A new method for making slippery cowshed floors anti-slip has been launched onto the market under the name of AGROGRIP. Bel-Route b.v.b.a. in Belgium and Klaruw b.v. in the Netherlands have already had decades of experience in making slippery concrete and the asphalt pavements of roads, airports, and industrial and cowshed floors anti-slip. We roughen roads and airport runways etc. in countries such as England, Ireland, the Channel Islands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Since 1975, we have roughened cowshed floors in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and England.

Causes of slipperiness:
Because cowshed floors are walked on intensively and sometimes a dung scraper is scraped across the floor, the surface becomes polished. Dependent on the time that cows are housed on the floor and the frequency with which the dung scraper is scraped across the floor, the floor will become slippery. This often occurs after 3 to 5 years.

Problems:
In their natural environment, cows walk on relatively soft ground.When walked on, the ground deforms to the shape of the bottom of the claws. This gives the cow sufficient grip and it will not easily slip and fall. However, on the hard cowshed floors that do not deform, the cow's claws are forced to deform to the shape of the floor. In addition to other causes, this often leads to deformities to claws and joints. Moreover, if the floor is also slippery, the cow is continuously walking on a sort of ice rink. This causes it to become tense and stiff, which increases the chance of it slipping and falling.

Economic loss:
Stockbreeders know that cows move badly on a slippery floor. This means that it is more difficult to recognise when the cow is on heat and therefore the time between calves will increase. Deformities to the claws have to be treated more often. In the worst case, a cow will fall and break a leg. Often this happens to the cows that produce the highest volume of milk. It can sometimes take a long time before the same level of milk production is reached once more.  

The roughening methods that we use:

On continuous floors:

• Grit blasting (possibly wet), with broken blast-furnace slag, glass beads, aluminium oxide, etc.
• Shot-blasting, with steel shot or broken steel shot.
• Flame annealing, with an acetylene burner or hot-air lance
• Strip milling, with carbide or metal mills
• Bush hammering, with lightly hammering bits

On grating floors:

• Strip milling, with carbide or metal cutters
• Grit blasting (possibly wet), with broken
  blast-furnace slag, glass beads, aluminium oxide, etc.
• Milling with a diamond mill

Because the edges of the grating beams break off if a strip mill is used for roughening, we started to use a narrow mill to only roughen the middle of the beam.The disadvantage of this, however, is that production capacity is low, which results in a high price. Furthermore, urine remains on the surface because a channel is created in the middle of the beam.

Machine:
The milling machine is 600 mm wide, 1200 mm long and 1000 mm high. It weighs 400 kg. The diamond mill itself is 250 mm wide. The working speed can be continuously adjusted because of the hydrostatic drive.

Treatment:
Transversely to the grating beams, therefore in the longitudinal direction of the gangways, grooves are be milled from 0 - 2 mm deep, 3,5 mm wide and with 2,5 mm between the grooves. The result of the treatment is a corduroy effect.Even if the grating floor is not very flat, it is possible to treat the majority of the grating beams with this diamond mill. This machine can be used on more or less all of the floor area on which the cows can walk.