Posted 24 September 2018
Winter months see many new challenges with more and more dairy farmers chasing a higher winter payout but finding the downside being the surface deterioration of the farm races. We find that by the time the weather comes right through some parts of September these winter milk farms really suffer with lameness issues especially if they have previously used brown rock (more-so).
In most StockRock jobs through these winter/spring months we find the deterioration follows a similar pattern. The continuous wet weather washes the fines off the race when the stock move up and down the race to the cowshed. The more rain we have the more frequently harder, smaller stones become exposed on the surface. Farmers can often feel these stones through the bottom of their gumboots. When the cows feel these sharp stones on their soft hooves it feels very uncomfortable so they all tend to poo in the worst areas. If nothing is done about it then these areas get bigger and bigger - very quickly, especially when the wet weather is relentless.
In many situations, by the time the StockRock crew get to the site, the cows have pooed that much that the races are very liquid-like with the number of lame cows growing rapidly.
The upgrading of these bad areas can be fixed very quickly. We are lucky to have a big supply of shed stored StockRock to assist in solving these problems. In most cases we can upgrade these areas within 1 day and it can be done between milkings.
Give me a call, Shane 0800 88 55 55. I am happy to give a no-obligation, free evaluation of your race. Let me show you how StockRock can fix your problem areas.
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