Housing dairy cows on concrete flooring has been shown to be instrumental in the development of lameness (Vanegas et al., 2006). Studies have shown that cows prefer to stand and walk on soft flooring such as soft, textured rubber compared with concrete (Telezhenko et al., 2009) and will stand in bedded cubicles to obtain relief from concrete passageways (Boyle et al., 2007). Therefore, rubber flooring in alleys is another suggested housing change to increase cow comfort and reduce the incidence of lameness.
© American Dairy Science Association®, 2013
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