What's everyone bedding their cubicles up with?

[Splitpin]

Always have used straw and lime but it's time consuming and still doesn't keep the cows that clean. Have mattresses so don't want to go down the deep sand bed route. What would you recommend, sawdust, shavings or an envirobed type thing or just stick with what I'm doing? Cheers

 

[st piran]

Sand on top of mattresses here. Roughly 15/20t month on 156 cubicles with ag dispenser

 

[lazy farmer]

we changed to env irobed last winter from strawing down by hand twice a week and lime. digi disappeared(we do still foot bath with formalin 2x a week). we used just over 3 artic loads for 120 day winter(we are toally dry for 60 days of that) so it probably cost us about £500 more for 280 cubicles and of course the £4,500 for the bedder plus a bit of fuel. however it takes 30-40mins twice a week. a lot less time putting it down and it seems to require less cubicle management. the time saving during calving was a critical reason for changing it has allowed us to to run the farm smoothly with less input from senior partners. current staffing is 2 full time and 1 part time week days. weekends are usually 1 full time and 1 part time. change should not just be about the cows but yourself as well.

lazy
forgot to say it has doubled the size of our slurry pit but on the other hand there is a value in terms of nutrients and organic matter that straw has that envirobed doesn't

 

[bigw]

How are you handling the slurry @st piran and have you seen a difference in comfort and health? I'm tempted to try some sand on mats here instead of sawdust.

 

[Chippy]

I'd recommend Envirobed as well. A lot better than sawdust

 

[sidjon]

Mats and lime for a 90ish day winter.

 

[Fergieman]

Lime & Sawdust on MAttresses.

 

[Splitpin]

View attachment 209600View attachment 209602

Sand on top of mattresses here. Roughly 15/20t month on 156 cubicles with ag dispenser

Looks good. How often are you bedding up? So that's roughly 100kg a month per cubicle @ what £15 ish quid a ton? I could cope with sand fine in my slurry system so may be have to give this some thought.

 

[Splitpin]

we changed to env irobed last winter from strawing down by hand twice a week and lime. digi disappeared(we do still foot bath with formalin 2x a week). we used just over 3 artic loads for 120 day winter(we are toally dry for 60 days of that) so it probably cost us about £500 more for 280 cubicles and of course the £4,500 for the bedder plus a bit of fuel. however it takes 30-40mins twice a week. a lot less time putting it down and it seems to require less cubicle management. the time saving during calving was a critical reason for changing it has allowed us to to run the farm smoothly with less input from senior partners. current staffing is 2 full time and 1 part time week days. weekends are usually 1 full time and 1 part time. change should not just be about the cows but yourself as well.

lazy
forgot to say it has doubled the size of our slurry pit but on the other hand there is a value in terms of nutrients and organic matter that straw has that envirobed doesn't

Thanks for that. So what would envirobed work out per cubicle per month say? What size loads does it come on? Have you got one of these bobman things

 

[st piran]

How are you handling the slurry @st piran and have you seen a difference in comfort and health? I'm tempted to try some sand on mats here instead of sawdust.

We have a lagoon with a concrete floor directly behind the cubicle shed which we stir and suck out with a tanker. Every 12/24 months we go in with the handler and load out the build up of and sand into dual spreaders. We rarely need any lime spread. Downside side is we need to clean the tanker out 3 or 4 times year as it fills with sand. Cell counts usually running between 120/180 and not a lot of mastitis. Sand does stick to teats, but I guess sawdust/enviro bed would to. We pre foam and wipe with paper towels with bactoscan normally in the teens.

 

[st piran]

Looks good. How often are you bedding up? So that's roughly 100kg a month per cubicle @ what £15 ish quid a ton? I could cope with sand fine in my slurry system so may be have to give this some thought.

During the summer cows are out by day and in by night and we probably sand up every 7/10 days, whilst winter time it's more like every 5/7 days. Just use a rake whilst getting cows out for milking to tidy beds up. Yep £15t is about right plus you get the added benefit for the fields so you get two uses out of it so it's pretty cheap really

 

[lazy farmer]

Thanks for that. So what would envirobed work out per cubicle per month say? What size loads does it come on? Have you got one of these bobman things

For us it works out at £5.89 per cubicle per month. Load sizes can vary we have 28 ton loads it's pushed off rather than tipped which makes storage easier for us. There is no way we could use sand as we have a seperator. Not sure what the dispenser is called. It sits on the back of our little mower/aerator tractor all winter so is convenient to use(not that I have need trusted to use it yet!)

 

[YELROM]

During the summer cows are out by day and in by night and we probably sand up every 7/10 days, whilst winter time it's more like every 5/7 days. Just use a rake whilst getting cows out for milking to tidy beds up. Yep £15t is about right plus you get the added benefit for the fields so you get two uses out of it so it's pretty cheap really

What are the added benefits for the field?

 

[st piran]

What are the added benefits for the field?

Sand raises ph much like lime, just not so fast

 

[Splitpin]

View attachment 209600View attachment 209602

Sand on top of mattresses here. Roughly 15/20t month on 156 cubicles with ag dispenser

Been having a ring round today, my local dealer tried telling me that an ag won't cope with sand and I have to buy a Woodchuck machine. You seem to get on fine by the looks of things, he said the belt won't last 5 mins with sand???
Anyone else using sand on mattresses?

 

[Headless chicken]

How old is your ag? We bought a second hand one and its a bit sh!t if I'm honest. Farm I work for has new one and its no problem at all.

 

[Splitpin]

How old is your ag? We bought a second hand one and its a bit sh!t if I'm honest. Farm I work for has new one and its no problem at all.

What are you using sand or sawdust?

 

[Headless chicken]

Sand in both cases there. In defence of our spreader there was a reason the guy got rid it's pretty well shagged. But I do vaugly remember that old ones used to do one or other new ones would do either. Think they have a different belt with teeth closer together

 

[RobFZS]

sand twice a week on deep bed cubicals with AG dispenser, does a good job if the sand is dry and not cheap stuff

 

[Splitpin]

Sand in both cases there. In defence of our spreader there was a reason the guy got rid it's pretty well shagged. But I do vaugly remember that old ones used to do one or other new ones would do either. Think they have a different belt with teeth closer together

So are you finding your older machine a bit slow or blocks up every now and then. Are the two machines different at all to look at and sorry one more q's are you deep sand beds or on mats/mattresses.thanks