Table 1. Freestall design recommendations for mature adult Holstein cows.

Tie-Stall Suggestions
In tie-stall barns, short platforms, narrow stalls, high manger curbs, low tie rails, and short tie chains alter normal cow behavior and reduce lying time. This can contribute to problems with social behavior and lameness.

A switch to stalls with longer and wider platforms, tie rails higher above the bed and forward of the manger curb, open-front stalls, and longer tie chains will virtually eliminate "stupid heifer syndrome" - troubles with cows banging themselves up - and the difficulties of rising experienced by some older cows. On one farm, average lying time increased from 11 hours to 14.3 hours per day after tie chains were lengthened and more straw was added to the rubber mats.

In Canadian tie-stall barns, many owners are installing the single tie rail 48 inches above the mattress and 14 inches forward of the manger curb in barns with 72-inch platforms. The most common stalls are 54 inches wide and 70 or 72 inches long. The new stalls provide 22 to 24 inches of unobstructed access to water bowls. Tie chains need to be 40 inches long for stalls with 48-inch tie rails.

Some owners build stalls for their biggest cows with the tie rail 50 inches above the mattress and 10 inches forward of the manger curb. Some barns have stalls of three sizes for cows in three size ranges. Stall widths and platform lengths vary from 54 inches wide and 68 inches long for first lactation heifers, to 60 inches wide and 72 inches long for the largest cows.

Signs of Trouble
Stress, fear of harm, and discomfort are bad for cows. Because they reduce production and increase health problems, they're also bad for your bottom line. Are your facilities harmful or stressful to your cows? Here are some signs they might be:

INJURIES. Cows have abrasions or other injuries to hocks, knees, or stifles, or bumps over the top line or rib cage.

RELUCTANCE. Cows don't like to use stalls or move slowly in and out of the milking parlor.

HESITATION. Cows stand uncertainly in a stall for several minutes before lying down, or lie for a long time before standing up.

POOR POSITIONING. Cows lie partially in the stall and partially in the alley, or choose to lie in the alley.

INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR. Cows rise like horses, back into stalls, paw bedding out of stalls, or show abnormal behavior at feed bunks or around waterers.

TROUBLE WITH FOOD OR WATER. Cows lap at water or chew on water bowls, toss feed, or fling water when drinking.

LACK OF ESTRUS. In barns with slippery floors or those with short tie chains and electric trainers, cows may protest silently by not showing signs of estrus.

PHYSICAL AILMENTS. Cows show problems such as sore feet, mastitis, and metabolic diseases.

Restlessness and Stall Sores
Restrictive stalls lead to restlessness. In the photograph, notice that the brisket board prevents the cow from extending her front legs forward and positions her towards the curb, and her leg and tail hang into the alley. When viewed on video, cows in similar stalls changed positions several times per hour. Their top hind legs moved into and out of the alley 15 to 30 times per hour and their bottom hind leg moved across the mattress 6 to 10 times per hour. Such restlessness can lead to abrasions.

After viewing a video of his cows' behavior in stalls, one owner who had been having trouble with hock lesions removed the brisket boards and raised the neck rail to 50 inches above the mattress. Stall usage and cow behavior changed immediately. Within six months, the majority of the hock lesions had healed.

D A I R Y    I n i t i a t i v e s    N E W S L E T T E R
Volume 11    Issue 1    Spring 2002