Gert-Jan Gerrits, Technical Sales and Commercial director, Nuscience Cehave Korm

Lying down is important for cows. A cow needs to be able to lie down for 12 hours a day. She doesn’t need this time for sleeping (on average, a cow sleeps for only 20 minutes a day), but mainly to ruminate and give her claws a rest.

The lying areas in a barn should be tailored to the cows kept in it. On many farms the genetics of the herd have changed greatly in the last 10 years. Besides their higher milk output, the cows have become larger as well. Unfortunately, in many cases the barn has failed to grow with them, so the lying areas in today’s barns are often too tight and uncomfortable. As a result, cows are increasingly bothered by injuries such as swollen hocks and knees. In addition, people often forget that an increase in herd size should be accompanied by an increase in the number of lying areas. The norm in this respect is 1 lying area for each cow in the barn.

It all starts with a thorough knowledge of cattle behaviour. Cattle have a very specific lying and standing action (see Figure 1) which the animal must be able to perform unimpeded. This means that the cow should be able to move as naturally in the cubicle as it can on pasture. As the figure below shows, in both the lying and the standing action a cow has to be able to stretch her head forward at a given moment, in order to keep her balance during the upwards or downwards motion. The main problem with cubicles is therefore too little head room to enable the cow to perform this action smoothly.

Figure 1: Lying and standing action of cattle.

Source: Anon, Housing design for cattle, DACC

This is mainly important when the cubicles are built against a wall. In general, 3 zones are important in determining the dimensions of cubicles:

Zone 1 = body space (i.e. from the tail to the knees), 170-180cm long.

Zone 2 = head space while lying down. This zone is around 45cm long.

Zone 3 = lunge space (additional head room needed for standing up). This zone is up to 55cm long.

It can therefore be inferred from this that a cow needs a lot of space to stand up again. A cubicle measuring 2.15m to 2.20m, against the wall and with a partition that doesn’t allow sideways movement, is in other words too short for a cow to be able to stand up normally. In a double row configuration, the cow can use the head room in the cubicle opposite. Where cubicles are built against the wall, additional head room should be provided or partitions installed which allow space for a sideways movement of the head.

More information you can read in the magazine «Milk and Farm» №2 (9), April 2012