Close this window to return to IVIS www.ivis.org

Proceedings of the XXVI

World Buiatrics Congress

Nov. 14-18, 2010 Santiago de Chile, Chile

Next WBC congress : Lisbon 2012

http://www.ivis.org

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of the Congress Organizers

362

CUBICLES DIMENSIONS AND BED MATERIAL FROM 45 DAIRY FARMS IN THE SOUTH OF CHILE AND ITS IMPLICATION IN COW COMFORT

Juan David Córdoba Parra1, María Pía Castillo Oyarzo2, Natalia Ormeño Piccolini2, Gerardo Acosta Jamett2, Néstor Tadich

Babaic2 1MSC Program, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University Austral of Chile. FONDECYT 1090373 Project,

2Faculty of Veterinary

Science, University Austral of Chile. FONDECYT 1090373 Project, Valdivia, Chile

Introduction: Right free stall dimensions and bed materials are important to provide comfort to the dairy cow. Cows spent 10 to 12 hours daily laying down on pasture; one way that cows achieve this time in free stall housing is providing an adequate stall design and a good bed material. There are different recommendations for free stall desings depending on cow breed, weight and size. There is not adequate and reliable information in Chile about the design and bed material of the cubicles used in free stall systems. Objective: To describe the dimensions and bed material of 1.068 cubicles from 45 dairy farms in the south of Chile and compare it with international recommendations. Methods: Forty five dairy farms from the IX, X and XIV Region of Chile with more than 100 dairy cows and housing system were visited from June to November of 2009. In each dairy farm 5% to 10% of the cubicles were measured resulting in a total of 1.068 cubicles. Data about: stall design and bed material, length and width, position of the neck rail, lateral lower and higher rails, curb and brisket board height, length from the wall to the neck rail, and from the neck rail to the curb, were collected. A 5 meter retractil tool (TornadoTools®) of 5 m was used for the measurements. Data were introduced to EXCEL spread sheet and descriptive statistics were performed. The results were compared with international recommendations. Results: Metallic cubicles (80%) and the US metal design cubicle were the most frequently found (70.1%) in the 45 dairy farms. The bed material most used was ground in (55.4%) of the farms, followed by rubber mattress in (48.7%), sand was founded only in 6.6% of the farms. Six farms had two types of bed material. The average dimensions of stall length, distance between neck rail to the wall, lateral rail height, neck rail and brisket board height were 223 cm, 56 cm, 97 cm, 106 cm and 19 cm, respectively, wich is less than the recommended measures and might implicate shorter stalls and rejection, forcing the cows to spend more time standing up or resting on the hallways, causing LAMENESS and MASTITIS. Conclusion: Average measures of the cubicles length, distance from neck rail to the wall, lateral rail height, neck rail and brisket board height in the dairy farms with free stall systems in the south of Chile does not accomplish the recommended for Holstein and Friesian cows, which jeopardize the cow comfort. Keywords: Cubicles dimensions, bed material, cow comfort.

Reprinted in IVIS with the permission of the Congress Organizers Close window to return to IVIS

Proceedings of the 26th Congress of the World Association for Buiatrics, 2010 - Santiago de Chile, Chile