Factors Affecting the Cleanliness of Cattle Housed in Buildings wiith Concrete Slatted Floors.

摘要

From a series of experiments at Grange Research Centre, cattle were cleanest at housing in the autumn,however, within 3 to 4 weeks of housing on concrete slats and fed with a diet of grass silage, cattlewere dirtiest, with the majority of the cattle in category 4 or 5.Cattle tended to be cleaner in the late March, early April period as they shed their winter hair coat.Cattle fed concentrates plus straw were significantly cleaner at slaughter compared to similar cattleoffered grass silage plus concentrates.Cattle housed indoor on slats during the summer were cleaner than cattle on similar diet andaccommodation during the winter.High dry matter silage produced cleaner cattle than did low dry matter silages.Back and tail clipping of cattle at the commencement of the winter finishing period did not have anypositive effect on cleanliness score or liveweight gain when the cattle were accommodated in wellventilated slatted floor houses.A survey of 19 farms specialising in finishing cattle failed to show any correlation between stockingdensity, solid floor area or level of concentrate feeding on the cleanliness of finishing cattle.A survey of 36 finishing units, designated as producers of "clean" or "dirty" cattle at slaughter, foundthat units with clean cattle had houses which were in general well ventilated, had A-type roofs with anopen ridge outlet and in general the grass silage offered was a higher dry matter. In contrast, finishingunits with dirty cattle tended to be poorly ventilated and the grass silage offered had a lower drymatter.Overall in the survey cattle cleanliness score was not affected by stocking density (2.0m 2 3.8m 2) orthe proportion of solid floor area in the pen.Cattle accommodated on gang slats were dirtier than those accommodated on single slats.