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Comfort mats for
In the comparison it becomes apparent that even in high liveweight segments the bulls are not restricted in their species-typical standing up and laying down behaviour.
About two-thirds of all standing up and laying down movements are negatively affected, because they are painful on hard surfaces (knee drop test!).
On concrete floors the lying phases are less frequent but longer than on rubber floors. Longer lying times indicate that the animals are avoiding standing up and laying down, due to the pain associated with it.
If the pens are partially occupied with animals, it becomes apparent that the fattening bulls prefer the sections covered with rubber. There natural and pain-free laying down and standing up are possible and heat loss through the floor is lower during lying. If the floor is only partially covered, it is recommendable to do it over a larger surface, so that low ranked and weaker animals can also benefit from this.
Irregardless of whether this behaviour is desired or not, it is part of natural behavioural patterns and it appears twice as often on rubber floors (8.8 times per animal and day compared to 4.2 times on concrete). This indicates better slip resistance on rubber mats.
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