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In New Zealand it is increasingly common practice for farmers to remove cows from pasture and crops for periods of the day, as a mitigation strategy to reduce nitrate leaching. There are no rules governing the type of ‘stand-off’ system used, and as a result farmers may select stand-off system based on cost. There is limited evidence from New Zealand regarding how different stand-off pad surfaces may impact on the welfare of dairy cows. An experiment was conducted in Canterbury, New Zealand between June and August 2017 to investigate the effects of different stand-off pad surface types on aspects of dairy cow welfare. One hundred and sixty multiparous, non-lactating, pregnant Friesian x Jersey cows were blocked and assigned to five treatments within a winter system. All treatment groups grazed fodder beet in situ following supplement feeding on a feed pad. The stand-off pad treatments were: no stand-off (control); stand off on a woodchip pad for 16 hr/day (woodchip); Stand-off on a stones for 16 h/day (stones); stand-off on sand for 16 h/day (sand) stand off on geotextile carpet for 16 h/day (carpet). Welfare requirements for lameness and nutrition were met by all surface types, though some surfaces performed better than others with regards body condition score gain. The average hours lying per 24 hrs was greater than 8 hours for all surfaces except sand, however, there were cows in every group that did not achieve 8hrs or more each day. Surface type had an effect on average lying time (P

Removing cows off pasture to a stand-off area is becoming a common practice in New Zealand to mitigate nitrate leaching, particularly in winter. However, limited data is available on how standoff pad surface materials effect cow’s welfare and behaviour. An experiment was conducted over four weeks during winter to investigate the effect of different surface types on dairy cow lying behaviour, cleanliness and lameness scores, social interactions within the herd, cow’s intake and utilization and standoff pad temperatures (C0) and moisture (%). The trial consisted of 250 kiwi-cross pregnant non- lactating dairy cows and were blocked and assigned to three feeding and stand-off treatments: grazed fodder beet in situ and stayed in the paddock for 24 hours (control); fed harvested fodder beet bulb in the paddock for six-seven hours (8:30h-15:00h) then moved to a standoff pad with a surface of woodchip (harvested); grazed fodder beet in situ for six-seven hours (8:30h-15:00h) then moved to a standoff pad with a surface of woodchip (grazed). Surface type had no effect on lying (averaging 10.35 hours/day) with 95.5% of cows lying for more than eight hours and only 0.26% of cows lying for less than five hours. Surface type also had no effect on lameness (average score of 0.06) and cleanliness (average score of 0.96) scores. Current studies show a slight or no effect for surface type on cow welfare and behaviour during winter. The significance of the results could be improved if the study was conducted over a longer period over the winter to reduce inconsistencies.