All that makes a zero-grazing unit serve your animals better

Eng Josphat Sirma, a city engineer cum dairy farmer in Ongata Rongai, Nairobi. Mr Sirma practices zero-grazing which is an intensive system of dairy production that allows for easy monitoring of one's livestock. PHOTO | RACHEL KIBUI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The genesis of problems is having an earthen floor in the unit as it is associated with poor sanitary conditions and encourages damp conditions especially during rains.
  • The entire floor of the zero-grazing unit should be rough, from the milking parlour to walking and dunging area. While concrete floors are good, very hard floor surfaces in the cubicles are not ideal. They restrict the cow’s opportunity to seek comfort and affects resting time.
  • Wet floors, uneven and broken concrete surfaces are dangerous; avoid these at all costs. Repair broken floors and keep the surfaces dry.
  • The watering point should be large enough and not raised too high to allow easy access to water. It should also be washed regularly to keep water fresh, clean and free of odour.

Zero-grazing is an intensive system of dairy production that allows for easy monitoring of your stock.

This type of housing does not expose cattle much to environmental hazards compared to open grazing.

It enables cows to conserve energy usually wasted during grazing to turn it into more milk for higher profits. In addition, it facilitates easy collection of manure, encourages good calf-rearing skills and enables clean milk production.

With such benefits, more farmers turn to this farming system that also comes with several challenges.

Therefore, there is need to troubleshoot the challenges that arise from both the construction and management aspects of the zero-grazing units in relation to animal welfare.

The genesis of problems is having an earthen floor in the unit. This is associated with poor sanitary conditions and it encourages damp conditions especially during rains, harbouring harmful bacteria directly which affect milk production.

Unhygienic conditions lead to frequent occurrences of infections majorly to the teats, like mastitis.

These conditions cost money and time to cure, a much difficult ordeal compared to regular cleaning of the unit. The walking and dunging area of your unit should be made of a floor that is easy to clean.

VERY HARD FLOOR, ROUGH SURFACE

While concrete floors are good, very hard floor surfaces in the cubicles are not ideal. They restrict the cow’s opportunity to seek comfort and affects resting time.

A practical way to test this is to kneel on the floor surface of the cubicle for about three minutes, if the pressure exerted on your knees is unbearable accompanied with some pain, then this is what the cow feels too.

Provide soft dry bedding material for your cows; dry straws, sand or cow mattresses.

A zero-grazing unit in its nature already has limited space for animal exercise compared to open grazing. The walking and dunging area, if not constructed to recommended measurements, limits available space for exercise.

Cows need to exercise and bond normally with each other thus adequate space is crucial.

Some farms overlook this important section to provide adequate space. Instead, they use it to serve as the sleeping cubicles. Yet your cow should never sleep where she dungs.

In many units, especially on small-scale farms, the walking and dunging area is not cleaned. The manure is left to accumulate and get collected after a few days. When rains fall, this area is not suitable any more for a dairy animal.

The unit should have an efficient drainage channel with good slope for easy removal of dung and urine. This channel should be lined with cement for easy cleaning and it should to a manure pit or slurry, large enough to hold the effluents for a few days pending emptying.

There is trouble with smooth floors. The entire floor of the zero-grazing unit should be rough, from the milking parlour to walking and dunging area.

By practice, if you spot a cow easily lift one of her rear quarter to lick the area around her udder, it is a sign of confidence she has in the floor giving adequate grip to her three other quarters.

SMOOTH FLOORS CAUSE ANIMALS TO SLIDE

Smooth floors cause cows to slide and this may indirectly bring you trouble with manifesting standing heat. This is because when she tries to mount but slides back or falls, she may never show this standing heat sign again.

Wet floors, uneven and broken concrete surfaces are dangerous; avoid these at all costs. Repair broken floors and keep the surfaces dry. Trauma injuries are most associated with these conditions, resulting to swollen hocks, knees or hip.

If cows stand on loose hard sharp surfaces or stones for days, their sole bend upwards due these sharp objects and severely squeeze the inner sensitive layer. This may cause bleeding within the claws, pain and lameness.

Observe floor levelling with respect to base of feeding troughs. If both floors are at the same level, cows including mature ones will have problem with feeding.

Feeding troughs with raised walls make it difficult for cows to access feeds. On the same note, a rail is required running across over the back part of the neck/crest area near the withers of the cow to bar it from getting into the trough.

A practical way to tell the bar is not set properly is when you see the herd has lost some hair on the back part of the neck.

The rail should be installed in a way that does not cause any harm to the cow while the base of the trough must be lifted up with one end of the wall lowered for ease of access to feeds.

WATERING POINT

The watering point should be large enough and not raised too high to allow easy access to water. It should also be washed regularly to keep water fresh, clean and free of odour.

Poorly constructed water troughs are seen when cows struggle to access water. They also bear green colour and are slimmy in the inside walls suggesting you are giving the animal the same water over and over.

Well-constructed cubicles do not allow the animals to dung inside or even turn around. In essence, the cubicles should have a rail running across such that cows do not reach the back end of the zero-grazing unit.

This rail is important, in that, it restricts cows from dunging into the cubicle as it ensures the droppings fall in the dunging area. The cubicles should also not allow the cow to make a full turn while inside, instead, walk backwards to the walking or sunning and dunging area.

High walls around the unit are not encouraged as they affect the air quality. Construction should allow for free air flow but not draught.

Practically, if you see your cows walking towards the open ends of the cubicles for to seek fresh air, then this is an alarm for inadequate flow of air.

***

Opinya is based at the Animal Sciences Department, Egerton Univeristy.