Teagasc recently launched a new booklet around the area of cow cubicle and housing design, with several changes made to recommended specifications.

Teagasc buildings specialist Tom Fallon and machinery and milking equipment specialist Francis Quigley are the authors of the booklet, which looks to inform farm planners and farmers on the best-quality practices when it comes to dairy housing design.

Below are some of the key details that the booklet outlines regarding dairy housing.

Cubicle housing for dairy stock

Cubicle housing needs to meet three key parameters: adequate space per cow, comfortable and clean cubicles and provide adequate feed space per cow. There needs to be at least one cubicle space available per cow.

Space per cow

The target accessible space is 8m² per cow. This includes the area of the cubicles themselves and any passageways cows can access. An example of this would be the combined area of the cubicles and passageways in a 100-cow cubicle house being 800m².

The design of the house also needs to minimise the risk of bullying, by having more than one route to feed, water, etc.

Cows do not like rubbing up against each other as they move around the cubicle house.

This has become very evident to a number of farmers who have built a slatted tank and feed barrier outside the existing cubicle house and provided cows a spacious environment – most of the cows wanted to exit ‘stage left’ as it were.

Comfortable and clean cubicles

Cows can spend up to 14 hours per day lying down; they will only do this if they have a comfortable place to lie.

Cow lying time is important as it facilitates the manufacture of milk but it also provides for rest and the recuperation of cows during the dry period.

A comfortable lying area will also reduce the risk of lameness in dairy cows.

It is also important that the cubicles are clean (and easy to clean) to ensure good animal health.

In Ireland, we typically use a concrete surface covered with a mat or mattress.

Cubicles need to be cleaned twice per day and the area in contact with the udder needs to be covered with lime or sawdust mixed with lime. This is particularly important when cows are vulnerable to infection; when lactating, in the early dry period and in the period pre-calving.

It is also important to minimise the risk of infection in the context of reducing the need for antibiotic-based dry cow therapy.

Cows like to behave as a herd where they all strive to eat together. Inadequate feed space can impact animal health and welfare by creating competition for food, resulting in extra pressure on hooves, and risks for pregnant cows.

It will also be harder to divide up the herd by body condition score and stage of pregnancy, so that cows can be fed accordingly.

The recommended feed space is 0.6m to 0.7m per cow, depending on barrier design.

It may be possible to justify a shed with a lower feed space allocation, provided measures are taken to protect cows with lower body condition scores, lower ranking animals in the herd and cows approaching the end of their first lactation that are still growing, ie segregation of the herd within the shed.

Mats or mattresses need to be soft (“give” without compressing completely), non-slip, non-absorbent, durable (ability to recover shape after repeated use or compression over many years) and easy to clean.

Lime and sawdust may be applied to the mat for hygiene and absorbency.

Comfortable bed

Spreading lime or sawdust on concrete without a mat will not provide a comfortable bed for livestock.

A deep bed of sand can be very comfortable and work well though sand beds are not very popular in Ireland because of the difficulty of extracting sand from slatted tanks.

Cubicle passageways require the following space to function well:

Regarding cubicle size itself, minimum cubicle size will depend on mature cow weight of the herd, with the details of the relevant sizes attributed to different cow weights listed in Table 1.

The booklet also touches on the subject of problems with existing cubicles regarding size.

One problem indicator is that there are almost no dung pads on the cubicle beds.

If less than 10% of cubicle beds are soiled, it may indicate that the cubicles are too short or the brisket board is incorrectly placed as cows vary in length, so some soiling of cubicle beds is inevitable.

Where there is excessive soiling of beds, the cubicle length may be too long for the type of livestock or the brisket board may be too far forward (Table 1 for correct brisket position).

A crossing point is recommended every 16 to 20 cubicles (four to five bays) with a water trough.

It is best to pipe in water underground and to protect pipes from frost and from animals (where applicable).

Water pipes with an internal bore of 25mm (one inch) are suitable for most situations.

Access to water is very important; it is recommended to position troughs at crossover points and not along a feed barrier. The minimum recommended width of the crossing point is 3.5m (three cubicles left out, six in two rows head to head) where a water trough is fitted.

This will allow cows to pass while an animal is drinking.

The recommendation is to provide adequate trough space so that 10% of cows can drink at any one time.

Each cow that is drinking needs 0.45m of trough space = 2.25m for 50 cows (5 x 0.45m).

Cows show a preference for water bowls, perhaps because the water is fresher but water tanks are better at facilitating adequate water consumption (more drinking space, etc) so a combination of both can work well. It is recommended that the top edge of the water tank or bowl is 0.7m above the floor for cows, 0.6m for 350kg animals and 0.5m for 250kg animals.

The full booklet can be accessed here.