Livestock Suspended Flooring

Moore Concrete offer a comprehensive range of precast products for housing livestock which has been developed since the late 1970's. This range includes slats, cubicle bases, cubicle end walls, support beams and passage covers. The benefits of slatted housing Precast concrete slatted systems have been used for many decades as an effective means of housing cattle and other livestock. They were initially attractive to livestock farmers in areas where straw was not plentiful. Given that the dung and urine dropped into the tank below the cattle, the resulting slurry could be easily pumped into tankers and then spread onto land using either umbilical or tanker-based systems. The end result is a fully mechanized manure handling system From a development point of view, the initial focus was placed on the production of single slats. However, this has since been superseded by the manufacture of purpose-designed gang slats with bespoke specifications fpr the various categories of livestock. More recently, suspended flooring systems have become more popular in areas where bedding straw availability is not an issue. This is because slatted floor housing systems also offer improvements in cleanliness, due to the escape of the dung and urine down into the tank below. Slatted tanks also come into their own in areas such as collecting yards. IN these instances all the dung and urine falls into the tank below, thereby minimizing run-off problems. Farmers throughout the EU are now subject to non-compliance inspections, courtesy of the current CAP regulations. The frequency of these inspections will, invariably, increase as time passes. As a consequence, suspended flooring systems look set to play an even greater role on livestock farms throughout the UK. From a production point of view, the use of slatted flooring systems offers a number of key benefits. A trial carried out under the control of SAC vets confirmed a higher number of arthritis cases in finishing pigs housed in deep bedded straw compared to those maintained in slatted pens But by far the biggest plus factor concerning slats is the fact that they can help reduce the incidence of hoof-related problems: slurry heel, digital dermatitis – within modern milk production systems – as they allow the slurry to drop away from the stock above at all times. Another benefit of slatted floors is the fact that they are manufactured to a very high standard. This means that they will have a very long, repair-free life.