A brisket board or pipe is a useful way to control the position of a cow on cubicles, thus reducing the amount of dunging that takes place on cubicles.
The housed period has begun on farms and with that, comes the daily job of scraping and liming cubicles.
A cow can lie down for between 10 to 14 hours/day, spaced out over time – so ensuring cubicles are comfortable for cows to lie on is important.
The liming of cubicles is an important job to prevent mastitis cases during the dry period, with most mastitis cases seen in early lactation picked up during this period.
The liming of cubicles is made more difficult by cows dunging in the bed, although you will never 100% eliminate this, the correct placement of your brisket board can help.
Brisket board
A brisket board or pipe is used to correctly position the cow in the cubicle and prevent her from lying too far forward.
This means that if the cow dungs after standing up, the dung will not end up on the cubicle, but on the passageway.
The position of the brisket board will vary depending on cow type, with Holstein cows requiring more room compared to a crossbred cow.
The board should be placed on the bottom of the bed and the recommended distance from the rear curb of the cubicle is 1.75m (+/- 0.05m depending on cow type).
Reducing the amount of dunging on the cubicle bed will decrease the amount of time you have to scrape cubicles and also reduce the bacterial burden on the beds.
On many farms the brisket board is attached to the cubicle by a bracket, this means that it can be easily adjusted.
If you are finding cows are still dunging on the beds, the board or pipe can be moved back, but it is important that cow comfort is not compromised.