We enjoy sharing farm life

[16.06.2014]

Cow Track Laying

Extending of our Comfy Cow Tracks

A cow lives on her feet for most of the time and we take foot care very seriously. They are heavy creatures with a relatively small hoof to take the weight.
Barry, Phil, Richard and Raido regularly give the herd a pedicure to keep hooves neat and in good order.
There are some points of heavy wear on popular routes between our fields and the parlour. Here the ground can become uneven, stones may appear and in wet weather it  can become poached and slippy. The cows find this uncomfortable and it leads to damage to a wider area of grass. We invest in an on going cow track maintenance programme and here you can see a new track being created this morning in the our back pasture.
First the top soil is taken off, hard core is laid and topped with compacted smooth, round stone, which in turn is topped with wood chippings. These weather very well and give a long life, comfy walking surface. We top the track with more woodchip every year and our cows move very well on them.
Compassion in World Farming are keen to see attention to good cow foot care on dairy farms.

 

Caroline Bell