Cubicles - sand, straw, mattresses

[cowsandcrops]

We have recently built a new cubicle shed, and are putting up another shed in due course. We have already decided on Teemore cubicles, but are struggling to decide what to put in the bottom of the cubicles. Currently we bed the other 220 cubicles with straw. Straw is cheap in our area at the moment but increases the volume of muck, a variable product that needs to be kept dry, and in the future it may be harder to source. Sand the most comfortable bed, but problems handling the slurry and dirty water? Typical usage per cubicle a year? How to stop it ruining pumps and machinery? Hard work keeping them full and at the right slope, lots of raking? Mattresses, are they now more comfortable and hard wearing? What do people put on top, sawdust, typical amounts used? Clean them manually or with a bob man? Any advice, recommendations great fully received!

 

[Durry cows]

Some will disagree but we are nearly all converted from mattresses and lime/shavings on top to deep sand, sand really seems the way! No mastitis in over 5 weeks now, cows lying down making more milk, the list goes on. You might get away without having to concrete the base of the cubicle too so you can save a big outlay on concrete and mattresses

 

[bovine]

Sand wins every time for comfort and lowest mastitis risk. The money you save in mastitis and other health areas does need some investment in pumps and rubber for scrapers. I would only use sand myself if you can get a loader tractor in the slurry store.

Mattresses (not mats) have come on a long way. Some are very much better than others. Some seem no better than hard rubber. Covered with sawdust and lime come middle for comfort and hygiene. With attention to detail can work really well.

Deep straw cubicles warm up and grow strep uberis nicely. Please don't.

 

[dinderleat]

We've got IAE supreme cow comfort cubilces with Wilson agri mattresses which has the 40mm pasture mat in as well, chopped wheat straw and lime every day. We brush the beds of with a brush takes about 15mins to do 150 twice a day

personally I wouldn't put dairy cows in cubicles with at least a rubber mat no matter how much straw you put in them. Just do the knee drop test and see how it feels at least ten times?!

 

[Headless chicken]

We bed on sand planning a new shed currently and we will be on sawdust.

Reason behind this is we farm very light soil and don't want it any lighter and its a pain in the arse with our slurry system.

Farm I worked for had 400 cows on sand before had to dig pit out 2-3 times a year at a geuss took up about 40% pit capacity and cost them a small fortune to empty. Normally a week long job between pumping and running spreaders. Soon adds up when you have 4 spreaders 2 tankers and a loader running for a week

 

[bigw]

How do you handle your slurry @Durry cows? I recently saw a slatted cubicle shed on sand, they had drive in openings to get into the tank to clean it out. The cleanest comfiest cows I had seen in a long time, they looked like they had been at grass!!

 

[Baling Hay]

How do you handle your slurry @Durry cows? I recently saw a slatted cubicle shed on sand, they had drive in openings to get into the tank to clean it out. The cleanest comfiest cows I had seen in a long time, they looked like they had been at grass!!

Couldn't be safe driving into the tank due to the gases?

 

[Durry cows]

@bigw the sand goes in to our earth bank slurry pit where it is building up and we will have to dig out in a couple of years time, that's the down side to it but extra yield/better cow health pay for it, vets bill of £300 last month mostly for herd health and some Kexxtones, tetra deltas had lost milk can soon add up!

 

[Beef farmer]

How deep are people putting he sand in these beds? We are just about to fill ours and wondered if people are putting anything under the sand or just 7inches of sand?

 

[Headless chicken]

Kite have done a lot of research and the optimum is a concrete bed with an angle iron bolted on the back at 6 inches deep

 

[Beef farmer]

One last question, would you fill the bed with deep sand, and then bolt the loops up, or bolt the loops up and try and get the sand in after. What is the quickest way of filling these beds with sand? Ag dispenser or swing shovel?

 

[Headless chicken]

Swing shovel?

Ag dispenser I would say quite easy then

 

[TheRanger]

Green Bedding is the way to go from a cow comfort, mastitis control and slurry handling point of view. But obviously a massive risk investing in it until DEFRA have finished all their ongoing studies and decide not to ban it.

 

[Beef farmer]

Swing shovel?

Ag dispenser I would say quite easy then

I only mean for the first initial fill up, as it's gonna take tons to fill em up to start, we will be using an ag dispenser for topping them up.

 

[cowsandcrops]

I've heard reports of 29ton of sand bring used in a fortnight on 160cubicles? And one bag of sawdust doing 40/60 cubicles a day?

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

I only mean for the first initial fill up, as it's gonna take tons to fill em up to start, we will be using an ag dispenser for topping them up.

I use a swing shovel every time, pile it up at the front of the cubicle, and just rake a bit back when doing the beds, stops them lying in too far as well.

 

[cowsandcrops]

Green bedding too much of a risk until it's passed all the defra tests

 

[rusty]

I've heard reports of 29ton of sand bring used in a fortnight on 160cubicles? And one bag of sawdust doing 40/60 cubicles a day?

I built a shed with 250 cubicles on sand. Used 20 tonne a week. Stopped after a year because of wear on slurry pump and concrete floors where auto scraper ran.
Now have mattresses in and use 1 bag of Platts powder bed per 40 cubicles twice a day so 12 bags a day.

 

[Beef farmer]

I built a shed with 250 cubicles on sand. Used 20 tonne a week. Stopped after a year because of wear on slurry pump and concrete floors where auto scraper ran.
Now have mattresses in and use 1 bag of Platts powder bed per 40 cubicles twice a day so 12 bags a day.

What about the cows tho, where they happier on sand?

 

[rusty]

No not really. I had been to the USA looking at many big dairies and they were all on sand. They were ok on sand but not as good as I had hoped. We had 6 years on deep beds filled with enviro bed paper which used to get a bit lumpy after a while and I used to hire a mini digger every 6 months to dig them out and refill. Cows were very clean on this.
Now on mattress from intershape and very pleased with them. Lying time is better and mastitis has dropped. It's now down to 18 per 100 which I put down to bedding up twice a day with bag sawdust instead of every 5 days with an AG dispenser and enviro bed.