Bedding

Knowledge Nuggets

• Cattle rest either standing or lying down. Given the choice, lying down on a soft surface is preferred to standing and standing is preferred to lying on a rough cold surface. Cattle prefer to stay comfortable rather than staying clean.

• Thermal qualities to the bedding are not an issue until outside temperatures cause heat loss to the ground from the resting animal. As outside temperatures drop and heat loss increases, the propensity to lie down decreases. Cattle prefer to stay warm before lying down.

• Frequent bedding to keep hair clean is essential to maintain the insulating characteristics of the hair. When manure is mixed into a soft bedding area, cattle will choose to lie in the dirty bedding at the expense to the cleanliness of their hair coat.

• When the bedding area is frozen to the point where the frozen manure mounds cause discomfort to the cattle attempting to rest lying down, cattle will prefer to lie on clean snow or ice provided that the frozen surface is smooth.

• The actual bedding material does not affect cattle preference to lying down provided that the surface is comfortable and provides insulative qualities in cold conditions.

• Although absorbency is essential, other properties of bedding are also important. The compressibility, abrasiveness, and surface wetness of the bedding material all impact on animal comfort and ultimately to their health and productivity.

• Non conventional materials may be effective for bedding provided that they are absorbent, physically and chemically safe, accessible, easy to transport, easy to store before use, effective as an soil amendment and economical.

• Wood materials such as shavings, sawdust and bark provide effective bedding although they are not as absorbent as cereal straw.

• Wood materials allow water to move through the bedding pile allowing the surface of the pile to stay dryer than the surface of cereal straw piles. Water will migrate to the bottom of the pile and then move sideways to the edge.

• Placement of wood material at the bottom of the bedding mound to provide a firm base with cereal straw placed on top of the wood material is successful in providing a dry resting surface.

• Because wood bedding allows water to drain through easier, the surface tends to be drier allowing the cattle to stay cleaner.