Sawdust for cattle bedding

yellow50HX

My cousin is looking to use sawdust for breeding the yearling this year instead of buying in straw. He is going to use straw for the calves pens but is thinking for the sawdust for the older cattle.

Have heard of it being done with horses and fella out west where there is more forestry then straw.

What type of dust is best would assume the very fine stuff would cause breathing. Issues while the very coarse stuff would en hard to spread after wards.

Willfarman

No issues getting straw this year? But miscanthus, is a good alternative I'm told.

X6.430macman

it wud go into absolute ****e in no length of time. straw a better option and its cheap this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bullocks

There's damn all good sawdust to be got now and even if there is it goes to muck alot quicker than straw . I would take the straw every time

X6.430macman

Bullocks wrote: »

There's damn all good sawdust to be got now and even if there is it goes to muck alot quicker than straw . I would take the straw every time

No brainer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CloughCasey1

X6.430macman wrote: »

No brainer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have straw shed and there might be extra work but the dung is excellent on the land and cattle thrive for the winter. Some lad told me he was going to try 8inches of peat instead or straw. That sounds very messy to me.

Miname

X6.430macman wrote: »

it wud go into absolute ****e in no length of time. straw a better option and its cheap this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I use both straw and a mix of saw dust and shavings. It lasts for ages and cattle love it. The deeper it gets the better it works. Now when you saw saw dust you do mean dust and not shavings or chip pings. If I had enough shavings I'd only buy straw for feeding to keep condition off cows .

tomwaterford

Know of a place that years ago undertook fattening a large number of bulls for twagasc/whatever it was called at the time?? (approx 100 or so each group)
One was outwintered,second was on slats (admittedly no rubber) third was straw and fourth lot was on turf

Lad told me that those on the Turf out performed the rest by quite a bit...those outwintered came second and straw/slats were noting much between them
Make of that what you will...though apparently those in straw were more aggressive/inclined to bullying other/weaker animals...this may have just been the animals though....

X6.430macman

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

We have straw shed and there might be extra work but the dung is excellent on the land and cattle thrive for the winter. Some lad told me he was going to try 8inches of peat instead or straw. That sounds very messy to me.

PEAT!!!!!!!!!! WTF

whelan2

What price is the sawdust or peat compared to straw

tomwaterford

X6.430macman wrote: »

PEAT!!!!!!!!!! WTF

Seemingly the best as the weight of animals walking around churns it up and keeps it fresh....dunno about calving etc off it....only heard of it to be done for fattening

Milked out

Use bark mulch here under calves and find it good. Put a bit of straw on top for young calves and straw last longer as bark mulch keeps it drier. Older calves would do without straw. Proper wood chip would probably be better but then again that works better in the open as rain helps keep it clean. Used to put hardcore under calf pens which also helped straw last longer but was a pain cleaning out whereas with bark mulch the whole lot can go together with loader

tomwaterford

Milked out wrote: »

Use bark mulch here under calves and find it good. Put a bit of straw on top for young calves and straw last longer as bark mulch keeps it drier. Older calves would do without straw. Proper wood chip would probably be better but then again that works better in the open as rain helps keep it clean. Used to put hardcore under calf pens which also helped straw last longer but was a pain cleaning out whereas with bark mulch the whole lot can go together with loader

I have heard of the straw?? Off rapeseed oil being used for similar effect

Base price

I heard of a well know pedigree breeder that uses peat on a lay back area. The cows have to walk up a slope on either end of the sheds to get to the feed barriers which are slatted. I thought that the peat would cause problems in the tank when agitating and spreading, but apparently not.
We always use straw for bedding calves and cattle. As I have stated before, I do not like slats and the only time we use our slatted house is either for finishing bulls (not likely now or in the future) or as an overflow house for rearing young calves with the slats covered with straw.
Over the years we found that a cheap system is to roll out bales of dry chopped rushes (easy to source in Longford) on the floor (for drainage) of the shed and bed it up with straw.
Wheaten straw is cheap and often overlooked as an alternative to barley straw for bedding.
Personally I would not use wood shavings as bedding for cattle as it compounds easily and will not let water away and that is from 30 odd years of experience of using it with horses in stables. One horse to one stable and a lot of skipping, dunging, forking twice a day to keep it right.

newholland mad

Straw especially oat straw contains a good bit of p +k ( at this years prices oat straw contains a higher value of p + k than the bale actually costs ) as far as I know saw dust contains no nutrients, so in effect your getting straw free

CloughCasey1

newholland mad wrote: »

Straw especially oat straw contains a good bit of p +k ( at this years prices oat straw contains a higher value of p + k than the bale actually costs ) as far as I know saw dust contains no nutrients, so in effect your getting straw free

How much do you reckon?

fatherted1969

Brother puts down peat in his sheds. Reckons he can get 21 days out of it. Less labour and I'd imagine it's better spread too. Think he might put straw in on the last week to make it easier to clean out. Sheds are completely cleaned out after 21 days. Rinse and repeat