Andrew uses Hex mat matting. He runs a winter milk system with approx. 350 cows He Says “10mls of rain can do a lot of damage with the cows on it, it’s all about preserving the paddocks over the winter, and when the spring comes you grow a lot more grass.
If the cows are on here for 8 or 10 hours on rubber how are they walking off?
“So far this year we’ve had NO LAME cows, none, not one, and so in previous years when we’ve stood the cows off on the yard here (before matting) they would last maybe 3 days in a row, then it’s kind of hard looking at them, then yeah, they get really soft sore feet and they limp up the race and you have a lot of lame cows, but it’s one of those things you have to do you need to stand them off, so the matting has been brilliant with no lame cows over the winter since the matting was installed. It’s an animal welfare issue and you end up getting the vets out to treat lame cows, putting blocks on their feed, so this has worked out really well.
Before the matting went in we always had some lame cows, as we’ve had a policy of standing cows off to protect the pastures. As soon as it gets wet, your cell count goes up and get lame cows but this year it’s been bliss with the mats. We get no sore feet, they like it (the cows) and I like it too.
We get the bulls in from July through the end of August, so can stand the bulls off in the yard with the cows. We had no lame bulls. There’s an enormous amount of benefits.
We went with EASYMAT, it came down not so much as to the cost but more the product. The texture was great, and the mats were bolted in. The mat was the optimum thickness. There are varying thicknesses and I felt that these mats were the optimum thickness. You can get stuff that’s thinner and obviously cheaper.
We wanted something that was going to last and felt this product was it. We’ve got an old shed, that had added on over the years, so the concrete’s not nice and even like a new shed. So the fact that it’s all bolted down and is going to stay there for a while makes a big difference. Even when it’s not wet, just walking on a rubber mat in the normal course of a normal milking season you’re always going to get stones and residual. I’m sure that’s all had an impact in terms of the cow’s feet so I’m sold on this, that’s for sure it’s been fantastic.”
Andrew Allen.