What's everyone bedding their cubicles up with?

[Big>gray]

that was my thoughts to fill the cubicles up once a week rather than doing them every day at the mo with sawdust and maybe having the quantity of material on the beds to make it more inviting for the cows to lie down for longer

I think that's the best idea, we've gone from sawdust twice a day to paper every 7-10 days. Makes life so much easier. I've found you shouldn't let the bedding get to low as it can sometimes be a little abrasive if it get short.. Brilliant bedding in my opinion though.

 

[Yorkshire farmer1]

do you guys on envirobed/cozi bed have any probs with the bedding sinking to the bottom of the tank/tower and how much do you use per cubicle ? do you bed daily or weekly ? just curious if you've found many downsides over sawdust

we not found any problems with sinking. bedding weekly and making lives so much easier deffinatly recomend the cozy bed as easy to work with

 

[Chips]

I've just ordered a load of Cozi-Bed for next week, £62.50/T delivered. The new Envirobed mix came to £96/T!!

Yes but a ton of the mixed is a lot more bulky and bulk is what you are after , an 8 wheeler of either straight cosi bed ,straight envirobed where roughly the same money with the mixed slightly cheaper per load but more per ton , sand is cheap per ton but you get bugger all !

 

[Yorkshire farmer1]

Yes but a ton of the mixed is a lot more bulky and bulk is what you are after , an 8 wheeler of either straight cosi bed ,straight envirobed where roughly the same money with the mixed slightly cheaper per load but more per ton , sand is cheap per ton but you get bugger all !

have you got the other stuff ? how getting on

 

[Chips]

Yes , got the mixed with kilhn dried sawdust , like it a lot , it'seems about 3 times the cost per load than the mixed stuff I used before that wasn'the dried ,even the paper was un dried but get about 30% more bulk and use 30 % less due to it being so dry so probably no more cost per day . The only down side is passageways are more slippy ,the old mixed stuff used to have Buxton lime in it which gave a bit of grip along with the bits of glass and nails ! So will need to get the concrete cut . Big grooves or little squares ?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

 

[Valmetal Inc]

Self propelled bedding chopper beds 270 cubicles in 20 minutes and only uses about 300 kg if straw....really good option

 

[Valmetal Inc]

 

[Headless chicken]

Self propelled bedding chopper beds 270 cubicles in 20 minutes and only uses about 300 kg if straw....really good option

How much though?

 

[pappuller]

@Valmetal Inc do you have any machines on farm in england yet ? Are you able to demo one on farm ? Currently bedding on sander dust through ag dispenser but to get a good deep bed would cost circa £30/day for 150 cubicles. How short does your machine chop the straw ? Can you reduce the drum speed to shorten the chop length ?

 

[ollie989898]

Chopped straw, paper, saw dust, sand, I know people using all of these. The sawdust job is a bit dusty but works well.

All these prices being quoted are not really an issue- it's all hugely cheaper than having to buy straw and use it in big quantities.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

we are doing a mix of sawdust and cubicle lime in bulk ,

 

[William Mellor]

Bedding with straw on concrete beds in a morning and sawdust mixed with lime at night on the back half of the cubical(where the back end of the cow lies)

 

[Fergieman]

we are doing a mix of sawdust and cubicle lime in bulk ,

How are you mixing that? Is it the forklift bucket on the floor? (like all your cow feed from days gone by)

 

[Derrick Hughes]

How are you mixing that? Is it the forklift bucket on the floor? (like all your cow feed from days gone by)

Like Platts say .its trade secret

 

[Valmetal Inc]

I have bedding choppers located on the map - all working on dairy farms from between 2 - 4 years each..

 

[Valmetal Inc]

Straw costs very little where applied sparingly with the chopper, it only applies enough to keep the cows dry.....

 

[Valmetal Inc]

@Valmetal Inc do you have any machines on farm in england yet ? Are you able to demo one on farm ? Currently bedding on sander dust through ag dispenser but to get a good deep bed would cost circa £30/day for 150 cubicles. How short does your machine chop the straw ? Can you reduce the drum speed to shorten the chop length ?

I have 3 machines working in the Cheshire area if you want to contact the farmers, they can give you a review on the performance..

 

[pappuller]

@Valmetal Inc that would be good, pm me with any details, thanks

 

[Happy hillbily]

Ghl used to make a straw chopper similar to that, very dusty, time consuming job, although much better than putting straw in the cubicles by hand !!!!! had to change the blades around, lost a lot of blood doing that job, fingers cut to shreds, as you had to do it through the side where the straw comes out, and the blades were razor sharp. now bed with a teagle 404, much healthier inside a tractor cab, and much quicker.