Bedding What bedding is best? There is no simple answer. Which bedding material you use depends on your housing, your manure system, availability and cost. One thing that is always true is that to minimize mastitis you must manage your bedding in a way that keeps bacteria counts down. When managing bedding, consider the following. o Crowding: More cows means more manure and urine. (Overcrowding also increases stall use and may result in more cows lying in alleys or failing to get enough rest, increasing general stress and/or compromising foot health). o Nutrition: “High” group cows usually have higher intakes of more nutrient-dense diets and pass more nutrient-laden manure into their environment. o Stall cleaning: Remove soiled bedding from stalls at least every time you milk. Clean loafing areas daily. Studies comparing low somatic-cell-count herds (less than 150,000) to high somatic-cell-count herds (more than 250,000) found that stalls were cleaned an average of 2.2 times per day for low somatic-cell count herds but only 1.6 times per day for high somatic-cell-count herds. o Alley scraping: The more frequent, the better. Scrape alleys at least every milking. Mechanical scrapers help maintain cleaner stalls. o Moisture: Since bacteria require moisture, anything that can be done to reduce accumulation of moisture in bedding will be beneficial. Slotted floors drain moisture immediately. Good ventilation can help, too. o Bedding storage: Keep bedding dry. The addition of moisture to unused bedding will increase bacterial growth before the bedding makes it to the stall. o Weather: Although you can’t directly control this, you can be aware of its effect on bacterial growth and intensify bedding management to compensate. o Frequency: Change organic bedding at least every other day and every day during the summer. Replace sand bedding every five to seven days. How should stalls be bedded? The goal is to keep bacteria counts under 1 million cfu/mL where bedding contacts the udder. To accomplish this when using organic bedding: o Remove all used bedding from the back half of the stall each day and replace it with fresh bedding. o Don’t move bedding from the front of the stall to the back of the stall. o If you have stall mattresses, use a small amount of fresh bedding (about 1 pound per stall) every day, being sure that the cleanest and driest bedding is beneath the udder. o Once each week, remove all the bedding from the stall. As it is in many things in life, it is not what you do but how you do it that makes the difference. Using no bedding does not work. Neither does a poor job of bedding (using too little bedding or changing it too infrequently). Another common and faulty bedding practice is to pile lots of bedding in the front of the stall with the idea that the cows will drag it back or that you will move bedding from the front to the rear of the stall when you remove soiled bedding. While bedding in the front of the stall appears clean, it may be highly contaminated. Drainage management conference The University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension Service and state agency partners are sponsoring a two-day Minnesota Drainage Management Conference at both Crookston and Willmar in January 2004. The Crookston conference is Jan. 8-9 on the U of M campus, and the Willmar session is Jan. 22-23 at the Willmar Holiday Inn. A brochure and other information can be found at the conference Web site:
