Preferences of dairy cows kept in unheated buildings for different kind of cubicle flooring

• Published in: Applied animal behaviour science Vol. 75; no. 4; pp. 281 - 292
• Main Authors: Manninen, Emmi, de Passillé, Anne Marie, Rushen, Jeff, Norring, Marianna, Saloniemi, Hannu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 04-02-2002
• Subjects: Comfort; Dairy cattle; Flooring; Housing; Lying behaviour; Flooring; Housing; Lying behaviour; Dairy cattle; Comfort
• ISSN: 0168-1591; 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/S0168-1591(01)00206-4

Cubicles with deep straw are widely used in uninsulated cubicle housing for dairy cows, but the problem for many farmers is to obtain sufficient straw. Soft rubber mats or sand bedding may help reduce the use of straw. In Experiment 1 cows’ preferences for three types of cubicle flooring were examined using a paired choice procedure. The materials examined were: concrete with large amount of straw, soft rubber mat (Cloud 9; NRI Industries, Canada) with a thin layer of straw and sand (2–3
mm) without straw. Friesian dairy cows were allowed to choose between 5–6 cubicles containing one type of material and 5–6 cubicles containing one of the other material. This was replicated four times using different groups of cows. The cows were filmed 7–8 days during each 3–4 weeks preference test period in winter and in summer. Before the preference tests, cows were restricted to cubicles containing each type of material for 3 days (forced choice) and were filmed for 2 days to record the total duration of lying down and the duration and frequency of lying bouts. Cows lay down for as long on straw as on soft rubber mats, but lay down for a significantly shorter time on sand (
P<0.001). They avoided sand, preferring both straw (
P<0.01) and soft rubber mats (
P<0.05) both in winter and in summer. They preferred straw to soft rubber mats in winter (
P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in summer. In Experiment 2 the preferences of cows for rough (2–3
mm) and fine (0.1–0.6
mm) sand were studied. Cows were filmed for 4 days out of the 7 days free choice period and 2 days out of the 5 days forced choice period. Cows did not show any preference for fine or rough sand, and often lay down in alleyways when only sand cubicles were available. Lying times on soft rubber mats indicate that they are comfortable for the cows and their use may allow farmers to reduce the amount of straw bedding in cold loose houses. However, the long term effects of sand bedding has to be investigated before deciding whether it is a suitable bedding material.