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More milk; from contented cows
Topic Started: Mar 19 2008, 05:39 AM (158 Views)
big al
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Bull-Carp
Waterbeds keep cows udderly content in Geauga County
Geauga farmer reports milk is up 20%
Monday, March 17, 2008
John Horton
Plain Dealer Reporter

Auburn Township - Happy cows produce more milk. That's why Bill Timmons put waterbeds in his barn.

Go ahead, get the chuckle out of the way. Timmons expects a few laughs over the creature comforts now extended to his herd. The Geauga County farmer installed 200 of the squishy mattresses in the bovine boudoir. Spent nearly $40,000 doing it, too.

Crazy? Far from it. The black-and-white Holsteins love the amenities - so much so, they've already started paying Timmons back.

Daily milk production jumped more than 20 percent after just two weeks of relaxed reclining in the new five-star accommodations, Timmons reports. Apparently, the cows adhere to a certain you-scratch-my-back-and-I'll-scratch-yours philosophy.

"You take care of them," Timmons said, "and they'll take care of you."

Timmons caught a rising wave in dairy decor. At this point, he's one of the first Northeast Ohio farmers to invest in the bedding, which reached the United States nearly a decade ago after debuting in Europe.

An estimated 150,000 of the beds now slosh around the country, according to Dean Throndsen, owner of Advanced Comfort Technology, the lone North American producer of the beds.

Several thousand of those can be found in the eastern half of Ohio.

Each waterbed - slightly smaller than a full mattress, though without a headboard - holds 14 gallons of water within a tough rubber hide. The liquid cushions a lounging cow; in essence, the 1,500-pound animal blissfully floats atop inches of water.

That's ideal, because a prone cow's a productive cow, said John Smith, a dairy and animal comfort specialist with the Ohio State University Extension. Lying down helps a cow better digest its food and increases blood flow around the udder, stimulating milk-making.

Smith said a cow should spend 12 to 14 hours a day on its side. He estimated that only one in 20 farmers provides comfortable enough stalls to entice a cow to flop down, chew its cud and rest the day away.

The trend's toward pampering, though. "A lot of people are taking the idea to heart," he said.

Timmons included.

Until a couple of weeks ago, the fifth-generation farmer lodged the cows in an old barn on the 85-acre farm. The animals slept on beds of sawdust, shredded newspapers or hay made up on a concrete floor. Timmons said the cows spent many hours on their feet.

"We did the best with what we had," he said, "but it couldn't have been too comfortable."

He and his wife, Barb, decided they needed to either upgrade or leave farming. They sank $1 million into a new barn and milking parlor along Munn Road. Cow comfort rules in the new setup, right down to the waterbeds that stretch out in eight rows of 25.

On a recent morning, the cows - fresh off a milking - seemed utterly content in their surroundings. Aside from a few chomping on feed, every animal claimed a watery bed.

Research shows that the mattresses help keep the cows healthy, limiting hock swelling and knee and thigh scratches, said Temple Grandin, an animal-welfare expert and professor at Colorado State University. Grandin admitted being surprised by the results.

"When we first started doing our study, we thought it was a joke," Grandin said of the waterbeds. "Then we saw the data. They work. If I built a dairy today, I'd put them in."

Timmons expects milk production to continue to rise as the cows adjust and settle in. His goal is for the herd to average 85 pounds of milk per cow per day; currently, the average is around 63 pounds. He intends to milk more cows, too, going from 140 to 200.

Maybe by then, he will look to upgrade his own mattress. "I've never slept in a waterbed," Timmons said. For now, though, he will rest easy, knowing his cows do.

Source: Waterbeds keep cows udderly content in Geauga County

Big Al
Location: Western PA

"jesu, der simcha fun der man's farlangen."
-bachophile
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T3h B34r
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Junior Carp
Ai nevar sleepz in wat3rb3dz. :(
O hai. I can haz big dinnerz?

If you can't eat it or screw it, piss on it and walk away. (and leave big p00pz!)

The Great Pyrenees
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Quote:
 
On a recent morning, the cows - fresh off a milking - seemed utterly content in their surroundings.


Oh that was a bad one.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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sarah_blueparrot
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Fulla-Carp
I wonder who thought of that first? And how strong must the materiel be to cope with a heavy cow? I like cows. They smell nice.
Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.

- Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
sarah_blueparrot
Mar 19 2008, 10:28 AM
I wonder who thought of that first? And how strong must the materiel be to cope with a heavy cow? I like cows. They smell nice.

I was just thinking that. The material must be pretty strong to deal with their hooves and other outdoor hazards, too. And is it one big water mattress or as Ted Stevens would say, is it a series of tubes?

"See, most waterbeds are annoying because you get in them and they have a lot of waves. I got this one on special order here that uses water tubes, and so therefore it has no waves."
"Why didn't you just get a regular mattress... that doesn't have waves?"
"...............this mattress doesn't have waves."

And I agree, cows do smell nice.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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LadyElton
Fulla-Carp
Too many waves and you'd get a milkshake. :D :leaving:
Hilary aka LadyElton
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Aqua Letifer
Mar 19 2008, 11:38 AM


And I agree, cows do smell nice.

Posted Image
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
:lol:
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
We watched "Temple Grandin" last night, a movie about the woman who pioneered this technology. GeorgeK highly recommended it last year, and I completely concur -- a really stunning and challenging movie -- well worth watching. In fact, see it!
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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Optimistic
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HOLY CARP!!!
Ooh, that´s exactly what I thought of when I was reading this, IT! I agree, a very, very interesting movie. I had never heard of it before. I saw it on tv down HERE, oddly enough.

I think these animal research projects are so interesting. Cows. You´d think we have them all figured out, and then they go and surprise us by showing us how they like to travel in circles, and prefer to recline on water beds!

Yay for animal handling and production research that doesn´t involve injecting hormones and such.
PHOTOS

I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week, sometimes, to make it up.
- Mark Twain


We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T. S. Eliot
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brenda
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..............
Cow comfort is very important. I served on a dairy initiative team for over five years for a local farm family. I learned all kinds of things from my fellow team members.
“Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them.”
~A.A. Milne
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ivorythumper
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I am so adjective that I verb nouns!
Optimistic
Jul 17 2011, 02:08 PM
Ooh, that´s exactly what I thought of when I was reading this, IT! I agree, a very, very interesting movie. I had never heard of it before. I saw it on tv down HERE, oddly enough.

I think these animal research projects are so interesting. Cows. You´d think we have them all figured out, and then they go and surprise us by showing us how they like to travel in circles, and prefer to recline on water beds!

Yay for animal handling and production research that doesn´t involve injecting hormones and such.
I thought the most interesting part was her emotional detachment from them -- they are destined for the slaughterhouse, that is the only reason we have them -- but her profound sense of respect for life. "just because nature is cruel, doesn't mean we have to be". Very interesting.
The dogma lives loudly within me.
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