Farm roadways have a vital role to play on grass-based dairy farms because well designed and laid out roadways allow for the maximum benefit to be achieved from grass.

But what could your cows be telling you is wrong with the current design or construction of your roadway?

Remember that roadway was built for your cows and they should be the ones to show if they are comfortable or happy.

Farm roadways

Although the roadway may appear to be in good order and getting cows to where they need to go, if you look a little closer, examine what can you see.

E.g., if the cows walk in single file in areas of the roadway, there could likely be an issue with the surface.

The surface may be too hard or have a large number of sharp objects that are causing pain or injury to the cows when walking.

So if this is occurring on your farm roadways, you may need to look at improving the surface or finding a walk to remove or reduce the presence of sharp objects underfoot.

Old astroturf can be used in these situations to help spread the cows over the full width of the roadway surface.

Another sign could be cows stopping or slowing down when passing a certain area on the roadway. Again this could be caused by them not liking the surface or as it is near the roadway, the cows may be unsure or scared.

This could be a very simple fix by just removing whatever the object is from their sight or fixing the roadway surface in this area.

Observation

There could be a number of other things that are causing issues on roadways; what is important that you make note and look to make changes.

They could be as simple as putting in another entrance/exit to a paddock to improve cow flow or moving a water trough that causes the cows to stop.

Farm roadways need to effective and efficient, if cows are stopping, slow moving or moving too fast, they are not effective or efficient.

Poor surfaces may also be increasing the number of lameness cases on the farm and this can not only be expensive to treat – but it is also an animal welfare issue.