Reducing lame cow problems and making wash down easier
Morven, Canterbury
Hugh Fleming got Numat’s Kura Rubber Matting installed in 2020 to help reduce the number of cows going lame and to improve cow comfort and welfare.
Hugh has a dairy farm in Morven, South Canterbury with 950 cows split into 2 herds. He has two dairy sheds on his farm, one herringbone and one rotary.
The concrete yards at Hugh’s Rotary shed yards were grooved concrete. The grooves were added to help prevent cows slipping but they were causing other problems. “The grooved concrete was hard to wash, stones got stuck in it and I think the stones were contributing to the lameness problems.”
“We’d been looking around at options and we knew Numat because we had pit mats installed in our herringbone shed a few years back,” said Hugh.
When we asked Hugh what the most important benefits of the matting were for him, he said, “Durability, service and back-up. Myles from the Numat team had lots of experience and expertise and made me feel really comfortable about buying the matting. I knew I was getting a good product and that they were a good company that I could rely on.”
“Lameness has decreased significantly since we’ve had the matting down and I’m really happy with it”
Hugh knew he’d made the right choice by getting rubber matting when he first saw the cows come into the yards.
“The cows flow through the yards much better now than they did before, they only stop sometimes if there’s some extra noise or they get a fright from something.”
The feature that Hugh likes the most about the Kura matting is the soft surface and durability and that Kura matting has a 10-year guarantee.
“It’s nice and thick and looks like it’s going to last. It’s a significant investment to get the mats so you want to know it’s going to last.”
Added benefits that Hugh has gained from the matting are quieter stock and the ability to stand-off cows on the yards.
“The cows are a bit quieter now which is great. And we’ve been able to hold cows on the yards when we get wet weather for a few extra hours. You can stand cows on the yards longer than what you would if it was just concrete. It can get pretty wet out here in Morven so we’ll definitely get a bit of use out of it.”
The rubber matting is much easier to wash down than the old grooved concrete was.
Hugh said, “we’re probably saving a bit of water and time as well because it’s quicker to wash down than the grooved concrete was.”
