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Like almost every saleyard in Australia the Camperdown Saleyards have experienced cattle in their yards with sore feet. Along with the increasing pressure from animal welfare groups the yards owner Corangamite Shire Council started to look for surfacing options that would suit their application.

After the success of the recent installation of soft-fall matting at the neighbouring Council’s yards of Warrnambool, Camperdown management visited the facility to learn the ability of the RPS SureFoot® matting.

Within a short period of time RPS was contacted and a trial in a high risk area within the yards was installed. The RPS SureFoot® Mat provided immediate improvements and a plan was put in place to surface all selling pens.
 

Crossfit Gym Townsville is part of one of Australia’s fastest growing gymnasium groups which offers a unique training regime by constantly varying the workout schedule.

Like any successful business maintaining customer satisfaction is imperative and for gyms its’ ensuring people are comfortable and the equipment is in good nick. As part of achieving this, a good quality floor is necessary.

Through the CrossFit network Townsville learnt where others had installed a surface that provided exceptional protection and had shown great durability after years of service.

 

George & Dianne Wade had a problem in their dairy farm on their milking platform where the larger cows kept pushing the younger cattle and causing them to slip over. This caused ongoing injuries to the smaller animals with an abundance of hip & pelvis breaks, and consequently the loss of heifers during the mornings’ milking.

The hatched concrete surface just wasn`t working & the Wade’s knew they had a serious problem so began looking around for alternative surfaces. George had heard about the RPS ‘SureFoot®’ Mat, but needed to be convinced that it actually worked.
 

At the beginning of the 2010 AFL football season the Gippsland Power Football Club moved into their long awaited new clubrooms & indoor training facility.

Incorporated in this facility’s design is an indoor training area of approximately 740m2 and clubrooms of 260m2 which includes medical & locker rooms, a theatre and offices.

As part of the design it was imperative that the building furnishings used were of a high quality and preferably in the building colour scheme. The choice of flooring was no different, but since it was going to be under heavy traffic the club needed to ensure it would be durable enough to withstand the activities of the players.
 

To produce a Premium grade of meat & to be at the forefront of the industry Greenhams Abattoirs committed to becoming MSA (Meat Standards Australia) accredited about 2 years ago. In order to attain this level of recognition Greenhams identified the reasons why they weren’t operating to this level which included an unacceptable Dark Cutting of meat between 20% to 25%.

Greenhams identified that the ‘Dark Cutting’ was associated with animals being stressed and not warm nor comfortable on the current flooring. Learning about the RPS SureFoot® Cattle mat from Page’s Transport (a local livestock carrier) Greenhams initially installed the mats in 6 pens and a laneway as a trial.

After many years of ‘wear & tear’ to the existing floor of the busiest Gymnasium in Tasmania, Health & Fitness World chose Gecko to provide a NEW rubber surface in a variety of areas of their gymnasium.

The initial concern was to source a new rubber floor that was suitable in a various applications. Gymnasium Manager, Karen understood it would require a specialist to provide a surface solution that would be versatile enough to cover the varying extremities of a gymnasiums normal operating conditions.
 

About 3 years ago the Cooks had a new concrete floor laid in their dairy and learnt very quickly that it was far too smooth causing their dairy cows to slip. Over the next 2 years they lost 6 milking cows which was both upsetting and costly each valued at $1,500. Combined with the loss of milk production of $3,000 per head (6,000 litres p.a. x $0.50 per litre) the Cooks valued this at a total herd loss of $27,000 for the 2 years (not including lost future lactations).

The Cooks looked around for solutions to their problem and initially could only find concrete etching or grinding, used conveyor belting which was just as slippery as the concrete, and some other rubber matting of lesser quality. Finally after seeing an RPS SureFoot® Cattle mat advertisement in the Land newspaper they made contact.

Like many farming properties around the country Steve had an ongoing problem around his water troughs.

Over a period of time and especially during the winter months stock would create wear spots around the troughs, feed pads and dairy entrances & exits. As the wear spots got deeper the animal would pug and become muddy which created a problem with dairy cows when their udders became contaminated and consequently increasing the opportunity for bacteria growth. In these types of conditions the animals have a greater chance of slipping over and become more tired.
Steve learnt of RPS’ Agri-Ground Cell® and enquired whether its application on his farm would be suitable.
 

Inverell Shire Council’s sale yards which was the first ISO 9000 Accredited sale yard in NSW identified the need to implement a flooring system for improved animal welfare.

In early 2008 the owners and agents became concerned about cattle slipping over in the livestock facility so they looked at several possible solutions. The critical places where the animals were slipping over was on exiting the sale pens & in particular the corners and the weighing area. Over the years these hotspots have contributed to valuable animals being downgraded.
 

Like many other saleyards Mount Gambier Livestock Exchange understands how a SOFT floor can have a huge influence on the condition of saleyard stock. Particularly when you are attracting store cattle it’s important for the buyers to support a yard that has a surface that helps prevent animal lameness.

For the past 2 years Mt Gambier has been trialling several alternative products, but found that most were either slippery or were too expensive. Some yards use sawdust but that was not an option for Mt Gambier as it often retains harmful bacteria and creates a mess and a lot of work for yard staff.
 

Page Livestock Transport has a contract to cart cattle from Tasmanian feedlots to abattoirs throughout the state. As the cattle spend up to 130 days in the feedlots they develop soft hooves and when they were transported it lead to foot soreness. The consequences being animals lose their optimum condition & become downgraded in the abattoir.

Pages’ trialed many surface materials including sawdust which was messy, difficult to keep clean and overall wasn’t solving their problem. They knew the importance to their customers to find a solution as it was continually costing with the loss of meat quality.
 

An upgrade to Scone’s Saleyards was officially endorsed by the Upper Hunter Shire Council late last year giving the project the green light.

Many improvements to the facility will support the growing needs of the regions beef including the installation of soft flooring.

The saleyards committee trialed an area in the drafting yards with RPS’ SureFoot® Mat with the intent to increase safety for the agents and reduce bruising of the cattle. After the success of the matting trial, they decided to use the rubber mats in the other drafting yards.

Other than the drafting yards much of Scone’s saleyard has dirt flooring. This provides other problems particularly in the winter months when the surface gets wet and boggy. RPS will also trial an alternate surfacing solution for these areas in the coming months.
 

The Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre is unique in its construction & layout. It was one of very few centres remaining with a dirt floor which requires increased maintenance over the more popular ‘hard’ surface floors. On an average sale day they would sell anywhere between 2,500 to 3,000 head of cattle. The animals are sold in a ‘ring’ or ‘amphitheatre’ environment where they are held for about 30 seconds for the bidding and then sent on into the ‘flow through system’.

Wagga management spent more than a year searching for a surface solution, but couldn’t find anything that would provide similar ‘grip’ properties to the earth floor, but without the mess & maintenance. Concrete was just out of the question. After almost giving up on looking for a solution, they one day they came across the RPS SureFoot® Cattle mat at a local field day.
 

Over the past few years the Warrnambool Livestock Exchange yard’s surface had deteriorated to a poor standard and some feedlot buyers weren’t going there any more because of the increasing problem of foot soreness and general welfare conditions for the cattle.

RPS approached the Saleyards owner Warrnambool City Council and set up a trial area in a slippery spot of the yard. The RPS SureFoot® Mat was installed and the results were immediate, the mat worked . . . . . . . . and the cattle weren’t slipping over like they were before. From the success of this trial the Council then decided rubber flooring was the way to progress.