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Dairy Cattle Housing with Emphasis on Economics, Sanitation, Health, and Production¹

Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana

ABSTRACT

Modern dairy cattle management requires adequate equipment and economical housing designed to produce high-quality milk, meet health requirements of cows, combined with convenience and efficiency of the operator. Annual dairy building costs represent approximately 10% of dairy costs. Under high-level management, structural features (stanchion vs. loose-housing) do not appear to be related to quality of the milk. Bedding materials and alternatives such as rubber mats, slatted floors, liquid manure handling, moving debris with water, and individual stalls for dairy cattle in loose-housing systems are all examples of recent managerial changes in housing philosophies.

A lowered incidence of udder (serious mastitis cases) and limb (stiffness or lameness, foot rot, injured knees and hocks) disorders was found under loose-housing conditions. A number of studies indicate both a decrease and an increase in milk production associated with stanchion barn management. One factor sometimes overlooked in loose-housing arrangements is the possible advantage of a more highly organized labor-saving milking system, utilizing a milking parlor.

¹ Portions of this paper presented to the Northwest Indiana Milk Sanitarians' and Fieldmens' Association, Gary, Indiana, December 11, 1963.