Deep bedded cubicles, milled straw, anyone tried/doing it?

[Liam]

Morning All,

We are looking at putting up a new cubicle building and wanted to know if anyone has had any experience or successes with deep bedding cubicles with milled straw and quite a lot of lime/cubicle sanitiser.

I like the deep bed sand but are planning on putting up a slatted shed so can't have sand but after seeing a couple of farms in germany with deep bed straw cubicles made me consider trying this out. They seemed to get on quite well with it but would be interested to hear of any UK examples and if so any advice for helping to make it work.

I feel i can much easier move from a deep bed to mattresses than the other way round so now is the time to consider it,
Thanks

 

[Headless chicken]

Farm near here uses deep bed envirobed and seems to be ok. They're on slats too

 

[devonboy]

we have mattresses and use milled sraw put on three times ish a week on slats ,pm if you would like to visit ,close to you.

 

[Sid]

We have used milled straw in cubicle for last two winters and have found it to be really really good. bed up twice a week, they don't drag it out. Saved us time scraping, bedding and on straw.
Our is milled to an inch with a 60ish hp tractor

 

[Cowski]

We have used milled straw in cubicle for last two winters and have found it to be really really good. bed up twice a week, they don't drag it out. Saved us time scraping, bedding and on straw.
Our is milled to an inch with a 60ish hp tractor

What sort of mill do you use?

 

[Cowski]

Morning All,

We are looking at putting up a new cubicle building and wanted to know if anyone has had any experience or successes with deep bedding cubicles with milled straw and quite a lot of lime/cubicle sanitiser.

I like the deep bed sand but are planning on putting up a slatted shed so can't have sand but after seeing a couple of farms in germany with deep bed straw cubicles made me consider trying this out. They seemed to get on quite well with it but would be interested to hear of any UK examples and if so any advice for helping to make it work.

I feel i can much easier move from a deep bed to mattresses than the other way round so now is the time to consider it,
Thanks

There is a mix of lime, ground straw and water which is supposed to work and sounds a great idea deep bedded instead of sand

 

[Sid]

What sort of mill do you use?

Teagle 505M

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Teagle 505M

That's just a straw chopper isn't it

 

[Sid]

That's just a straw chopper isn't it

Afraid your wrong. Google is your friend you will then be educated!

 

[Repeat]

we use the same machine from teagle, does a good job.
cubicles are filled with last winters calf FYM using a bobcat in september about 18 inch deep then we use about 1 round bale of wheat straw a day for 240 cubicles through winter , the mucks more or less gone by feb.
works well ,cows are clean
also put a splash of gypsum in 3 times a week really dries them up.

 

[rusty]

Farm near here uses deep bed envirobed and seems to be ok. They're on slats too

I used deep bed envirobed as a replacement for sand. It's ok initially but goes like concrete where the pee runs down through it. Used to get a mini digger in every spring to dig them out and refill with fresh.
Took advantage of FFIS grant and concreted beds and put mattresses in. Very pleased with result.

 

[Khan]

we have mattresses and use milled sraw put on three times ish a week on slats ,pm if you would like to visit ,close to you.

What sort of slurry system do you run with this? Solid passages or slats, frequency of scraping? Very interested in this as a lot of our local sawdust is now going for pelletting and it's getting harder to get hold. Have tillage with brother and would think rape straw would be a good match.

 

[devonboy]

we have slatted passages with a 3m deep tank underneath,in the winter when the cows are in, we scrape twice daily, and now the cows go out by day its just the once.We have used ground straw for 2years but we do mix a very small amount of sawdust with the straw as we find it helps to stop it sticking to the mats if they get soiled,one silage trailer of sawdust will last all winter, we have a rotary brush for our skidsteer which we use to clean the dirty bits off before we walk around and pull around from the front of the cubicles some clean bedding, we use a shelbourne reynoulds sawdust dispenser to put the bedding on when its disappeared.we find that non shiney wheat straw is the best to grind as it breaks down easier and a contractor does this monthly for us , we use 2.5 to 3tonnes of straw a month to bed 230 cows and it works out at about £12cow a year.i would have thought that rape straw would be fine.

 

[Slurry Solutions]

Have you considered RMS/Greenbedding for deep beds, plenty are using it with good results and no issues with slurry management.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Afraid your wrong. Google is your friend you will then be educated!

I did and it looked the same as my old straw chopper

 

[O'Reilly]

Have you considered RMS/Greenbedding for deep beds, plenty are using it with good results and no issues with slurry management.

Just ask your milk buyer first. Not a reflection of personal opinion, but a good idea nonetheless.

 

[Beef farmer]

Have you considered RMS/Greenbedding for deep beds, plenty are using it with good results and no issues with slurry management.

No green bedding with dc

 

[Khan]

we have slatted passages with a 3m deep tank underneath,in the winter when the cows are in, we scrape twice daily, and now the cows go out by day its just the once.We have used ground straw for 2years but we do mix a very small amount of sawdust with the straw as we find it helps to stop it sticking to the mats if they get soiled,one silage trailer of sawdust will last all winter, we have a rotary brush for our skidsteer which we use to clean the dirty bits off before we walk around and pull around from the front of the cubicles some clean bedding, we use a shelbourne reynoulds sawdust dispenser to put the bedding on when its disappeared.we find that non shiney wheat straw is the best to grind as it breaks down easier and a contractor does this monthly for us , we use 2.5 to 3tonnes of straw a month to bed 230 cows and it works out at about £12cow a year.i would have thought that rape straw would be fine.

What do you mill the straw with if you bed with a dispenser? Rotogrind?

 

[Sid]

What do you mill the straw with if you bed with a dispenser? Rotogrind?

Neighbour get a contractor in for a day to grind a load of straw. ££££££!

 

[devonboy]

haybuster tub grinder £80hr grinds it to 10mm takes 2hrs to do 3tonnes but as its so light it is very cost effective,looked at envirobed but it is so heavy, and they add lime to it at £20 TONNE AND CHARGE YOU £80.If you want to, just add your own.