How we manage our dairy herds in this country is essentially a hybrid system. Our cows are grazing out of doors for approximately 8 months of the year (dependent on weather and location) and housed indoors for the remainder of the year. The majority of New Zealand herds are never housed, while most North American and Continental European herds are 100% indoor herds. When we consider the environment in which Irish dairy herds exist, we have two distinct environments, outdoor grazing environment and housed environment, to think about. A further consideration is the milking facility environment which the cows will pass through twice daily, while both housed and grazing.
Getting the Cow Environment Right will Help Reduce Dairy Cow Lameness
By: Ger Cusack
Veterinary Practitioner
This article will focus on the outdoor environment. The indoor environment will feature in a newsletter later on in the year when cows are housed.
Outdoor Grazing Environment
The single most important element of the cow outdoor environment in terms of minimising damage to cow hooves is the walking surface of the farm roadways. A collecting yard with adequate space is also important.
Good quality and well-designed roadways that are maintained regularly play a major part in the prevention and reduction of reduction of lameness in grazing dairy herds.
- Roadways need to be sufficiently wide for the number of cows in the herd to allow them to move at their own pace, and not having them feeling pressurised and stressed as they walk. For a herd of 120 cows or less, the recommended width is 4 meters; add a metre for every additional 100 cows.
- Ensure that the surface has a layer of fine dressing material on top, is free of sharp stones and is in a good state of repair. This helps to reduce hoof trauma, sole bruising and white line damage. Suitable material for top dressing can often be sourced locally and needs to be mechanically compacted.
- A camber slope from the middle of roadway to the edge is recommended. Allow for a 3% to 5% fall, but no greater than 8%. This slope will allow water on the roadway to get away and as a result will be comfortable for cows to walk on. A slope steeper than 8% will be uncomfortable for cows to walk on.
- Clear and trim trees and scrub along the cow path allowing the roadway to stay as clean and dry as possible. Trees or high fences will prevent the roadway drying out.
- Entrances to the paddocks should be wider than the roadway to reduce bottlenecks. It is also important to make sure there are no distractions on roadways such as changes in the surface of the roadway, water troughs or other animals. These will distract the cows and impede good cow flow.
- Keep the concrete yard free of stones by sweeping the areas where these are most likely to be present such as the roadway-concrete junction. Where the concrete yard meets the cow roadway, build a nib wall to prevent stones being carried onto the concrete on the feet of the cows.
Roadway Classification
Index 1: Roadway with rough surface, loose stones, likely to damage cows’ hooves, will lead to poor cow flow and cows using single file path.
Index 2: Roadway, some loose stones and poor surface at edge.
Index 5: Roadway, excellent surface, resulting in good cow flow.
Top Tip
To maintain and preserve roadways in good condition, avoid allowing heavy machinery traffic, including silage trailers and slurry tankers to use the roadways.
AHI Stakeholders
AHI gratefully acknowledges the financial and other contributions of our stakeholders.
