(JakMats Laid In Winter 2010)

5,472,000 hoves later...

“There is no natural substance that would maintain the integrity like JakMatDairy, especially at the entry point”

Unstable and muddy races have negative effects on the operation of dairy farms.

In Ryan O’Sullivan’s case (operating 1200 cows close to Fairlie) in particular, the cow flow into and out of the milking shed was interrupted.

The main problem area was the transition from concrete to race, where potholes were building in wet weather making cows reluctant to step onto the race. Due to jammed exit areas milking had to be interrupted to push the cows out of the shed, resulting in decreased milking efficiency.

This drove Ryan to lay down a geotechnical product called JakMat Dairy onto his race. This honeycomb cell provides races with additional stability and improved drainage. Ryan laid the product down together with his staff, covering 150m2 in the transition zone from concrete to race.

Today, the entry and exit area of the milking shed is a maintenance free area for Ryan. What used to be a headache has now become an area that he hasn’t touched for the past 18 months and one that he is not planning to touch for years to come.

Compared with this, he is still spending time and money on the adjacent 60m race which he hasn’t covered with JakMat. He estimates the cost for this to be around $2,000 a year ($1,500 on surface scraping $500 on maintenance & material). With stabilised races Ryan’s cows have become much more confident to go into and out of the milking shed, with no interruptions to milking as the cows don’t need to be pushed along to keep them moving as before. This decreases stress levels of both staff and animals but also improves the cow flow and leads to higher milking efficiency.

Contact us to discuss how JakMat can work for you.