Designing Welfare-friendly Housing for Dairy Cows

Abstract

This article attempts to use our available knowledge of how environmental factors impact the dairy cow to create biological thresholds for housing design, which enable her to have adequate time for eating, drinking, socializing and rest. Thresholds for herd and group size, stocking density, pen layout, stall design, ventilation and cooling are discussed to describe a facility for 1,400 dairy cows, housed in groups of 150 cows, milked three times a day through a double 20 parlor in a freestall barn with two-row pens, with stalls sized to accommodate the type of cow using them, with sand bedding, and adequate cooling and access to water and feed.