Friday, March 29, 2024

Sand bedding

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Washed sand bedding appears to offer a very comfortable, inert surface for cows to lay down on. One farmer said cows nestle down into it, making a comfortable bed for themselves much the same as people do at the beach. But the sand needs to be kept at the heel stone level. As sand level drops below that, cows spend less time lying in the cubicles. DairyCo research shows when the sand beds became pitted (defined as a drop below the kerb height of 13cm) the lying times declined by 2.33 hours/day. Lying time decreases by 10 minutes for every 1cm decrease in sand level below the kerb. 
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DairyCo also found deep sand-bedded cubicles have been shown to decrease lameness by half in comparison to rubber mats or mattresses with little or no bedding. This is because cows lie down longer through the day.

In the UK sand is readily attainable through normal bedding suppliers. It’s clean and slightly coarser than fine beach sand although a mix of particle sizes is seen as best.

Sand on its own is an inert substance so doesn’t have background levels of bacteria which helps in terms of animal health. So it’s important to make sure it doesn’t contain any clay or soil particles.

It’s soft and reduces hock rubs and lesions and will help increase the lying time of lame cows who can find getting up and down painful on some other surfaces.

Sand beds were topped up twice a week in one large cubicle house where cows were milked three times daily and milked year-round. But the ends of the beds, where cow dung is deposited, were cleaned off every day manually with a hand-held scraper.

Sand is caught in the sand trap as the flood-wash system sends slurry to a mechanical separator.

The sand wasn’t totally replaced each year but there were losses from the beds daily on cows’ feet and legs and as the beds were raked off to remove the dung.

On another farm one tonne/cow/winter was used to bed up cows twice a week. If one tonne/cow is being used to bed up each winter that means around the same amount is going to have to be dealt with and perhaps separated out of the slurry system.

The drawback of sand is that it’s hard on or even incompatible with some equipment such as mechanical scrapers.

A flood-wash system can be used successfully although sand wedges or traps need to be used to stop it entering the slurry pond if slurry spreading or pumping equipment will be damaged by sand. Mechanical separators, too, might find sand damaging. There might be a need to investigate other pumping equipment and mechanical options that are already set up to deal with coarse material.

Serious thought needs to be given as to how it will be separated and then what will ultimately be done with it. Some UK farmers put it back onto their paddocks but some have found problems with rising soil pH.

On other farms the sand might be welcomed and one of the benefits of sand coming onto the lanes in a shed or on a yard was that it offered more grip for cows.

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