Stand-off areas cause lameness and weight loss

Article By: Ross Annabell Date: 9/07/2002 09:20:29 Source: NZ Rural News

COWS need to lie down for at least eight-to-10 hours daily, and many New Zealand farmers provide poor winter stand-off areas which can lead to lameness, increased stress, insufficient rest and shelter, weight loss, and possible increase in mastitis prevalence.

Team researcher Myra Stewart said in an AgResearch project investigating winter grazing systems that to maintain New Zealand’s clean green image, every dairy farmer must consider management problems when standing cows off winter pasture to avoid treading damage.

The results were presented at the NZ Society of Animal Production conference, Massey University last month.

The study found 43% of farmers standing their cows off for 17-to-23 hours failed to provide them with access to water, breaching the Code of Recommendations and Minimum Standards for Welfare of Dairy Cattle.

Lameness was the major health problem, with more farmers using concrete surfaces - the most commonly used - reporting lameness than those using other systems, or a variety of systems.

Races and “sacrifice” paddocks which became muddy were also used. The best results involved surfaces of covered or uncovered sawdust, bark, woodchip or post-peeling pads. Cows using them lay down for longer periods than on concrete or wet paddocks or races. This is presumably because body temperature loss is higher on concrete than other surfaces.

Those using woodchip pads reported more cases of mastitis than on other surfaces, possibly from cows lying in wet, soiled conditions if the pad is not well managed.

Many stand-off areas had no shelter, although the dairy industry advisory service recommends shelter around a stand-off area to protect cows from prevailing winds and reduce wind chill.

The report said there is evidence that growing cattle provided with shelter from wind and rain have greater liveweight gains over two years than cattle with no shelter.

The project involved a questionnaire of farmers in Hawkes Bay, Waikato, Manawatu, Northland and Southland, with on-farm behaviour observations on 18 commercial dairy farms in Waikato and Southland.

The study was done on pregnant, non-lactating Holstein-Friesians ranging from three to nine years old, most within three weeks of calving.

A similar previous study showed cows spent up to 11.9 hours per day lying on a woodchip pad, compared to seven hours on concrete, 5.7 hours in a race, or 6.9 hours in a muddy sacrifice paddock.

Southland cows stayed on the sawdust pads for 24 hours a day for 4-5 months and fed on adjoining concrete feed areas, whereas Waikato cows were stood off pasture for an average of 18 hours a day and let out to graze for an average of six hours.