Posted 14 August 2014
As spring rolls around, the cows start to come back to the milking shed after calving.
It is in springtime that many farm races and tracks deteriorate. When the race surface starts to break down, farmers can often feel the hard stones through their gumboots.
In most situations, if the races around the cowshed become boggy, stones will start to appear on the yard of the milking shed, brought through on the cows' hooves. This is a sign that the race is breaking down, and that before long you are likely to have lameness issues.
A good guideline for avoiding up to 90 percent of lameness, is to single out the wet spots on your farm race and apply StockRock to these areas as a minimum. StockRock doesn't wear to form hard stones, instead it breaks up like chalk. When you look down the farm race from the cow shed, identify the boggy areas. These are the areas which should first be cleaned and then covered with StockRock, eliminating the source of stones to be carried onto the milking shed yard, and avoiding lame cows over the coming months.
The first 100m of farm race from the cowshed - include scraping, re-shaping and laying the StockRock - can usually be completed between morning and afternoon milking.
Don't leave it too late. Ring Shane Smith now to come and have a look.
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