When asked what the word “comfort” means I think of a rather quiet and relaxing environment that allows me to be a productive individual without having a great deal of stress, where I am psychically able to have what I need to eat and drink, rest comfortably and sleep soundly in my own bed, where I am not jeopardized in anyway, where I can be healthy and not exposed to sickness, and so on throughout my daily life. Similarly to sitting on a comfortable large lounge chair, under a large shade tree, on a beautiful tropical sandy beach. Given the ability to make assumptions we can state that animals think and feel as we humans do. We could easily say that cows’ comfort has to do with what their basic needs our throughout their daily lives. The
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Is it easy or difficult for the cow to step up into a stall? In a free stall, an eight-inch curb is potentially ideal. However, cows have been observed to have the ability to step up fourteen-inches to enter comfortable free stalls. When producers take the time to observe several cows in the process of lying down they ask themselves several questions. Do they bang anything when getting up or down? Are they hesitant or confident? Are any physical injuries occurring as they lie down in their environment? Stand in a typical free stall or tie stall and drop to your knees. Is it a painful experience? Producers take a good look at the physical condition of the cows to maintain an adequate evaluation. If the cows have swollen knees, or swollen abraded hocks, then the producers have a stall problem needed to be addresses. What about the rump and hooks area? Are there abscesses, or bump and bruises? Upon completion of these simple observations one should have an idea whether to not the free stalls or tie stalls require modification. In general, we often don’t think about socializing with cattle but is a factor that is needed in our dairy cows lives. Socializing refers to the amount of time that a cow can spend walking around given the ability to interact with other animals around themselves. Meaning that that are participating in activities such as grooming, exercising, licking, but most importantly, expression of heat. These particular activities all having a large impact of cow health, environment, grouping, and time allowed by other activities. On average, a cow spends about an hour and a half (6%) of her day socializing
Is it easy or difficult for the cow to step up into a stall? In a free stall, an eight-inch curb is potentially ideal. However, cows have been observed to have the ability to step up fourteen-inches to enter comfortable free stalls. When producers take the time to observe several cows in the process of lying down they ask themselves several questions. Do they bang anything when getting up or down? Are they hesitant or confident? Are any physical injuries occurring as they lie down in their environment? Stand in a typical free stall or tie stall and drop to your knees. Is it a painful experience? Producers take a good look at the physical condition of the cows to maintain an adequate evaluation. If the cows have swollen knees, or swollen abraded hocks, then the producers have a stall problem needed to be addresses. What about the rump and hooks area? Are there abscesses, or bump and bruises? Upon completion of these simple observations one should have an idea whether to not the free stalls or tie stalls require modification. In general, we often don’t think about socializing with cattle but is a factor that is needed in our dairy cows lives. Socializing refers to the amount of time that a cow can spend walking around given the ability to interact with other animals around themselves. Meaning that that are participating in activities such as grooming, exercising, licking, but most importantly, expression of heat. These particular activities all having a large impact of cow health, environment, grouping, and time allowed by other activities. On average, a cow spends about an hour and a half (6%) of her day socializing