Hello All,
Was planning to have a cow shed was thinking about having a proper flooring with one of the below options.
The idea is to increase the drain and easy cleaning with flush of water.
*shabad stone blocks flooring
*Cement flooring
*RCC flooring[/ul]
I overheard someone say or read somewhere that hard flooring is not ideal, just wanted to seek community experts advice on the same. I am open to any other innovative flooring solutions or recommendations
Thanks
Shashidhar
Go for Cement or RCC, since Stone blocks will make cow slip on it, even Cement and RCC need to be rough finished.
Also make sure to have Rubber met under cows so there is no health issue to them
Dear Shashidhar,
You have chosen your convenience over the comfort & convenience of the Cows.
All the options mentioned by you will create a very high level of stress and seriously
affect productivity impacting your immediate profits as well as the health of the herd.
Please adopt a humane way to reap everlasting benefits. Cows, by nature roam free &
thrive on greens of all types in the wilderness. Man has domesticated it for his own needs.
We are duty bound to offer living quarters & other facilities as close as possible to the one
in the forest. Israelis understood this and design their Cow Housing accordingly.
Dr.V. Gnanaprakasam, former Vice-Chancellor, TANUVAS visited Israel and has written a
book titled “ISRAEL SHOWS THE WAY FOR A PROFITABLE DAIRY FARM”. He has openly
lamented the fact that India lags behind by several miles compared to Israel which has near
desert like conditions. India with the abundance of natural resources and good weather
conditions including excellent local breeds could have been the global leader in Dairy Farming.
We have missed the bus, so to say.In this book, Dr.V. Gnanaprakasam traces the history
of Israel’s efforts from the time it imported pure Friesian breeds which could not survive to
how they eventually developed the now world famous high yielding breed of ISRAELI HOLSTEIN
by cross breeding pure Holstein with cows from neighbouring Syrian breed know as Red Damascus.
Trail & error and deep observation and a zest to excel in their pursuits have given them an edge in
many fields including Agriculture & Dairy Farming. Israel offers courses in Animal Housing Architecture
at PG level to B.Arch graduates. These Architects design the Housing for the cows after studying the
climatic conditions of the area including wind conditions & directions.
They have long ago adopted Loose Housing System where the cows are allowed to roam freely in a large
area under a high double roof shed where the flooring is natural soil or murram. The cows roam around
& rest on this open natural surface all the time. The feeding area is made of concrete floor. The cows stand
on this concrete floor to reach the feed in the manger. The Israelis had learnt from their observation that the
cows excrete more than 80% of the dung while eating.The concrete flooring helps in the removal of this dung
manually as well as mechanically. The dung excreted in the lazing area is hardly attended to & it eventually gets
mixed with the soil. The Urination is absorbed by the soil. I met one young boy from Pune who had adopted
this system & was getting good results. However, he had a big issue of the soil become slushy all the time due to
frequent urination as he was feeding high quantities of Green fodder. Out of fear of Mastaitis & other infections,
he reverted to concrete flooring. All infections including the dreaded Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) can be kept at
bay by growing all your feed on Humous Rich Soil. More on this sometime later.
Dr.V. Gnanaprakasam has reported a case of a Cow which was maintained on hard flooring eventually developing
frog like bent legs. This cows remained in pain & was hardly moving around. The hard flooring was demolished &
the cow was uncontrollable after a few days on natural flooring.
Sir, please choose a human approach and priority has to be Cow Comfort.
KS Raj