Since cows are often moved off a pasture during wet weather, four alternative surfaces were examined in terms of cow lying behaviour, body weight, dirtiness, locomotion, and fecal concentrations of stress-induced hormones. Thirty-two non-lactating Friesian cows housed in groups of four on either a specially constructed wood chip pad, a concrete yard, a gravel-surfaced farm laneway or a small paddock. The cows resided there for 4 days, except for the 3 hour period in which they spent grazing at pasture. The farm laneway and the paddock became very muddy during the experiment. Cows on the wood chip pad spent the greatest amount of time lying down. The effects were the result of the frequency of lying bouts rather than the lying duration. Cows in the other treatments compensated by lying in the pasture more during the 3 hour pasture period. The cows housed in the concrete yards had lower body weights and higher fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations at the end of the 4 day period than cows on the wood chip pad and in the small paddock. Cows that had been housed in the concrete yard had reduced stride lengths when they walked at the end of the 4 day period than cows housed in the farm laneway or small paddock. The cows on the wood chip pad were the least dirty. The results of this study showed that it is important to provide cows with a well drained and comfortable surface to lie on during periodic weather-induced removal from pasture.