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Conference paper2008

Dairy cow locomotion and slipperiness in different flooring systems

Telezhenko, Evgenij; Magnusson, Madeleine; Nilsson, Christer; Bergsten, Christer

Abstract

The slipperiness of following floors was studied: solid acid resistant mastic asphalt, elastic rubber mats (KURA-P) and slatted concrete floor. The static and dynamic coefficients of friction were determined under field conditions at the different sites of the walking areas. Additionally the friction coefficients were tested with five different magnitudes of vertical load. The cow gait was studied in 81 dairy cows on the walkways under field conditions, at three occasions during the housing period. The cows walked at a reproducible speed and trackway measurements were used for gait analysis. The stride length, step frequency, step width and overlap were studied. The slatted concrete floor had the lowest coefficient of friction and the value also had the lowest decrease on more contaminated site. The asphalt showed greatest difference in measured friction on sites with different degree of dirtiness. Rubber had the highest coefficient of friction with low decrease on more contaminated sites. Rubber mats also showed more considerable increase of the dynamic coefficient of friction with increasing load than all the other floors. Cows on the rubber mats had significantly lower stride frequency, longer strides and greater overlap than cows on the asphalt and concrete floors. There were no significant differences in step width between different floors. It was concluded that yielding rubber mats reduce risk of slipping on the walking areas in a greater extent than asphalt flooring

Published in

Title: Proc. of the 15th International Symposium & the 7th Conference on Lameness in Ruminants

Conference

The 15th International Symposium & the 7th Conference on Lameness in Ruminants