Clean cows have a lower risk of mastitis and lameness. Dirty cows can also be a sign that something is not quite right in the facility such as ventilation or scraper timing.
Cow cleanliness videos
Watch these videos to find out how to keep cows and beds clean and manage the facility well.
Videos
Keeping cows clean on a freestall mattress
20% of your herd are likely to be heifers. Being smaller, they defecate on the back of the beds.
Help keep beds clean by scraping beds daily and use a secondary bedding material such as saw dust to help scraping.
If all the beds and cows are getting dirty, it may help to observe the cows and alter adjustable neck rails and brisket locators.
Neck rails are meant to position the cow correctly when she enters the stall, before she lies down. It is difficult to get neck rails in the right position as they can either compromise the standing or the rising cow. If the rail is too far forward it can cause cows to stand and lie too far forward and soil the beds.
The brisket locator helps to position the cow correctly when she lies down. When the brisket locator is set correctly it prevents the cow from lying too far forward and soiling the bed.
Cow cleanliness scoring
Download the housed cow cleanliness score card to assess the cleanliness of your herd.
Watch our Cow cleanliness scorecard video in the playlist above and see the information below.
How to score your herd
- Choose a time and place that allows you to easily observe the back, flank and tail; the lower hind leg, and udder of standing cows. An hour after fresh feed has been provided and before cows start to lie down, or during milking, are good times to cleanliness score. Cows should be scored at random by moving through the whole herd scoring as you go.
- For each cow, add only 1 tally mark to the box that describes her dirtiest part e.g. a cow that is scored a 0 for her legs and udder and a 1 for her flank will be scored a 1 with a tally mark placed in the score 1, flank box.
- Once the cows have been scored as per the table below, add up the number of cows that have scored a 2.
- Divide this number by the total number of cows scored to work out the percentage. This is the herd score.
Example

Number of cows to score
It is best practice to score the entire herd. However, the minimum number of cows you should score is shown in the table below:
Herd size |
Number of cows to score |
Less than 200 cows | 80 |
200-500 cows | 90 |
More than 500 cows | 100 |
What the cow cleanliness scores mean
Now that you have the results from measuring the cleanliness of your herd; you can get further information by clicking on the score below that best describes your herd.