Keeping dairy cows happy and healthy makes a difference to the bottom line as well as improving their welfare, and a new shed flooring development could help, Jane Carley reports.
Investing in infrastructure
Livestock housing and infrastructure specialist Wolfenden Concrete has developed a flooring solution that aims to improve welfare and productivity in dairy herds.
Lameness is one of the biggest threats to herd health and farm productivity and is one of the main challenges dairy farmers face. The AHDB notes that about a quarter of all dairy cows are experiencing some form of lameness at any one time. When taking vet costs, yield loss and a shortening of the productive lifespan of each affected cow into account, they estimate that the cost per cow is about £180, or around £15,000 for an average size herd. AHDB identifies three of the most common causes of lameness as poor-quality floors in housing, cows standing for too long on hard surfaces and badly designed cubicles.
Improving poor flooring
Poor flooring is a common problem in farm buildings, and previously the only option has been to retrofit RAV-rated sloping rubber matting. But this only addresses one area at a time and creates new problems with differing floor levels hampering the proper functioning of floor scrapers, worsening hoof health and increasing emissions.
Wolfendens product innovation resolves inadequate flooring issues through a hybrid design, using a specially-designed combination of rubber and concrete, and harnessing the benefits of both materials for better herd welfare.
Hybrid Supa Slats from Wolfenden Concrete combine rubber with a non-slip concrete surface in a 50/50 pattern, designed to allow for more natural and confident cow movement across the floor, providing greater comfort, better hoof care and improved grip.
The 40mm thick rubber insert is said to have a 10-year lifespan and the design includes interchangeable rubber cassettes for a longstanding solution where housing is expanded or otherwise modified as the cattle enterprise develops. The notched design of the rubber gives a snug fit into the concrete and the top surface is sloped and notched to aid drainage. The hard wearing yet soft rubber material fits flush with the concrete surface for safety and to withstand scraping.
Wolfendens Hybrid Supa Slats are available in two standard lengths - 4,500mm and 4,800mm - making them suitable for larger dairy farms with wider passage requirements but adaptable to different herd sizes.
When fitted as 4,800mm lengths, the slats allow for the construction of wider passageways, offering access for larger feeding or maintenance machinery while withstanding its additional weight.
Ammonia mitigation is another issue addressed by the design. Slots in the flooring offer a quick drying design - a well-drained floor has been shown to cut ammonia emissions by up to 50%.
For newbuild farms or those scaling-up infrastructure and for businesses under environmental scrutiny, attention to emission control could assist with planning applications, suggests the company.
Wolfenden advancing design
Based in Lancashire Wolfenden has been manufacturing pre-cast concrete products for more than 40 years.
Managing director Richard Moody, who is from a farming background himself, explains some of the design issues the company needed to overcome when developing the Hybrid Supa Slat:
As a hybrid product, the normal design issues of working with one medium were compounded. We needed to ensure enough steel in the product to withstand any axle load that may be exerted, but we also aimed for simplicity. The more nodules made to secure the rubber, the more intricate the mould - complicating the engineering and manufacturing processes. We created a novel invention to ensure accurate and reliable demoulding, involving hydraulic jacks and an overhead crane. A significant investment of time and resources means we now have a hard-wearing, long-lasting, quick-drying product, with high grip for great hoof comfort.
The company also specialises in design-and-build projects, and has developed a number of complementary products for livestock buildings including the original Supa Strong diagonal slats, which have a 12 tonne axle load to support heavy machinery in the shed. These lead to Supa Deep slurry channels which offer 50% extra capacity, designed to result in cleaner floors and more comfortable cattle housing.
This system was installed at the Morris-Eyton familys Beckside Farm in Cumbria when the dairy herd was expanded to 400 cows in 2020, as Patrick Morris-Eyton explains:
We chose Wolfenden for our concrete slat and slurry channels because they were able to assist with the design as well as the supply the companys expertise was invaluable in advising us on the development. One massive plus for us was the depth of Wolfendens Supa channels. The design of Wolfendens slats also allows them to have a higher weight carrying ability, which is very reassuring.
Richard Moody, managing director of Wolfenden, adds:
This was an ideal project for us at Wolfenden, as we are always keen to get involved at the earliest stage possible, meaning we can bring added value through the Tekla structural engineering software we have to assist in design.
The project required more than 100 mixed size channel and slat arrangements and was completed in six months.
AHDB Notes https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/lameness-in-dairy-cows
