The 2011 Catskill Regional Dairy Livestock and Grazing Conference featured a panel discussion with New York State farmers that have installed the Canadian tie stall system designed by Dr. Neil Anderson of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This stall system was designed by researching how cows get up and down on pasture and is composed of several key components working together - and not any one feature. The components are:
- Tailed stall length and width
- Elevated tie rail
- Forward tie rail palcement
- Neck chain length
- Elevated manger (relative to stall bed)
- Stall mattress/mat
- Cow trainer and trainer placement
- Headroom above water bucket
The New York State farmers that participated in this panel discussion included Rob and Darlene Howland of Candor NY, Frank and Mark Albano of Stamford NY and Jim Keator of Davenport NY. A paired observational study conducted by John Conway of the NY Pro Dairy Program on the Albano farm capitalized on a unique circumstance over the last 12 months where cows received the same treatment except what stall they received after calving. Cows in the new stalls have average nearly 6 lbs more milk per day than cows in the old stalls. Recently, Jim Keator reports that since he has implemented the new stall system in December 2010, he had the lowest somatic cell count in over 30 years of dairy farming - 46,000 cells/ml. Economic analysis on the Howland farm, again conducted by John Conway, shows a payback of less than one year. The Howlands have seen a dramatic lowering of involuntary culls and now routinely sell several cows each year for dairy purposes.
The original papers written by Dr Anderson on assessing cow comfort and implementing the new tie stall (and free stall) system can be accessed via the links below:
Assessing cow comfort and behaviorCanadian tie stall system design Canadian free stall design
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