Comfortable Cows

Cow comfort in winter is crucial for animals to maintain condition and well-being. There are many factors to consider that can have an impact how your cows experience winter.

• Lying down is very important to cows. It provides rest, opportunity to sleep, and reduces the risk of lameness, which leads to better animal welfare.
• Lying time in a grazed system is dependent on weather and ground conditions.
• The welfare code requires a minimum of eight hours of lying time per day. In an outdoor system, short periods (less than 24 hours) of some disruption to lying times are normal.
• Cows will compensate for shorter lying times during bad weather by increasing their lying time when the weather and ground conditions improve.
• If critical source areas (CSAs) are well managed and the soil type is suitable for wintering, cows will experience the majority of their winter with a suitable lying area.

As show in a trial completed at the Southern Dairy Hub in 2020, cow lying time is negatively impacted by rainfall events.

Providing a comfortable lying surface

Here are a few suggestions for how you can do this:

• Move the break fence regularly to provide fresh ground, as long as it does not result in the overallocation of crops and create potential nutritional risks.
• Strategically graze the paddock, avoiding wet areas.
• Protect the area closest to the feeding face by grazing animals into the prevailing weather conditions.
• Save drier areas, especially any with shelter, for your contingency plan.
• During wet conditions allow cows more space by giving access to the ground behind the back fence if that ground is suitable for lying.
• Keep supplement feed and water troughs near the feeding face, not in any swales or hollows, which may create excess mud.
• Roll out hay or straw for cows to lie down on.
• If you have limited options, put cows that will be most affected by a period of poor weather (younger, lighter, earlier calvers) into paddocks with the most shelter, best soil condition, or best feed.