Rubber

[Farmer_1994]

Looking into re grooving some lanes in the barn and parlour. We do all our own hoof trimming and have our old trimmer in as a consultant now and then. He suggested we look at putting grooves rubber down in the rest of the milking parlour instead of grooving. Haven’t looked into costs yet. What are your opinions on rubber in the parlour? We milk 3x and groups usually get through in an hour. Sand bedded and in my opinion we have a high wear rate on the feet.

 

[EasyFix Don]

Looking into re grooving some lanes in the barn and parlour. We do all our own hoof trimming and have our old trimmer in as a consultant now and then. He suggested we look at putting grooves rubber down in the rest of the milking parlour instead of grooving. Haven’t looked into costs yet. What are your opinions on rubber in the parlour? We milk 3x and groups usually get through in an hour. Sand bedded and in my opinion we have a high wear rate on the feet.

Hi Farmer_1994, I am a trade representative based in North America for a company called EasyFix. We are involved with placing rubber in many alleys and parlours. Parlour areas can be very stressful for dairy cows. They cannot relax and are pushed or crowded towards the milking parlour. The concrete is generally sloped and wet creating slippery conditions. Many dairy barn operators will groove or change the surface texture of the concrete which can be a short term solution. No concrete is the same so the wear is different even with these applications. Rubber will definitely improve the comfort level for cows in this area of a barn. As with concrete, there are many different levels of quality with rubber. Reclaimed mining belts are common in some areas. They improve conditions for a short while but because the rubber compound is hard the mining belts do not improve slipping conditions. Good rubber will provide deflection--deflection is determined by amount of 'sink' into the rubber of the cow hoof. Deflection is influenced by several factors of which two are key--patterns on the top and bottom of rubber and the recipe of compounds used in rubber. EasyFix has several different mats which will work for your parlour area. All EasyFix rubber is Sigmus tested for deflection.
Rubber flooring will increase cow mobility, offer a distinct reduction in slipping and result in an increase of walking speed and length of gait(locomotion). For your lanes, we offer mats depending on the type and amount of traffic. Rubber is measured by tensile strength or the point at which rubber pulls apart. The higher the number the stronger or more tensile a mat is. Texas A&M released a paper showing a study rubber flooring with results indicating 'cows housed with rubber flooring' especially 'on the feed lane produced more milk fat and milk protein, as well as had a higher milk protein percentage.' Rubber will also lessen the wear rate you observe on the feet of your cows. Dairies with sand bedded stall beds show increased wear of rubber mats compared to dairies using other bedding sources. If interested, please reach out to me through our website or let me know to contact directly. Thanks.