FECAL CONTAMINATION OF THE LYING AREA FOR DAIRY-COWS IN DIFFERENT HOUSING SYSTEMS

3The hygienic function of a housing system for dairy cows is an import ant factor for cleanliness and animal welfare. Extensive dirtiness may cause health problems, reduced milk quality and increased work load. In this study, 60 tie-stalls, 56 cubicles and 16 feeding cubicles in t he same herd were compared as to hygienic function, i.e. how often can different types of lying areas for dairy cows be expected to be conta minated by faeces? On five days, before morning and afternoon stable w ork, stalls, cubicles and feeding cubicles were observed and those con taminated with faeces were recorded. The feeding cubicles were found t o be the least contaminated lying area followed by cubicles and tie-st alls. Primiparous cows in tie-stalls contaminated their lying area sev erely while cubicles of primiparous cows were very seldom contaminated . Multiparous cows in cubicles contaminated the lying area while lying , which gave nearly the same contamination level in the morning observ ation as those in tie-stalls. The high cleanliness of the feeding cubi cles was attributed to the concentrates being distributed from an auto matic dispenser in the alley, motivating the cows to leave the feeding -cubicle for concentrate feeding together with other reasons to leave the feeding-cubicle either voluntarily or involuntarily and thus, defe cation occurred more often in the alley.