Alternatives to Straw Bedding

juror

Hi,
I am a pedigree dairy farmer, every year I keep 10/12 bulls yearling bulls to sell in the Spring at 15/16 months for serving dairy cows. They are kept on straw beeding and fed a good diet.
My issue is that straw quality is very poor this year and thye will gop through bales too quickly so I'm lookign for an alternative to straw to bed them with. I need something that will keep them clean and comfortable as bulls will not sell well unless they are looking top-notch.

All suggestions welcome.

Thanks.

wiggy123

bark?
or sawdust..
even sand
could do a gd job--others better hear,with info for ya!

what about outdoors?

what i'm doing this year--leaving the young bulls out

whelan1

sawdust - the good white sawdust - brilliant job

aristo

Peat, handy if you are near the midlands

F.D

we are in a similar position, didn't get enough straw and will have to bed down on something different in one of the sheds, was also thinking about peat or woodchip
How much is peat (offaly man so loads around me) how long will it last, does it have to be stirred up to stop a crust forming ?
has anyone used wood chip indoors? how has that worked?

juror

With peat or wood chips does it need to be regularly topped up? And what are prices of both like?

JohnBoy

did someone not say a few weeks ago on here that the woodchip is a bad job indoors, it needs to stay wet to stay working or something?


or did I dream it?

reilig

Peat stands out above straw or sawdust because of the low dust level in it. This means that especially for pedigree cattle, they do not itch and have those hairless patches around their necks which makes them look ugly for selling. It can often be advisable to have a base layer of straw for soakage. But the peat is fairly good for soakage too. Now your animal will not be shining clean, but a good wash before the sale will take care of that. Many of the top pedigree breeders use peat. Some use mushroom compost which has a mixture of peat and straw and it also a great job.

micky j

ring this number as he delivers bulk loads of sawdust nationwide up to 20 ton loads also sells bales of wood shavings dry
086 8196016

F.D

Just talking to a neighbour who used peat last year, he had 32 finishing cattle in a 4 bay slatted shed with the peat as a lie back (4bays by 24ft wide), he used 2 loads @ €430 a load, that was a 20ft silage trailer full,
one load lasted from end of october till the end of January, the the second load got him out from there, he reckoned it was a great job and is going to use it again this year but was telling me he wouldn't think it would last very long if the cattle were feeding on it aswell, he recomended i use woodchip or have a scraped area around where i'm feeding

Rujib1

F.D wrote: »

Just talking to a neighbour who used peat last year, he had 32 finishing cattle in a 4 bay slatted shed with the peat as a lie back (4bays by 24ft wide), he used 2 loads @ €430 a load, that was a 20ft silage trailer full,
one load lasted from end of october till the end of January, the the second load got him out from there, he reckoned it was a great job and is going to use it again this year but was telling me he wouldn't think it would last very long if the cattle were feeding on it aswell, he recomended i use woodchip or have a scraped area around where i'm feeding

Probably saleable a few months after removing from lie back area as a nice compost Get your money back if you could bag it and flog to the grow your own brigade :cool:

blue5000

you might get bean straw at this time of year, neighbour of mine uses it for bedding. I'm thinking of putting sand under peat to help drain a shed of heifers on a sloped concrete floor. I had sand before under straw bedded heifers, I reckon it spared straw. There was a post on here about a month ago on woodchip, should still be readable,

not much in it but here it is
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055670180

strawguy

I noted your straw problems and can agree with you. Quality straw is what you really need, but quality straw is a problem every year. We process straw for poultry, equine, dairy and pet markets and reject 60% of the straw we source. Our end product is what you are looking for for pedigree stock, but you have to decide for yourself if you can justify the cost. Certainly your animals will be clean, dry, presentable and healthy. Have a look at www.strawchip.com .

vanderbadger

F.D wrote: »

Just talking to a neighbour who used peat last year, he had 32 finishing cattle in a 4 bay slatted shed with the peat as a lie back (4bays by 24ft wide), he used 2 loads @ €430 a load, that was a 20ft silage trailer full,
one load lasted from end of october till the end of January, the the second load got him out from there, he reckoned it was a great job and is going to use it again this year but was telling me he wouldn't think it would last very long if the cattle were feeding on it aswell, he recomended i use woodchip or have a scraped area around where i'm feeding

would you need to store the peat indoors before using it? or just throw a bit of polythene over it outside?

F.D

vanderbadger wrote: »

would you need to store the peat indoors before using it? or just throw a bit of polythene over it outside?

He Just went and got another load when required the Bord Na Mona site is not too far away I would say its fine just to heap it up and cover it with polythene, that is the way BNM used to save it until they needed it,

Just an update on how it worked with me, The peat lasted from mid nov until the 23 of december it was fine up until then cattle were very clean, what i had noticed was it was getting a skin on top of dung / wet and in the frost it felt very cold and damp, over the christmas i planned on getting a grub in and stirring it up a bit but before i got a chance the cattle pulled off a water pipe and flooded the peat completly so it had to be removed and a straw bed put down, even bedding every second day with straw the cattle are very dirty and just proved how good the peat was at soaking up the wet and stopping the dirt sticking. as it was xmas i couldnt get another load of peat so i had to revert back to straw, the woodchip was a total disaster it held all the wet and muck and turned into pure ****e in no time. i reckon i would have got another 2 - 3 weeks out of the peat if it was set up correctly