Bedding for Dairy

Went from deep beds with enviro bed to mattresses with Platts powder bed bought in bags. Cell counts not changed much but mastitis rate dropped from 32/100 down to 18/100. Cows actually look dirtier but more comfy on the mattresses. With Envirobed used to bed up every 4 or 5 days with an AG dispenser on JCB . Now do it twice a day by hand with bagged powdered. I put the improvement to having fresh bedding after every milking. Cost has also halved but it was very high initially!
whats the powder bed like interms of weight? i can imagine it being blown off quite easy? i do like the look of it
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
We switched to power bed last winter but the only thing that lets it's down is the bags it's in,if you have to move it more than once your fudged
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As you can see the 25 kg packs of powder bed type stay on the pallets better
 
Yes it will blow off its an open shed. I have drop down curtain sides so it can get blown off. It's worst by the doors where the cows come in and out for milking.
hmmmm plenty to think about. i am tempted to try paper. i saw mootress sample but thats far too wet. Just have to convince the old man to try load, what kind of prices do people think it will be at ?
 

GrassChopper

Member
Location
North West
Loads on mootress Facebook page, its the same stuff they pay you to landspread dressed up with a fancy name and branding to try and re invent it as bedding, not for me.

Im tempted to try paper this winter season, fed up of getting into the period we need sawdust and cant get it or guarantee the quality. With the envirobed manufacturers selling direct to customers now the prices have come down, may even buy cozi-bed and mix sawdust in myself as its miles cheaper than the new blend envirobed they're pushing. Got a very decent delivered quote from cozi-bed, very much got me thinking.

Or might just try oat husk and lime, dusty but cheap, not much absorbancy though, but doesnt hurt bank balance as much! Im not too much of a fan of flipping willy nilly bedding, dont think it helps the cows somehow.
 

Ducati899

Member
Location
north dorset
Or might just try oat husk and lime, dusty but cheap, not much absorbancy though, but doesnt hurt bank balance as much! Im not too much of a fan of flipping willy nilly bedding, dont think it helps the cows somehow.[/QUOTE]

Went to a farm last summer to look at something and they bedded on oat husks,looked ok but the abundance of crows swarming round the stuff put me off
 
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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