Dairy cows spend up to 14 hours per day lying down, making cubicle design one of the most important determinants of welfare in housed dairy systems.
Cubicle design directly determines whether cows can adopt natural lying postures and get up and down without injury or hesitation. Poorly designed cubicles cause hock injuries, knee injuries, and reduced lying time that impairs health and welfare. Regular assessment of cubicle usage, refusal rates, and cow injury scoring enables identification and correction of design problems before chronic welfare harm develops.