Why are these cows not lying in their new beds?

Article by our CowSignals Master trainer Wolfgang Sappl, https://bit.ly/2viot8b

I visited this farmer near the border or Austria. He is transforming his stanchion barn into a freestall barn. It is still under contruction and since May the cows are in a part of the new barn. In the old barn the youngstock was on slatted floors with rubber and the cows on rubber mats. Now, he is using horse manure and fresh bailey straw. The beds are very soft and the farmer measured about 3 more degrees in the bedding than in the rubber covered walkways.

It's an organic farm with 26 milking cows and beds for 25 cows. However, only 15 cows are resting in the beds. Why won't these cows rest in their new beds?

PROBLEMS

The cows are now standing too long. More than 30% have hoof problems, they are very dirty and there are problems with a high cell yield.

The farmer is very upset and I hope we can help him change things around!

SOME MORE DETAILS

• The farmer tried to tie the cows to the beds, without good results
• The width of the boxes is 117 cm and in my opinion the brisket board is a bit to close for cows to lie down straight. I recommended to put away the brisket board on one side, to see if that would mke a difference.
• In the photo a lot of the cows are lying at the outside walkway, where it's windy and everything smells fresh
• The ration is changing very often to fresh grass and grass-silage, depensing on the weather.
• The noise of the construction might cause problems as well, there's a lot of varation in the herd between nervous and calm cows.

PLEASE LET US KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS, THEY ARE VERY WELCOME!

More pictures: https://bit.ly/2viot8b