Dirty cubicles could be a sign that the brisket boards within your cubicle shed are incorrectly positioned.
During the housed period, keeping cubicles as clean as possible is important for a number of reasons, but the most crucial reason being that doing so will keep the bacteria load low when cows are dry.
Cows for the most part are now dry, and the focus should be on getting them into the next lactation without picking up a clinical case of mastitis or a cell count issue.
Hygiene
Cows lie down for a significant amount of time each day – between 10-12 hours spaced out throughout the day. As a result of this, when they are housed, they require a comfortable cubicle bed with a low bacterial load.
This is generally achieved by scraping and liming cubicles on a daily basis.
No matter how well positioned your brisket board or pipe is, dung will be present on the cubicle; but by having it correctly positioned, you can greatly reduce the amount.
Generally cows will dung after they stand, so if they are standing/lying too far forward on the cubicle, it will result in them dunging on the cubicle, rather than the passageway.
However, there is a fine line between giving too much space, and not enough space – having it positioned too far forward will result in the cows not being able to lie on the cubicles properly.
This may mean that some of their body is lying in the passageway rather than completely on the cubicle.
Brisket boards
Brisket boards, although just a simple pipe or board that is positioned at the front of the cubicle, do have a very important role to play.
The board or pipe should be positioned 1.75m (+/- 0.05m depending on cow type) from the bottom of the bed.
In most cases, they can be easily adjusted when needs be, can be added if required.
Some level of dunging on the bed is to be expected – but if you believe it to be excess, you should have a look at the cows when they are lying on the cubicle beds.
It should be easy to see if the cows are too far forward, and you can then make adjustments to the location of the brisket board.