Compari̇son in terms of ani̇mal comfort and preference of di̇fferent base materi̇als used in free stall barns

Dairy cattle barns are planned in different forms depending on the moving situation of the animals living inside, the hosting methods and the climatic conditions. In closed-stop shelters suitable for cold climates there is a stall in barns for each animal and the cows stands at these stall as a connected with a rope or chains. In this type of barns, rest, milking, feeding and irrigation of animals are carried out at these stalls reserved for them. In open freestall barns for warm climates, there is a stall in barns for each animal but cows stands freely at these stalls, they are not connected with a rope or chain. In this type of barns, milking, feeding and irrigation of animals are made a separate places planned in barns or in padox. The cows use the planned stall at the resting place just to rest in bed. In this type of barns, since the cows are not connected at the stall they spend on most of their time at the padox and the rest of their times spend on service ways and stalls in barn. For this reason, the stalls are very important element in cattle businesses. In the dairy shelters in our country, since the stall base is usually made of concrete, the animals do not lay on such hard floors and spend most of their time standing up on this floor. However, if the base of the stall is made of soft material, while laytime of cows will increase, the time of standing up will decrease likely to during the day. In this study, the standing and laying times of the cows were determined on different stall materials during the day and infect on milk yield was investigated. The statistical analysis of data obtained as a result of measurements, records and observations during the study period were made. After the preference periods and reasons of cows of the relationship with structural characteristics of different materials were determined. Whether these preferences are statistically different between the effects on milk yield was investigated also. In this study, 5 different base materials were applied in total of 50 stall, including the stall 10 each. One hard plastic (rubber mat), two different types soft plastic (soft foam mat and curly mat) and recreational rubber tile were placed on free stall floors with 4 different application shapes. Then, the most preferred base material was determined using the preference conditions of the different base materials placed on the stall floor via measurements and observations made 24 hours a day for 6 months, and the recorded with cameras placed in the barn and the most preferred base material was identified. In addition, the preference times and usage periods of the 4 different base materials used in the free stall floor were compared with the concrete floor. In the result of the records and observations, the soft foam mat is the most preferred matterial (26%) and concrete is the less preferred matterial (8%) was observed among of 5 different matterials used. KEYWORDS: Freestall, base material, concrete, rubber mats, confor.