What are the rubber flooring effects on dairy production

Rubber matting or cow matress in the stalls first help them not slip on the wet cement. Also it give a cushion effect on the hoof & the joint in the leg which helps in preventing lamness. In the modern dairy industry lamness is one of the most common causes for having to cull cows from the herd. Which in turn causes milk production to drop which in turn effects the amount of money u get when u r paid for the milk they pick up to take to the creamery. You r not paid by the gallon but by the pound. Such as our creamery here in Alaska pays us 23 dollars per hundred with milk weighing 8.5 pound per gallon.

Here r some quick figures for us here at Little Briitain House Dairy for one case of lamness:

Death: $40
Culling: $156
Lost Milk: $40
Milk Discard: $5
Extra Open Days: $36
Farm Labor: $5
Treatment: $27
Total per case Avergae: $309

Locomotion Score 2 = 2.0% milk yeild loss.
Locomotion Score 3 = 4.1% milk yeild loss.
Locomotion Score 4 = 9.3% milk yield loss.
Locomotion Score 5 = 15.2% milk yield loss.

Locomotion Score: 1 Normal; 2 mildly lame; 3 modereately lame; 4 lame; 5 severely lame

Here is a short version of a study done in Sweden on fubber matting for dairy herd:
Concrete is the most commonly used alley flooring in confined dairy herds because of its qualities of construction & ease of cleaning. Nevertheless, the hardness, abrasiveness, & slipperiness of concrete floors have adverse effects on animal well-being & health, & yielding rubber flooring is becoming popular as a way of improving the flooring conditions on walkways. The aim of this study was to investigate preferences of dairy cows for rubber compared with concrete flooring under the conditions of a commercial dairy farm. The study was conducted in an organic dairy herd with free-stall housing. Floor preference was tested on groups of standing cows in a 120-m2 holding pen before milking, & 1 yr later on a 12- x 3-m walkway. The holding pen & the walkway were divided lengthwise into 2 identical sections. Two types of solid rubber mats (soft & extra soft) were tested against solid concrete in the holding pen. Slatted & solid rubber mats were tested against slatted concrete in the walkway. Each floor type was tested over 4 d on the left side & 4 d on the right side of the holding pen & the walkway, respectively. Concrete flooring on both sides of the sections was tested as a control before the testing of different section materials. All observations of the distribution of cows in the sections were made from video recordings captured in association with the afternoon milking. The number of cows on each section was recorded approximately every 7 min in the holding pen, & continuously on the walkway. A significantly higher proportion of cows stood on the side with the soft & extra soft rubber mats (65.1 +/- 2.7 & 69.3 +/- 2.6%, respectively, mean +/- SEM) compared with the control distribution when only the solid concrete was available (50.9 +/- 3.9%). A significantly higher proportion of nonlame cows walked exclusively on the side with the slatted (64.5 +/- 5.4%, d 4) or solid rubber mats (68.2 +/- 5.1%, d 4) compared with controls (28.9 +/- 4.3%). Lame cows within a group of walking cows did not show a higher preference for soft flooring as distinct as nonlame cows (52.7 +/- 6.9 & 59.4 +/- 6.2% for the solid & slatted rubber mats, respectively, at d 4 vs. 40.3 +/- 6.2% for control), presumably because of competition with other, higher ranked cows. It was concluded that the majority of cows preferred to walk & stand on soft rubber rather than on concrete flooring.

I hope that this information will help you,

it affects it because with out the anti slip the cows fall over, hurt themselfs and die, its makes more cows survive, more cows, more milk, more milk, more money