ising beef cattle on concrete floors
can negatively impact their welfare by increasing joint
swelling and body lesions, as well as abnormalities in
resting behavior and postural changes. We hypothesized
that the addition of rubber mats to concrete pens would
improve beef cattle welfare by improving performance,
health, hygiene, and resting behavior. Forty-eight
crossbred Angus steers were housed in pens of 4 and
randomly assigned to a single flooring treatment: (1)
fully slatted concrete (CON), (2) fully slatted rubber mat
(SLAT), or (3) solid rubber mat (SOLID; 60% of pen
floor) from 36 to 48 wk of age. Weight, ADG, lesions,
gait score, joint swelling, and animal and pen cleanliness
were collected every 2 wk. Behavioral time budgets and
frequency of postural changes (an indicator of floor
traction and comfort) were collected at 0, 6, and 12 wk.
No differences in weight gain or ADG were observed.
Steers on SOLID flooring (0.80 ± 0.08) showed
increased lesions compared to SLAT (0.38 ± 0.08) and
CON (0.37 ± 0.08; both,
P
= 0.05); however, there was
no difference between SLAT and CON. SLAT steers
(1.69 ± 0.04) showed a reduced gait score compared
to SOLID (1.95 ± 0.04) and CON (1.98 ± 0.04; both