Alternative Animal bedding?

Muckit

Hi Folks

Just wondering what other livestock farmers are doing for bedding down cows/ calf creep/ calving boxes other than the conventional straw.

I'm from a small west of Ireland farm and couldn't justify buying an artic load of straw from the midlands.

I've seen our local mart are using shredded paper in sales rings and it got me thinking. There are also a few sawmills nearby where I could get wood chips.

What are ye're views/experiences? All cattle on slats, so just need small quantity of bedding when cows (we have 15) are calving etc etc

Cheers

Muckit

fig mclough

we built our slats which already was a big shed, however we put slats in half of it and bedding in the other half so the cows dont have lay on the slats! what we use is peat moss cause we live beside the bog which is handy! i think its a good job smooth on the feet, but afterwards theres alot of ****y peat to be cleaned up but sure thats always the case no matter what you do.

whelan1

we get an artic load of sawdust - its quite scarce at the moment with the downturn , we got the load in may for this year , when we cant get the sawdust we use peatmoss which is way cheaper but to be honest is crap... we use it on the cubicles

djmc

About how much does an artic load of saw dust cost

whelan1

800 euro but this would do the whole winter for 150 cows ... it used to be around 500 but it is very scarce now... once you use it you'll find it very hard to go back to peat moss we get it off a guy in oldcastle , county meath

adne

whelan1 wrote: »

800 euro but this would do the whole winter for 150 cows ... it used to be around 500 but it is very scarce now... once you use it you'll find it very hard to go back to peat moss we get it off a guy in oldcastle , county meath

you can buy 45 round bales of straw for 800 .... better value me thinks than saw dust

Sam Kade

adne wrote: »

you can buy 45 round bales of straw for 800 .... better value me thinks than saw dust

Nearly €18 for a round bale of straw, that sounds a bit dear considering that there wasn't a dry bale of straw made so far this year.

red menace

Get yourself one of these bad boys:

Giant PDF warning: not actually as ginat as I thought

http://www.gtmconference.ca/site/downloads/2008presentations/4D2%20-%20Van%20Slyke.pdf

Shorter article:

http://www.manuremanager.com/content/view/2445/97/

whelan1

you cant beat the sawdust - for cows anyway - i would never use straw for cows it might be a bit dearer but you save in clean cows and better milk quality

snowman707

whelan1 wrote: »

you cant beat the sawdust - for cows anyway - i would never use straw for cows it might be a bit dearer but you save in clean cows and better milk quality

do you use sawdust in the calving pens? & do you need to store it under cover?

whelan1

i use it on the cubicles for the cows , go in with a fergie 20 and transport box twice a week and use lime as well, in the calving boxes i use straw ... i tried the sawdust but just didnt work - nice clean straw for a new born calf is great

Muckit

Thanks for all the replies lads.

Think I'm going to get a tractor trailer load of wood chips and see how it goes this year.

Bales of Shredded paper if I got my hands on them would be interesting to see. It'd def be as warm and dry for calves as straw, but would need a nice bit of it, plus not sure about price. Cheap and cheerful is my moto.

I had 4 cubicles divisons at the back of each slatted pen but ripped em out. Now I just put up a barrier rail across the front up about 40" off cubicle bed and the calves only can can go under it and back up into that space, working excellent. Spring calving so calves are small when inside and don't need alot of creep space. The fact that the calves are up the 5" from slats, stops cows pushing ****e into them.

spoutwell

Anyone got any experience of using Miscanthus Grass (or whatever its called) for bedding cattle? If its any good it seems a better option than ploughing and tilling land every year.

mossfort

if your in galway mayo you can get wood chip for 10 euro a ton collected from cran na mona in cor na mona beside ecc sawmill

emmabrighton

Hi, as you are all on the subject, im living in Wicklow - arklow/tinaheely area and am looking to get a load of peat delivered for the winter. We used to have it delivered from a guy in Rathangan but I lost my phone and all my numbers and so, lost his.

If anyone knows someone who does deliveries, could you post their number? It would be much appreciated!

Thanks a miillion

Shazforgrub

we've put in a load of miscanthus under the cows this year, too early to tell how its going to go yet, I think the main benefits will be a reduction in the amount of hours spent bedding, with straw we would often bed down three or four times a week in wet weather

robototitico

emmabrighton wrote: »

Hi, as you are all on the subject, im living in Wicklow - arklow/tinaheely area and am looking to get a load of peat delivered for the winter. We used to have it delivered from a guy in Rathangan but I lost my phone and all my numbers and so, lost his.

If anyone knows someone who does deliveries, could you post their number? It would be much appreciated!

Thanks a miillion

Carrols Peat moss - 086-2520871

spoutwell

In reply to the original post about 15 cows on slats, I saw a man with a similar set up who had slats under where the cows were feeding. Then he had cubicles at the back of the shed with a good slope on them. I don't remember seeing any bedding in the cubicles.
The thing was they were narrow enough just to let the cows walk in head first and lie down without turning. The system was working because the cows were clean. I suppose you could put mats in the cubicles if you didn't want them lying on concrete.

strawguy

In relation to the query about Mischanthus, I am involved in milling of long fibre products and have handled and processed mischanthus. Some reject material was sent to a neighbour with livestock and he used it as bedding. The results surprised me. There is no soakage in the material, but animals' urine drains through very well, like wood chips I guess. Mischanthus starts off like bamboo canes but shatters easily underfoot and the bed would not be described as bad at all. It is only suitable for a deep litter system and I would say is only suitable for large cattle. I have attached a picture. Keep in mind I looked at this at the beginning of October when there was good drying. Today's bed might be very different.
When milled, mischanthus makes a bed that may have significant application as an equine bed. We are still working on this product though. Preliminary results are promising.

(Link to website removed by moderator)