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.

The 16 Advantages of Dairy Sand Bedding

There are SO MANY advantages to sand bedding for dairy cows. University researchers are quoted extensively in dairy magazines and websites touting the advantages of sand.

We thought we’d stretch our humor muscles and come up with a few “advantages” that are often overlooked. Of course all of these “advantages” are the direct result of sand management issues—which are often the direct result of LIFE and things you can’t control. When an employee quits, when you get sick, when it rains and then the sun comes out and you’re behind on field work, when your sand supplier sends you a bad load of sand, when your equipment breaks—all of these things are out of your control, and that’s when the headaches of managing sand can spin out of control, too.

Some of these “advantages” have popped up in barns we’ve visited recently. So, have a chuckle about ol’ Mr. Sand with us. He’s not perfect either.

Did you know that research shows that DCC Waterbeds perform on par with sand bedding in preventing hock lesions and injuries? A 2007 study published in the Journal of Dairy Science reported that 95% of the cows on waterbeds had hock scores of 0 and 1, while 97.5% of the cows on sand had hock scores of 0 or 1 (compared to just 82% of the cows on mattresses having scores of 0 and 1).That means DCC Waterbeds were within 2.5% of sand – those are some healthy hocks on both sand and DCC Waterbeds. Visit http://bit.ly/JDS2007 for the complete study.

Let’s celebrate sand by listing ALL of its "advantages:"

1) Your cows will never be lonely. With the excitement of sand flies joining the cows for a nap in the summer, your cows will always have someone to keep them company. Sand flies are like pets for your cows, irritating little pets.

2) Regular shopping sprees! Since you love shopping, sand allows you to do more of it, more often. With regular repair to your manure handling equipment shopping for parts, pumps, scraper blades and chains is guaranteed.

3) You love paying for things twice! You buy sand endlessly by the ton, and then get to pay to dig it out of the lagoon and haul it out to the fields each year.

4) Cows don’t need to get up for a snack. Isn’t it great that cows under-the-weather love to lick sand? They can just lay around all day and lick the sand until they feel better.

5) Provides a hobby for cows. It may be boring for some people, but collecting rocks can be a magnificent hobby! The variety, size, and composition of stones found in sand can create a lovely rock collection for the aspiring cow collector.

6) Keeps cows fit. Not only do cows get to dig in the sand in the front of the stall and kick the sand out the back of the stall – all, apparently, to stay fit while creating their perfect little sand heaven, but when it rains and snows and the sand gets frozen into chunks, cows can have a sand-ball-fight!

7) Keeps your farm connected. Your balance sheet stays connected with the outside world, and sand helps keep you even more connected – to the price of sand, labor, and fuel as all of your sand hauling equipment guzzle it.

8) Cow pedicures come free with sand bedding. It’s like living in a spa when you have sand bedding, right? The hooves are nice and smooth, sometimes too smooth, sometimes way too smooth.

9) Eliminates idle hands. Have an extra half hour? Don’t go check the score of the game, go rake your sand stalls. Have an extra hour? Don’t go play catch with your kids, go groom your sand stalls. Any time you have a little bit extra, you should probably go rake your sand, or replace it completely. The more often you do, the more comfortable your cows are going to be.

10) Eliminates boredom in the parlor. The parlor is usually a quiet, slow-pace place to work, so with sand, you can combat boredom by having parlor staff wipe off grimy, sand coated udders. Wouldn’t want them to have nothing to do.

11) Cows lie down longer (even when they don’t want to). Ever seen a cow stuck under a free stall loop or a fresh cow struggling to gain footing on sand? On the bright side, she’ll lie down longer.

12) Superior comfort. According to Dr. Mich Schutz at Purdue (#162), sand provides superior cushioning for knees and hocks. We don’t dispute this fact. In fact, we’re happy that DCC Waterbeds on par with sand in terms of comfort.*

*Sand must be at least 6-8 inches sloped from head to tail, and the rear level should not be below the curb. Approximately 40 pounds per stall per day should be added to the stalls. Stalls must be the correct dimensions. Stalls should be groomed during milking (2-3 times per day). Compare to DCC Waterbeds cleaning.

13) Sand does not support bacterial growth. Sand is inorganic, so bacteria find the environment hostile, helping prevent mastitis.**

**Sand must be groomed to prevent pooling of liquid and manure in the sand creating “dirt” where bacteria can freely grow. Grooming and refilling are extremely important, regardless of whether it is a busy season or you have an emergency to attend to. Also, when using a sand-manure-recycling system you must make sure the sand gets clean and dries. Compare to the maintenance of DCC Waterbeds.

14) Sand is easy to maintain during milking.***

***Unless you are the one milking. Or you are looking to cut down labor costs. Or you’ve switched to robots, so no one is milking, then you’re just disrupting the cows. 

15) Sand is cool in the summer.****

****If the cow lies on top of the freshly groomed sand beds and doesn’t dig down deep. IF. 

16) Sand is relatively inexpensive^

^If you have an available source of inexpensive sand or happen to have a dairy set up for sand-manure-separation (a system that can cost upward of $1,000,000). Otherwise, when you add in labor, sand costs, and equipment wear and tear, the cost of sand may not justify the relative comfort levels. 

Accessories not included: Sand hauling equipment, sand blowers, sand levelers, sand rakes, front-end loaders, manure equipment replacement parts, fuel.

Author's note: We at DCC Waterbeds intend this to be a humorous, tongue-in-cheek message about some of the headaches of managing sand. Of course we know that all dairy producers - sand/waterbed/flat mat/manure solids/pasture based/etc. - are doing their best to create optimal levels of cow comfort. Our point is simply this: not everyone believes that managing sand is worth the effort, or find themselves in a position where they do not have the resources to manage it at a high enough level to maintain cow comfort. We hope you can laugh with us. After all, we sell cow waterbeds and get laughed at all the time.