Page 26—Ag Progress Section 2, Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, August 12, 2000
Adapting To Life On Concrete
Editor’s Note: The following is adapted
from the Hoof Trimmers Association
Newsletter.
Modern dairy cattle evolved from no
madic animals that walked on resilient,
yielding surfaces. Dairy producers first
confined cows on dirt or generous amounts
of soft bedding. Reports indicate that even
in these early confinement settings, cows’
hooves did not wear properly. The next de
velopment in dairy housing confined cows
in stanchion barns during adverse weather
to avoid the wet and dirty conditions asso
ciated with most outside dirt lots. In the
summer, cows were almost always pas
tured and seldom experienced major foot
and leg problems.
Recently, economic pressures have
forced many dairy producers to intensely
confine cows even more. Freestall housing
systems are popular today because they
can provide a quality cow environment
while minimizing the amount of bedding
and labor required, compared to other
loose housing systems.
Confining cows in freestall barns means
they almost always stand or walk on
scraped or washed concrete alleys during
each lactation, or possibly even their entire
adult life. Sometimes resting surfaces are
also constructed from concrete, so cows get
little reprieve, especially if the stall is ina
dequately bedded or incorrect dimensions
discourage or even prohibit them from
lying down.
Many producers and scientists rapidly
accepted intense animal confinement de
spite the lack of adequate data on its long
term effects on cows. Today, the industry
continues to embrace this housing system
even though there has been little progress
in cow comfort and health relative to floor
ing surfaces in this country.
However, in Europe where animal wel
fare is a primary concern, foot and leg
health has attracted significant attention
and has driven their scientists to look more
closely at the impacts of hoof contact sur
faces.
Concrete Damages Hooves
Cows should ideally lie in stalls for
about 14 hours a day, according to various
experts. This then means they will stand or
walk about 10 hours per day. Cows are
motivated to walk to consume food and
water, and seek companionship, shelter,
resting space and sexual partners. Dairy
producers make cows walk to and from
milking, sorting and treatment areas.
Moderate walking is good for cows, ac
cording to Dr. Albright of Purdue Univer
sity. He suggests cows need to walk two to
2.5 miles per day to keep healthy and ex
ercised.
Concrete causes hoof damage two ways,
from its abrasiveness and the repeated
concussion from its unyielding nature. Eu
ropean researchers have found that exces
sive walking on abrasive concrete can lead
to over-worn soles that become soft and
bruise easily and excessive standing re
duces blood flow in the hoof, deteriorates
hoof health and leads to hoof lesions.
Concrete floors that are roughened or
textured to prevent slippage can exces
sively wear hooves in cases of over expo
sure, whereas non-grooved smooth floors
simply do not offer sufficient traction.
There is a fine line between a concrete
floor surface that is too rough and injures
cows from high exposure rates and its
abrasiveness, and one that is too smooth
and causes injury because of inadequate
Experience has shown that the floor
finish is often the biggest mistake made
during bnrn construction. David Bray of
the University of Florida reported in 1998
that rough finished floors speed hoof wear
up to 20 percent, with cows being culled
due to lameness within three weeks of oc
cupying a new barn.
fMrcin Caro J ina State University
(NCSU) research indicated that the hooves
of cows confined on new abrasive concrete
wore 35 percent more than control cows
housed on dirt. NCSU also reports that the
hooves of all cows confined on a new con
crete surface with no special surface prep
aration wore more than they grew for the
first two months of exposure.
Like people, foot and leg stress increases
for cows when they stand on concrete for
extended periods of time. Dr. Chuck
Guard, veterinarian of Cornell University,
reports that dairy cows’ claws are com
monly shaped in less than desirable forms
and these misshapen claws will experience
extreme localized pressures from the un
forgiving concrete. This high pressure sig
nificantly damages the underlying hoof
structures. Dr. Bee and others of the
United Kingdom reported that herds fed
low levels of concentrates with poor con
crete surfaces and low freestall use saw a
high incidence of sole ulcers and white-line
disease.
Water Quality Concerns Will
Affect Reprieve From Concrete
Many producers who have confinement
facilities recognize the stress cows endure
from standing on concrete and conse
quently, try to give cows a reprieve by
moving them to managed-grass areas or
earthen lots during the dry period. Studies
have shown this is beneficial to foot and leg
health. However, this practice may not be
sustainable.
Environment policy in the United States
is now concentrating on new regulations to
protect the nation’s water resources from
point source (wastewater discharge from a
pipe) and non-point source (surface
runoff) agricultural pollution.
These regulations will significantly
impact dairy cattle housing. Most produc
ers probably will not be able to allow their
cattle to freely use intensive exercise lots
unless they collect and treat surface-water
runoff.
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I believe due to the economic
and environmental factors,
many producers who have not
already done so will opt to
expand the level of confined
housing to include their entire
herds and forgo constructing
and operating expensive rainwa
ter runoff collection and treat
ment systems for exercise areas.
This will happen despite re
search by Drs. McDaniel and
Hahn and others at NCSU that
shows providing a break from
concrete during the dry period
for confined cows is beneficial to
overall foot and leg health.
Consequently, researchers
and industry investigate new
flooring surfaces to better meet
the cows’ and dairy producers’
needs. Ideally, floors must pro
vide confident footing for the
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cow and caretaker alike, but
cause minimal foot and leg
problems for the cow. Also,
floors must be affordable and
durable.
Alternative Surfaces Key
To Lifelong Confinement
Concrete is an attractive
flooring choice to builders be
cause it is durable, economical,
easy to place, conforms well to
irregular areas and can be fin
ished in various ways that pro
vide some level of traction that is
usually acceptable to dairy pro
ducers. But it is very unyielding
and contributes to lameness. Dr.
Guard suggests barn floors
should be surfaced with some
thing other than concrete and
that, combined with routine
hoof trimming, may prevent
many cases of severe lameness.
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