Wisconsin Dairy News: Happy Cows

“A really happy cow is either eating, or laying down, or in the milking parlor being milked. And one of the things we’ve done with the university – The Dairyland Initiative, is look at how many hours a day that our cows lay down, and doing things that we can do to improve and make that number larger,” said Breunig. Dr. Nigel Cook, Director of the Dairyland Initiative, has been working for a decade to help dairy farmers improve housing conditions to make cows more comfortable.“It was really a vehicle to make sure producers that wanted to build a facility had the information they needed to do the best possible job,” said Dr. Cook.A recent study focused on easing cow stress and creating a comfortable resting place. If a cow is resting, she’s ruminating and producing milk. The study also compared different bedding materials and found that cows laying on sand are more comfortable and rest longer.