GOSHEN, Ind. — Six years ago Steven Weaver installed 200 Dual-Chamber Cow (DCC) waterbeds for his milking Holsteins. He has a 280-head dairy herd and runs 130 milk cows in a 200 free-stalls barn.

“We had cement stalls and they were too hard for the cows,” Weaver said. “We put these in to soften it so the cows would like them better, and they did. We think it saves bedding – we don’t bed them very much, once a week with a little hydrated lime and a little dried sawdust.”

Weaver has saved money on bedding and thinks the mats will be long-lasting. The cows like their stalls and it took little time for them to get used to the waterbeds, he said.

“We hardly have any hock troubles, which we did before,” he said. “We just this year put (waterbeds) in another barn we built. We added another 120 stalls and are adding more in the spring.”

The DCC waterbeds are manufactured by Advanced Comfort Technology, Inc. (ACT) in Reedsburg, Wis. Dean Throndsen, president of the company, designed the patented dual-chamber system, seeing that as an improvement over the single-chamber waterbeds that originated in Europe.

“We engaged a belting company because that is what it is, it is conveyor belting,” Throndsen said. “The front chamber is a bit smaller than the back, it creates kind of like a pillow. When the cow goes to laying position, her first movement is dropping to her knees, which is basically the pillow in the front. When the cow goes on her knees, it takes the shock out of the initial descent.”

The benefits are huge, he said. He used the analogy of a patient spending a long time in a hospital bed and the precautions that must be taken to prevent bedsores. “We ask a cow to lay down about 12 to 14 hours a day, two to three hours at a time,” he said.

“She is much like a human. I had a visit with a veterinarian; the cow’s skin makeup and what causes sores in the cow is no different than a human.

“The skin is made up of cells and it breaks down. When it breaks down you’re going to get a sore, so the advantage of the waterbed is that is floats the skin; it takes the pressure.”

The waterbeds are installed on a concrete base, Throndsen said. Concrete maintains a constant 40- to 45-degree temperature.

“So in reality, when you go in the barn in the dead of winter, the waterbed is warm to the touch, in the summer they’re cool to the touch, relative to the rest of the atmosphere,” Throndsen said.

The water is sealed in and leakage is not a problem. Throndsen expects the waterbeds – which have been out for 13 years – to last for 20. They come in varying widths and are 72 inches long from the head to tail of the cow. An approximate price is $200 a stall.

“When I first started in 1999 people told me I was crazy and today, I have fun, I love it,” Throndsen said. “I had a dairyman in Virginia who said it was the best investment he ever made on the farm. I am proud of what we sell and I’m proud of the reputation and what it does for cows.”

ACT is a family company involving Dean and his wife, Audrey, who is the business manager. They admit they need a sense of humor about their product; one link on their website deals with just that.

Too, the company has been mentioned on the “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update segment and National Public Radio’s comic quiz program, “Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me.” The couple have enough confidence in their product that they do not mind the jokes.

For more information, contact ACT, Inc., 343 Wengel Dr., Reedsburg, WI 53959. Phone 208-891-4966 or visit www.advancedcomforttechnology.com or www.dccwaterbeds.com