Cow Flow - Solutions to Poor Cow Flow

With the new season starting, cow flow issues often begin to arise with training heifers, cows establishing hierarchy and possibly staff changes. Good staff training and potentially some infrastructure changes within the shed can lead to a dramatic improvement in cow flow and associated lameness.

Some focus areas that will help cow flow are -

• Patience – it is important to take your time with heifers

• Backing gate use – don’t move the backing gate within the first 20 minutes of milking and only move small distances at a time

• Top gate use – should be limited to small amounts or not at all – farms can go whole seasons without needing to use the top gate

• Entry and exit on to platform (rotary) – entry only needs to be around 900mm wide, and exit should ideally be 3 bails wide to prevent excess pressure on feet

• Foot baths – ideally these should be permanent structures that can be emptied and refilled – this allows cows to become used to them and when needed they flow smoothly through stepping through it rather than jumping

• Tracks – structure, width, camber and maintenance are all very important in lameness reduction and prevention e.g. no crusher dust within 300m of collecting yard. Good tracks will allow for good cow flow to and from the shed

• Breast rail height (herringbone) – if cows are hesitant to enter the shed, changes from 800mm high to only 740mm can make big improvements in cow comfort during milking (by reducing pressure on point of the shoulder) and therefore improve cow flow

Implementing a good plan from the outset of the season and some simple changes in management and potentially shed structure can have very positive outcomes in reducing cow flow issues and lameness.