The Rural Voice, 1988-10, Page 36BEDDING DOWN THE DAIRY PRINCESS
A Look at the Latest Trends in Stall Flooring
T
by Dee Kramer
John Hambly with Gwi[limdale Regal Jude, who reclines on a cow cushion. Jude was
bred that morning to Quality Challenger by ET. John. 20, is a partner with his father
in Gwillirndale Farms, Bradford. They milk 60 cows.
he state bed in Windsor Castle
is set aside for those occasions
when royal business must be
conducted from the enormous state
bedroom. It is a four-poster bed
framed by green canopies tied up with
silver tassel and gold filigree sweeping
up into a huge gold Icaf crown. It
looks extremely uncomfortable.
This is not the kind of bedding that
a concerned dairyman would choose
for any of his purebred dairy princes-
ses. What a dairyman wants is an
improvement on the hard, uncomfor-
table, concrete bed that's cold and
doesn't absorb moisture. He wants
to avoid a bed that uses piles of straw
which get into the slurry, beds that
need to be remade all the time because
the cow insists on making herself a
nest. Most of all, he wants to avoid
bedding that leaves uncovered patches
which get wet, leading to the final dis-
aster — she can slip and hurt herself.
A dairyman wants a soft, comfor-
table bed for his princess, one that is
dry and hygienic, slip -resistant, and
insulated. A bed where only a small
amount of litter is necessary, which is
easy to clean and disinfect and, most
of all, because beds for royalty are
usually expensive, a durable bed.
Help is on the way. Floor cover-
ings that meet at least some of these
criteria are now the rage. Some of
your options are astroturf, rubber
mats, indoor -outdoor carpeting, and
the creme de la creme of cow broad-
loom, the layered dairy cow cushion.
ASTROTURF
This is the stuff that football
players, who weigh as much as cows,
play football on. You'd think that
because it was developed for humans,
it wouldn't be right for cows — and
you'd be right. The delicate little
hooves of dairy princesses tend to
squash the living (or plastic) daylights
out of the little pieces of "grass," and
very soon all that is left is the backing.
As for keeping her warm, you might
as well save your money.
RUBBER MATTING
Now this is popular with farmers,
but when the cows are given the op-
tions, it's not their choice. Longevity
is rubber's greatest advantage. Once
you've got it in, it's likely to outlast
you, but the installation is not a piece
of cake. If you can imagine slicing
your way through hundreds of yards
of car tire, you can imagine the work
involved in installing rubber matting.
And once it's in, you won't nec-
essarily have a happy princess. This
stuff is slippery. If you remember
Grandma slipping on the rubber mat
when she got out of the bath, you can
see your princess doing the same.
And it also lets her feet get cold; rub-
ber is not much warmer than the con-
crete under it, and that is where all her
body heat goes. She'll be wanting
plenty of bedding to keep her warm.
OUTDOOR CARPETING
We've skipped the part about
34 THE RURAL VOICE