Equipping your farm with cow mats is a significant investment. Whether in tie or free stalls, in alley scraper, waiting rooms or milking parlours, you want the best product in terms of comfort and durability to provide well-being for your animals. And cow comfort is part of a whole to increase milk yield.
The cow must feel confident on a dairy stall mat to get up, lie down and move around inside the barn. An inadequate mat, with a slippery surface, influences food intake, rumination time, longevity, fertility and can even cause leg injuries. Ultimately, it will influence milk dairy production.
Before buying your cow mats, it is important to ask yourself the right questions to make an informed choice based on your needs and reality. Buying and installing non-slip cattle mat requires time and money, so you might as well do it for a long time.
What is the recommended raw material for a good, heavy-duty barn mat?
New, unvulcanised tire rubber.
And what is it exactly? It’s a rubber that has not been previously heated and molded. In addition, with a tire composition that contains high-quality additives, the mat retains all the original components and durability properties. On the other hand, less expensive formulas do not contain these stabilizing agents. As a result, they become more easily brittle when in contact with light and air.
Think car’s tires: you'd never buy recycled rubber tires for such frequent use. It is therefore normal to say that mats made from recycled rubber are not a sustainable solution for the agricultural sector.
Choosing a Huber Technik mat means ensuring proven quality since they only use new, unvulcanized tire rubber.
The location of rubber cow mats
It is important to mention to your representative in which type of stalls the dairy cow mat will be installed.
Tie stall
Since the cow is always in her stall, the mat must have superior firmness and strength to support the weight and constant trampling of the animal. But be careful: firmer doesn't mean lower quality or less comfortable.
The N25 and N33 models from Huber Technik manufacturer are efficient for a tie stall barn. With a non-slip surface and studs under the mat for comfort and flexibility, your animals will be comfortable moving around without fear of injury, even if the surface is wet.
The Geyer & Hosaja Superior 33 model is also a good choice: a latex foam cow mattress in a high-quality rubber case. An innovative product unique on the market that can also be installed in free stalls.
Free stall
For this type of installation, a mattress is an excellent choice. With high-quality latex foam and a premium rubber cover, it’s hard to do better than that. Flexible and with a high penetration depth1, a good bedding for dairy cows will ensure that your cows spend more time lying down.
And unlike the cow waterbed, for example, the animal will not have to undergo a period of adaptation due to instability impression. At Huber Technik, the 8GS cow mat roll is manufactured continuously, without welded joints, which makes installation easier and prevents deformation.
1 A penetration depth indicates the level of compression and flexibility of a mat. The higher the index, the more flexible and comfortable the mat is. Conversely, if the flexibility index is low, the mat will be firmer and less comfortable.
Rubber mats for milking parlour, alley and waiting room
Why put rubber in alleys?
If you have concrete alleys with a smooth or grooved surface, the addition of rubber mats has been shown to decrease the risks of the cow slipping or injuring herself. They feel confident and like the effect of flexibility compared to the hardness of the concrete.
The Geyer & Hosaja 2.7 model is a puzzle-style mat designed for alleys. It is extremely robust, and the surface of the mat is very slip resistant.
Do I need to clean alleys regularly?
It’s important to keep alleys clean to minimize infections, lameness, and other hoof problems in cows.
Concrete is a porous material that absorbs liquids and over the years, it will crumble. If the grooves are too pronounced, it also becomes difficult to clean. Not to mention that disinfecting concrete is more difficult because of its porosity.
Rubber is not an absorbent material. It can be washed regularly without any degradation, even with some disinfectant products. However, poor quality rubber can disintegrate when it’s in contact with fairly strong cleaning products.
Manufacturer's Reliability
There are several new products and brands coming out of Asia. These less expensive products may seem to be of good quality but be careful, you may encounter these following problems: warranties never respected, poor after-sales service, and supply problems. Many of these factories open and close after few years. So yes, you will pay less upfront, but in the end, you will probably have to change your mats in a near future.
Always ask your representative: where are the mats MADE? The location of a head office is not necessarily the same as the factory. Many companies have their products manufactured in different locations and sources of raw material may vary. It makes it more difficult to ensure the traceability and quality of the final product.
At Huber Technik, a world-renowned manufacturer that has specialized in rubber for 100 years, they use 100% new tire rubber. So, it's always the same product with the same consistency. Their cow mats have been manufactured and installed for more than 40 years and since 2015 in Quebec.
The importance of certified cattle stall mats
A certification is like a quality seal affixed to a product. In the world of cow mats, two certifications are important:
1- The DLG certification which comes from an independent German firm in the analysis of agricultural products. It sets high welfare and quality standards for farm animal products. It is a reliable seal of guarantee.
Only serious manufacturers pay to have their products analyzed by these external laboratories. The raw material of Huber Technik mats comes from reliable sources and DLG tests confirm this: they pose no risk due to PAHs2, carcinogenic and toxic molecules. Therefore, there is no transfer of PAHs into the milk or cattle blood.
Geyer & Hosaja, another world-renowned player, has a proven track record of reliability and consistency in their products. Their breeding mats are also all DLG tested and are THE choice for alleys.
2- On the other hand, the DIN 3763 certification standardizes quality standards product (resistance to acids, abrasion, etc.) and defines the criteria to which a comfort mat for dairy cows should meet; the elasticity of the product, the deformation (penetration depth) in mm, non-slip surface, etc.
More questions? Don't hesitate to contact your expert to find out more. You (and your animals) deserve the best!
2PAHs compounds are the result of incomplete combustion processes of organic materials and are found in the majority of low-quality rubber products, whether they are already vulcanized or not.
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