The best way to ensure that your cows are free from illness and disease is by maintaining their cleanliness. And this often starts with their bedding.

Cows needs to live in a clean environment to protect them from illnesses such as mastitis. A sick cow usually comes with a huge price tag and a loss of yield. But also, sickness can spread through the herd, causing further difficulties.

Dry and clean bedding will contribute to overall cow cleanliness, preventing their coats from being covered in manure and mud.  Along with bedding advice, we have put together a guide of the best practices you can adopt to keep your cows clean!

Find best practices to keeping cows clean below…

Scoring Cleanliness 

If given the choice, cows will choose to lie in clean and dry areas. Therefore, the cleanliness of your cattle’s coat will provide an indicator of their comfort.

Cleanliness scoring is a great way of ensuring your herd remain clean, content, and productive.

The AHDB have put together a score card with pictorial examples to support you in scoring your herd’s cleanliness. Use this information to investigate the causes of dirty cows (score 2), make the necessary changes, and regularly monitor to determine if changes have had the desired effect.

1. Regularly Change Bedding 

Ensuring that your cows are clean is part of good dairy farming practice and ensuring good animal welfare. One of the best ways to achieve this is investing in quality bedding materials and regularly changing.

Our range of cubicle conditioners are designed with your cows cleanliness in mind. Powder Bed for example, offers a unique consistency to ensure a dry and clean environment for your cattle. For the best results, we recommend that you bed down twice a day, using just one large coffee cup amount to cover each cow mat.

By changing bedding frequently, you reduce the risk of infection and keep your cows comfortable and content.

Looking to upgrade your bedding materials? Take a look at our guide to sawdust bedding Vs. alternative options. Alternatively, give our team a call on 01978 854 666, where our team will support with any questions you may have.

2. Maintain Clean Milking Parlour 

The milking parlour should be cleaned once or twice a day, depending on how often it is used. This will, in turn, ensure your herd’s cleanliness.

It is recommended that all surfaces be cleaned frequently to avoid multiplication of pathogens. After each milking, farmers should rise the parlour with water and once a week with a detergent, then disinfect.

You will also need to adopt a cleaning routine for your milking machine, as it is a major source of milk contamination and the cause of high bacterial counts. A simple cleaning and disinfecting routine will eliminate any sort of contamination.

Those using automatic milking system should refer to the specifications of each type of robot. This is because they will have their own cleaning system.

3. Invest in Mats or Mattresses 

Investing in mats or mattresses will play a crucial role in cow cleanliness and overall herd health.

They provide a clean and dry surface for your cows to lie on, reducing direct contact with manure on the barn floor. Topped with sawdust, mats or mattresses will keep their udders, legs, and coats cleaner.

They are also a lot easier to clean and disinfect than concrete floors. High-quality mats and mattresses are durable and will provide a consistent surface that doesn’t degrade quickly. This ensures a clean environment compared to traditional bedding such as sand and straw.

Is it time to replace your mats or mattresses? Take a look at guest blog from Matthew from at Wilson Agri on how to know when it’s time to replace!

4. Regularly Trim Tails

Farmers recommend trimming cow tails frequently, which significantly contributes towards their cleanliness and overall health in many ways.

Long tails can easily become soiled with manure, which can be flicked onto the cow’s udders and legs. By trimming your cow’s tails, you are minimising this transfer of manure and reducing the risk of infections.

It is recommended that you trim tails twice yearly, ensuring cow cleanliness and milk maintains its highest quality. Tools such as Tailwell Tail Trimmer from KiwiKit have been designed to speed up to process of trimming tails of dairy cows.

5. Maintain Clean Walkways and Holding Areas

A crucial step in ensuring your cows stay clean is to maintain clean walkways and holding areas. Ensuring that these areas are clean, will minimise the accumulation of manure, preventing cows from walking through it and spreading it.

Remove all bedding that has fallen onto the walkways and remove debris regularly. Invest in scrapers and ensure that they run frequently. Regularly inspect scraper blades for damage or wear, and replace them as needed.

In addition to maintaining walkways, ensure your holding areas are thoroughly cleaned after each milking, and check that drainage is effective, especially during wet weather.

6. Regular Footbaths  

Footbaths are essential in keeping cows clean and preventing the spread of digital dermatitis. For a footbath to be effective, the disinfectant must be in contact with the skin, and for long enough.

It is important to consider your footbath placement. Position your footbath over a slatted passageway to avoid slurry accumulation. Ensure that the areas before and after a footbath are clean for the bath to be effective.

Ensure a good cow flow to reduce splashing, which conserves detergent and reduces the risk of teat contamination. A steady pace allows longer contact time with the detergent and is less stressful for the cows.

Regularly replenish the bath with a fresh solution, or invest in automated baths. These will refill on a timer or cow-count basis, which is a useful solution for larger herds.

7. Ensure Proper Ventilation 

To reduce the humidity and dampness within the barn, it is important to ensure a good airflow.  Proper ventilation is important year-around and is particularly effective in keeping dairy cows cool in the summer.

Effective ventilation will allow the bedding to dry quickly, thereby improving cleanliness by reducing sweating. By maintaining a dry environment, you will encourage better lying down times, which is likely to improve performance.

8. Invest in Cow Brushes

Concluding our guide to best practices to keeping cows clean is to invest in cow brushes! Whilst these are great for us to watch cows play with, they do come with many benefits.

Cow brushes mean that cows are able to groom themselves. They remove hair, dander, and debris off a cow’s, keeping them cleaner and improving skin health.

Using a cow brush will keep your herd calm and relaxed, and will reduce fly and parasite stress. Ultimately, it is a visible way to promote animal happiness and comfort.

Did you know that we are a distributor of Dairy Spares? We can provide cattle brushes on your next order of our cubicle conditioners. Get in contact with us today!

Do you have questions on how to keep your cattle clean as possible when housed? Get in touch today on 01978 854 666.