COW HEAD LOCK

Use headlocks in free stall barns
Dairy cows need many routine treatments and check-ups to stay productive and healthy. In conventional barns (tie-stall & stanchion), this intensive management is relatively easy. In freestall barns, with cows “on the loose”, it can become a challenge to find individual cows and treat them. Installing and using headlocks (self-locking headgates) can be a profitable way to solve this problem!

Animal handling
With intensive management, each cow may need individual attention for important check-ups or treatments up to 50 times per lactation cycle. Headlocks make it easy to identify animals and make it possible to carry out the work safely and efficiently. Without headlocks, animals are “on the loose”, and need to be located and identified. The animals then need to be separated from their group and moved to a central pen. After the treatment or checkup is finished, the animals need to be re-sorted and moved back to their original pens. When there are headlocks in the animals’ regular pens, the animals can restrain themselves, they are presented for easy identification and they do not need to be moved away from their pens. Headlocks can save a total of about 133 hrs/yr in a herd of 125 cows and replacements by reducing this kind of routine animal handling.

Feed intake and milk production
Some studies have been interpreted to mean that cows eat less feed when using headlocks as compared to postand- rail feed barriers. However, other research suggests that what may look like decreased feed intake actually is decreased feedout loss, since cows restrained in headlocks are less able to toss and drop feed into the scrape alley.