Farmers often use flood-wash on these outdoor systems with water recycled from the lagoons and some are using both flood-wash and automatic scrapers.
Care has to be taken to have the right fall down the length of the scrapeway with around 3% thought to be ideal. But care also needs to be taken to ensure the scrapeway is level acrosswise so that the water doesn’t just run down one side of the passage and miss the slurry on the rest of it.
The bedding on the cubicles is likely to be mats or mattresses only rather than being topped with sawdust or straw that will get washed or blown away with rainfall and wind.
Shelter is essential for the system to work well otherwise cows will huddle together in a corner during bouts of bad weather rather than lie down which could cause feet problems and other animal health issues.
