What’s lurking in your sand-bedded stalls? [PROGRESSIVE DAIRY article]

For all of the daily and weekly maintenance dairy farmers do to keep sand-bedded stalls clean, there may still be “lost items” (liked leaked milk, urine and liquid manure) lurking beneath the surface that present dangers to your cows.

The most difficult thing we see is that sand bedding becomes a project in and of itself. A well-managed sand stall requires intense levels of stall care. You cannot miss a day, regardless of how the day to day demands of the farm change during busy seasons, staffing changes, sand supply changes, budget shortfalls and weather fluctuations.

In order to ensure there aren’t dangers lurking beneath the surface, you have to fully commit to managing sand, no matter what the other factors are, to keep your cows safe and comfortable.

To have the “right” sand. The Dairyland Initiative suggests targets for ideal sand would be:

• Dry matter greater than 95 percent, organic matter content less than 4 percent

• Not too coarse and not too fine sand granular size (mason or concrete)

Have staff and time allotted to do the daily and weekly maintenance required:

• Level the top 3 to 4 inches and remove manure-laden sand during each milking.

• Add sand twice a week with at least 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of sand used per stall per day.

• Be mindful this may add additional hours to a current employee’s job or require additional staff.

Have the equipment in working order necessary to do the maintenance required:

• In smaller herds, leveling and aerating the beds can be done with hand tools, while others will choose a groomer with teeth no longer than the recommended 4 inches.

• This will require at least one skid steer.

• The additional equipment will need ongoing fuel and maintenance to function properly.

And that’s not all. Watch out for the ‘compaction zone’

Regardless of the type of sand used, producers should be aware of the “compaction zone.” Fine sand packs more quickly. According to The Dairyland Initiative, “The compaction zone [is] below the surface of the top layer of sand [and] should be monitored to see if it is becoming as hard as concrete. If this gets to within 1 to 2 inches of the point of the rear curb, it is time to remove the rear third of the bed and replace it with fresh uncontaminated sand.”

With a compaction zone as hard as concrete, your sand stalls could be stealing quarters from your pocket due to decreased cow comfort.

Environmental contamination

Sand itself is said to be “inorganic,” as it does not support bacterial growth. However, organic material and liquid bonds to the surface of each particle of sand as it is dug up from the ground, used in the barn and transferred through a sand-manure separation system.

Also, the cow itself has bacteria on its skin. Klebsiella spp., coliforms, E. coli, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, Enterococcus spp. and other bacteria live in the gut, get on the cow’s body and are transferred to the sand. Cows also urinate, defecate and leak milk, which supports bacterial growth.

The Dairyland Initiative recommends bacterial counts of the following:

• Fresh bedding total count: less than 5,000 colony-forming units per milliliter, which is a measure of viable bacterial or fungal cells present

• Used bedding total count: less than 1 to 2 million colony-forming units per milliliter (mostly streptococci)

• Coliform count in used bedding: less than 100,000 colony-forming units per milliliter

Spring cleaning

Whether we like it or not, spring cleaning should be done twice a year. That means you should remove all of the sand in (at least) the back third of your stalls twice a year.

Put it on the calendar. Don’t ignore the reminders. Tie employee vacation approvals or bonus checks to getting the job done. Your cows are counting on you.

If you find your coliform count in the bedding is 100,000 colony-forming units per milliliter or greater, you need to take measures to get out the contaminated sand and get fresh sand in.

If you use fine sand, check more regularly for compaction. You’re not investing in sand bedding to have the equivalent of concrete under your cows.

Where can you fine-tune your operation? When is the last time you dug out the back third of your stalls and replaced with new sand? What is lurking beneath your cows’ udders?  

Each farm is its own complex, interconnected system. Everything needs to fit together, there are multiple ways to arrange the farm system, and by stepping back and looking at multiple systems in tandem, the entire farm may see improvements with a few adjustments. Sand bedding has many demands every week, every month and every season.

If sand bedding isn’t the best choice for your farm, DCC Waterbeds provide a comfortable option for your cows while decreasing the demands on labor and equipment for your farm. Jason Esser (Wisconsin) explains why he thinks sand bedding will be a problem in the long run.

To read more, visit the article link at Progressive Dairy.

Is your top bedding doing more harm than good?

DCC Waterbeds require a small amount of top bedding to keep the beds dry and your dairy cows comfortable.

You spend countless hours of labor and sourcing to find the best top bedding to keep your dairy cows clean and comfortable. All top bedding materials used are not created equally. And some can actually do more harm than good.

Top bedding on a mattress or waterbed is used to reduce the bacteria and moisture that can wreak havoc on vulnerable udders and to provide comfort for the resting cow. Before sprinkling that next scoop of bedding in a stall, consider whether it is helping or hurting the cow.

Grab a handful of bedding and ask yourself these three questions:

1. Do any sharp objects poke your hand?

2. Is the top bedding wet?

3. How much top bedding is on the bed?

1. Do any sharp objects poke your hand?

When you squeeze a handful of bedding, does it hurt your hand? If it’s poking you, it is also poking the cow. This can cause problems with the udder, teats and legs. Being poked by the top bedding might irritate her pressure points or be a nuisance for the cow. Eliminating a top bedding stress for the cow will pay you dividends.

Depending on the material, there may be a simple solution. Perhaps straw can be chopped finer, or the sawdust provider can provide a different grade with fewer rough particles or a different wood source.

If you’re going to great lengths to eliminate stress for the cow in other areas of the farm, make sure you’re checking what impact the top bedding might have for the cow.

2. Is the top bedding wet?

Some materials like paper mill byproduct or dried manure solids are moist and may put your cow at risk of bacterial exposure. You should ask your paper mill supplier if you are able to get a drier product. If you are using dried manure solids, check with your separator supplier to see if your machine is performing correctly or if you can adjust the settings to get drier manure.

If the bedding is excessively wet or soiled after it’s in the stalls, examine stall setup and protocol. What is the maintenance procedure to keep the stalls clean and dry?

It’s also possible the problem is in the stall design. Check cow positioning within the stall. Is the neckrail positioned correctly? Are you using a brisket locator or relying on a mound of bedding at the front of the stall? Is there something out of line with manure management, such as a broken scraper or skid steer? Are stalls being maintained to your standards? Don’t spend time, money and energy improving top bedding if there are other reasons stalls are not clean and dry.

3. How much top bedding is on the bed?

Besides the hardness of the surface, consider why you are using that amount of top bedding. Are large and small cows together in the same pens? If so, then small cows will have more space to move in the stalls, and that means that they’re likely to make the stalls messier. In this case, more top bedding may be needed to dry up the added moisture in the stalls. Do you have a reliable and consistent supply of top bedding? If so, you may choose to use more because supply is not a concern. Are mattress covers ripped or has the foam layer started to pack? If mats are no longer providing adequate cow comfort, add more top bedding to provide additional comfort.

If you’re using top bedding simply for drying the stall surface, look at the amount of bedding, frequency and type of bedding to see if there’s any place to make adjustments without impacting cow comfort.

Dan Denman, The Robotic Dairyman, explains why he uses sawdust as top bedding on his DCC Waterbeds in this short video.

If you’d like to see more, check out this archived Progressive Dairy article here.

DCC Waterbeds are NOT flat cow mattresses

Many times producers will tell us that they “don’t like mattresses” because they consistently perform poorly, contributing to hock abrasions, wearing out in five to six years, and need tremendous amounts of additional bedding material.

We tell these folks over and over: Dual Chamber Cow Waterbeds are NOT mattresses.  Here are the major differences:

Construction

The fill base of all manmade flat mattresses on the market are solid rubber, latex, crumb rubber, foam, or fabric. These base materials are then encased in covers made of rubber, latex, or fabric. The construction leads to two major problems: 1) the materials inside the mattress will pack, and 2) the top cover and seams are the weakest point in the system and often tear.

DCC Waterbeds are a vulcanized rubber bladder system. Since they are filled with water, it is impossible for them to ever pack. Also, there is no top cover. The bed itself is guaranteed for 10 years (six years when installed in a tie stall barn).

Comfort

The ultimate test of a bedding surface’s performance is when the cow is lying. Mattresses may feel soft when the cow is standing on them, but standing is not where you want your cows to be.  Cows are most productive and least susceptible to lameness when they are lying down. When cows lie on flat mats, no matter how soft the mat is, the surface she lies on is inflexible.  The only thing that moves is her skin, and her skin abrades against the flat mat surface. This rubbing is what causes hock injuries, which leads to discomfort and more standing up.

Again, DCC Waterbeds are totally different.  The front pillow cushions the knees as she descends.  The rear cushion comforts her hips as she drops to the resting position. As the cow continues her lying bout, up to three hours at a time and 12-14 hours per day, the DCC Waterbed acts much like a specialty hospital bed where a person is confined for long periods.  The hospital bed moves with the skin, preventing bedsores.  The DCC Waterbed performs the same function.  The cows body forces the water to her lighter points, her hocks, knees and udder, her pressure points, and the bed moves with her skin, preventing sores.

Cost and durability

Manmade rubber flat mattresses and DCC Waterbeds can be comparable in terms of up-front costs. However, we tell farmers to take into consideration two things 1) the warranty and 2) the amount of additional bedding you need to keep the mattress comfortable. DCC Waterbeds have a 10-year warranty and need little to no additional bedding material to provide consistent and superior cow comfort.

It is important when reading news articles or research studies that waterbeds of any type are not ever confused with results for mattresses. Data for mattresses cannot be used as data for waterbeds. In one study that compared waterbeds, sand, and mattresses, you can see how much better waterbeds perform compared to mattresses: http://bit.ly/JDS2007.

Pass your third-party audit with zero hock sores

Barn audits by milk processors or evaluations for certifications that you seek as a dairy producer are becoming more frequent and more intense as consumer demand is setting standards for dairy practices and herd health. More and more frequently, we hear from our customers who have recently been audited because they want to share their excellent audit experiences. 

In December a dairyman in Montana reached out to tell us that their auditor, who was also a veterinarian and nutritionist, already knew that the herd would be exceptional based on her experience seeing DCC Waterbeds at other dairies. Only 15 of the dairy’s 180 cows, the older cows, had slight hair loss, compared to 20%+ when the cows were on mats. He recounted the struggles he had with open sores, hair loss, and lameness on his previous flat-mat bedding.

This producer is one of many who report zero hock sores and high levels of cow comfort.

“We are part of a specialty milk program, so we have to be inspected each year [by a third party]. One of their stipulations was we have to have at least four inches of bedding if you have mattresses, and we use none. So, we didn’t think we were going to pass,” said Larry Baer of Marshalville, Ohio. Baer has 500 DCC Waterbeds. “The inspector came the first year and had never heard about waterbeds. She showed up at the farm at 9:30 in the morning and didn’t leave until 4 p.m. She looked at the barn, the facilities, the schedule, and closely at the cows. When we got the report back, we had passed with flying colors. We scored very, very high.”

The same story came out of Michigan: 

“In 2012 when we went through the Michigan Milk Producers Association verification of cow comfort, we had just one cow out of 140 with markings and bruising on her hocks, but her twin sister had the same problem so it might have been a genetic thing. The rest of our cows have no bruising on their hocks,” said Steve Foley of Millington, Michigan. Foley has 336 DCC Waterbeds for his milking herd and heifers. “Also, they found that 99 percent of the cows show a normal locomotion and were standing properly. A lot of our cows are lying down, which tells you that they’re comfortable out there.”

It is a testament to the comfort of DCC Waterbeds that these outside consultants and evaluators are coming in and supporting what we know to be true with the data to back it up.

We continue to work to share the benefits of DCC Waterbeds with auditors and other industry professionals, so we can continue to help connect the dots between cow comfort, hock health, and DCC Waterbeds.