Fifty stand-offs a winter. What Al Hall did about it
The Gist: Al Hall and his wife bought his family’s fourth generation farm at Te Miro two seasons ago, after a long sharemilking career. The farm sits under a volcano on free draining ash soils, but the long-term average rainfall is 1500 mils and it has hit 2.2 metres. In a bad winter that means standing 530 cows off 30, 40, 50 times.
A barn would have fixed it for seven figures. Instead he matted the yard he already owned. He started with 32 square metres at the entrances in June 2024, then covered the full yard with 630 Kura mats in June 2025. The feed pad is next, when finances allow.
Watch: What wet winters cost the cows and the team
The farm
Carnero Farms sits at Te Miro, just outside Cambridge. It is in its fourth generation. Al and his wife bought it two seasons ago, having come back from overseas nine years earlier to sharemilk the property and build enough equity to buy it.
The infrastructure was already sound before any matting went down. His father built the cow shed in 2012 and the feed pad and roof went in between 2015 and 2020. This was never a case of matting compensating for a poor set-up, which is part of why the decision took the shape it did.
Al runs the farm with three full-time employees.
|
Carnero Farms at a glance |
|
|---|---|
|
Location |
Te Miro, Waikato |
|
Herd |
530 cows |
|
Effective area |
176 hectares |
|
Soils |
Free draining volcanic ash |
|
Rainfall |
1500 mm long-term average, recorded up to 2.2 m |
|
Staff |
Owner plus three full-time |
|
Cow shed |
Built 2012 |
|
Feed pad and roof |
2015 to 2020 |
|
Generation |
Fourth |
Why winter is the constraint here
Te Miro carries more rain than a lot of the Waikato. The winters feel longer as a result, to the point that Al’s father calved later than most.
The soils drain well, but free draining is not the same as trafficable. When the rain keeps coming, the choice is to pull the cows off or watch the paddocks come apart under them. There is no third option.
The farm is a classic North Island property added onto many times over, so the walks are long, around two kilometres to three points of the farm. That matters later, because those walks are the reason lameness has always been a challenge here.
What standing off on concrete actually costs
Before the mats, standing off meant a sacrifice paddock or the bare concrete yard.
Al is fair about the concrete. It holds up structurally and it always will. It is simply not a surface a cow should be standing on for hours at a stretch, night after night. Cows do not lie down on wet concrete, so a stand-off on concrete is a stand-off without rest.
The worst of it was one of the 2.2 metre years. Weeks of rain. Three or four mobs pulled off every night, back onto the paddocks for two or three hours at most, then off again, with maybe one or two days of respite in between. That runs for weeks on end.
He describes that cost in two parts, the animals and the people, and he does not rank them.
The barn he did not build
A covered barn solves the wet winter problem more completely than matting does. It also costs seven figures and counting, which is real money against a farm bought two seasons earlier.
Matting the existing yard put the same tool in his hands at a fraction of the capital. The yard was already built, already consented and already drained, so the only spend was the surface itself. When the weather turns, that is where the cows go, and they can lie down on it.
|
Option |
Capital |
What it solves |
What it does not |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Sacrifice paddock |
Low |
Keeps the rest of the platform intact |
Writes off the paddock, no comfort, regrassing cost |
|
Bare concrete yard |
Nil, already built |
Gets stock off pasture |
Cows will not lie down, hard on feet over long periods |
|
Matted yard |
Moderate |
Cows off pasture and able to lie down, better grip |
No shelter from rain, no effluent capture beyond existing yard system |
|
Covered barn |
Seven figures |
Shelter, comfort, effluent capture, feed control |
Capital, consenting, construction lead time |
For farms where a barn is the right answer, Numat builds them through Agri Construction. For Carnero Farms at that point in time, the yard was the right answer.
Starting at the entrances
Al did not do the whole yard at once. In June 2024, off the back of a field day, Numat quoted him on both Kura and Double Stud. He took 32 Double Stud mats, 23 mm, supply only, covering 32 square metres.
The reasoning came from the recommendation he was given. Cows coming off the lanes drop stones and grit at the yard entrance, so that is where the surface takes the most punishment and where the cows first have to turn. Start where the wear is worst and you get most of the benefit for a fraction of the spend.
He also did the entrances and exits off the feed pad. That approach sits on a slope, and when the cows are held so they all go in together for a fair go at the feed, it gets slippery. The races around the yard were done the same year, which was a considerable cost in its own right.
Where mats go on a dairy yard and why
|
Area |
The problem |
What the mat does |
|---|---|---|
|
Yard entrance |
Cows carry stones and grit off the lane, high turning load |
Cushions the transition, reduces white line stress on the turn |
|
Yard exit |
Cows push and turn leaving the shed |
Grip under load, fewer slips |
|
Feed pad entry and exit |
Slope plus held mobs releasing at once |
Grip on grade, calmer flow |
|
Full yard |
Long stand-off periods on concrete |
Cows will lie down, whole surface usable in wet |
|
Races and lanes |
Stone damage before cows reach the yard |
Protects feet upstream of the yard |
The full yard, eleven months later
In December 2024 Al told Numat there were no further plans, and that the feed pad might get rubber in about five years.
By February 2025 that had shifted. Anthony Garton visited Te Miro to look at the yard area. Pricing for the yard and feed pad went out in March, and updated pricing on Kura and Legend for the yard followed on 29 April. Al ordered the next day.
He was offered the cheaper option and turned it down. The test he applied was not what it cost in 2025, it was whether it would still be returning in 2045. On that test the premium mat won, and Numat recommended it on the same basis.
Note that he took the economical mat for the entrances in 2024 and the premium mat for the full yard in 2025. Different jobs, different exposure, different answer.
The mats
The two products on this farm sit at opposite ends of the range on purpose.
Products used at Carnero Farms
|
Used here |
Yard entrances, feed pad entry and exit |
Full yard |
|
Year |
2024 |
2025 |
|
Quantity |
32 mats |
630 mats |
|
Area covered |
32 m² |
Approximately 637 m² |
|
Sheet size |
1000 x 1000 mm |
1190 x 850 mm |
|
Thickness |
23 mm |
25 mm |
|
Weight per mat |
22.5 kg |
23 kg |
|
Surface profile |
Double-sided 3 mm studs |
Anti-slip mosaic |
|
Base |
3 mm studs |
5 mm studs |
|
Interlocking |
Yes |
Multiflex interlock, precision waterjet-cut edges |
|
Warranty |
5 years |
10 years |
|
Expected lifespan |
10 years plus |
20 years plus |
|
Suitable for |
Dairy, beef, deer, equine |
Dairy, beef, deer, equine |
|
Supply and install |
Supply only |
Installed by Numat, completed 20 June 2025 |
|
Positioning |
Economical, reliable grip across multiple areas |
Premium, heavy duty, long life |
The 2024 job was supply only. The 2025 yard was laid by Numat’s own Agri install team and completed on 20 June 2025.
Numat carries a full range of yard mats, including Legend and OxMat alongside the two used here. Which one fits depends on how long stock stand on it, what the surface underneath is doing, and what you have to spend.
How the cows took to it
There was no transition to manage. Cows are wary of anything new, so they sniffed the mats and had a good look at them, and then got on with it. Walking on rubber is second nature to them now.
On lameness, Al is careful, and the care is the point. He will say he has absolutely seen a reduction. He will not put a figure on it, because he does not have one. This farm has always had lameness pressure because of the two kilometre walks, so any improvement here is worth more than it would be on a compact platform.
His own reasoning is about the white line in the hoof and what happens when a cow turns on a round yard. Rubber under that turn means less shearing force through the white line, and fewer lesions as a result.
What matting does not do
It does not keep the rain off. A matted yard in a downpour is still a wet yard, and on the worst nights a covered barn is a better building. It does not capture effluent beyond what the existing yard system already handles, so it does not change your consent position. And it does not fix a yard with a drainage or fall problem underneath it, because a mat follows the surface it is laid on. On the wet Waikato winters Al is managing, none of that outweighed being able to stand cows somewhere they would lie down.
Washdown and maintenance
The standard worry about matting a yard is that effluent gets trapped and washdown gets harder.
On a follow-up call in September 2025, three months after the install, Al reported that the yard washes well with the dung buster. Interlocking mats anchored properly sit flat and wash like concrete, which is exactly what you want from a surface that sees a full herd twice a day.
The Kura profile is fully sealed through the vulcanisation process, so it does not soak up moisture or harbour bacteria. Al’s own position on maintenance is blunt: anything they can do to cut it, they want to do.
What changed in how they farm
This is the part that does not show up on a spec sheet.
Before the mats, the decision to stand cows off was fought every time, because the place he was sending them was not good enough. Now the only question is whether they need to come off, not whether the surface can take them. He stands cows off more readily than he used to, and the paddocks are the beneficiary.
Less pugging means soil structure holds together through the wet, which means more grass grown across the following spring. His staff reached the same conclusion independently and called the mats an insurance policy against standing off.
What he would tell a farmer sitting where he was
Al does not oversell it. He calls it a pretty reasonable return on investment, and points out that plenty of things on a farm claim a higher one.
What he adds is the part most spend analysis leaves out. The mats bought him back the willingness to do the right thing by his paddocks, and they took the weight off him and his staff on the nights it rains. He rates that alongside the cow comfort, not below it.
Thanks, Al
Thanks to Al Hall for opening the gate at Te Miro, showing us how the yard works on an ordinary morning, and answering every question straight.
Farmers back themselves far more readily on the word of someone who has already done the job than on anything we could write. Al did this in two stages across two seasons and he was open about why, which is worth more to the next farmer working out where to start than any brochure.
What farmers ask us about yard matting
Can rubber matting on a dairy yard replace building a barn
Not entirely, but it solves the same problem at a fraction of the capital. A covered barn adds shelter, effluent capture and feed control that matting does not. At Carnero Farms in Te Miro, Al Hall put the cost of a barn at seven figures and counting against a farm he had owned for two seasons. Matting the yard he already owned gave him a surface the cows would lie down on without the consenting, the construction lead time or the debt. His yard was already built, consented and drained, so the only spend was the surface itself.
Where should you start if you cannot mat a whole dairy yard at once
Start at the yard entrances. Cows coming off the lanes carry stones and grit onto the yard, so the entrance takes the most punishment and it is also where cows first have to turn. Feed pad entry and exit points are the other priority, particularly on a slope or where mobs are held and released together. Al Hall covered 32 square metres at the entrances in June 2024 and did the full yard eleven months later, in June 2025. Doing it in two stages spread the capital across two seasons and let him see the mats working before committing to the larger job.
Does rubber matting make dairy yard washdown harder
Not when the mats interlock and are anchored properly. Mats laid flat and pinned down wash much like concrete does. Three months after his yard was matted, Al Hall reported that the yard washes well with the dung buster. The Kura profile is fully sealed through a vulcanisation process, so it does not soak up moisture or harbour bacteria. The mats to avoid on a yard are rolled rubber without expansion joints, which can bubble and trap effluent underneath, and anything with cleats deep enough to slow the washdown.
How long do cows take to get used to rubber matting
Days rather than weeks, with no transition to manage. Cows are wary of anything new on a surface they walk twice a day, so they will sniff the mats and have a good look at them the first time through. After that they get on with it. At Carnero Farms, 530 cows adjusted without any change to the milking routine, and walking on rubber is second nature to them now. Cows will also lie down on matting during a long stand-off, which they will not do on wet concrete.
Does rubber matting reduce lameness in dairy cows
Farmers running it consistently report fewer lame cows, although the size of the improvement depends heavily on the farm. Al Hall says he has absolutely seen a reduction at Te Miro, but he will not put a figure on it because he does not have one. His reasoning is about the white line in the hoof and the shearing force that goes through it when a cow turns on a round yard. Rubber under that turn means less force through the white line. The gain tends to be largest on farms with long walks, which at Carnero Farms run to around two kilometres.
Which rubber mat suits a dairy yard, Kura or Double Stud
It depends on how long the cows stand on it. Double Stud is 23 mm, has a double-sided 3 mm stud profile and carries a 5 year warranty, which suits entrances, exits and other high-wear spots without stretching the budget. Kura is 25 mm, made in Germany at the Kraiburg factory, has an anti-slip mosaic profile and a ribbed base, and carries a 10 year warranty with an expected life beyond 20 years. For a full yard that doubles as a stand-off area in wet winters, the longer-life mat is usually the better buy. Al Hall used both, one at each end of the job.
Get your yard measured and quoted
Anthony Garton looked at this yard in February 2025 and it was matted by June. He covers rubber mats across the North Island and he will come to the farm, measure the yard, and give you a number for the whole job or just the entrances.
Anthony Garton, North Island
021 824 243
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