Mulder family profits from the new cow comfort
Flexible cubicles and Gelfoam mattresses
Johan Mulder and his family run their dairy farm in the eastern part of The Netherlands. The farm has 97 dairy cows was not performing optimal and was therefor renovated last year. The old iron boxes and mats were replaced by the Flexible Free stalls and the Gelfoam mattress from Agriprom.
Now, the cows are used to their renovated barn and Mulder sees improvements in various areas. “Our aim was to have our cows spending at least 12 hours on the mattress and that went beyond expectations. You can see that the cows have much more faith in this mattress, resulting in cows getting up more easily and lie down again without a doubt. Overall there is much more peace in the barn and less stress among the cattle.”
400 kg more milk per day
Mulder also sees changes in lying behavior. “Cows also lie in a different way than in the old iron boxes. They lie much more on their buttocks than on their legs.” Mulder says that despite the extreme warm summer from last year he milks 400 kg more per day on average than in the same period last year (Snelzicht, CRV). He also sees that both the hygiene powder and the sawdust stay well on the surface of the mattress.
“With the installation of Gelfoam cow mattresses from Agriprom and flexible box partitions in May 2018, we have improved the cow comfort. Through movement sensors I see that the cows in the stable lie just as much as in the pasture, so the lying comfort in the stable is good. The cows lie down and stand up in one go and they give an average of 1,000 liters more milk than last year. “