Sand bedding cows

[D_123]

Hi everyone, anyone with experience on installing sand beds in existing cubicle shed. I have mats which are good and was going to keep them in. All maure is collected in a slurry lagoon.

 

[Cotlandfarmer]

I've used sand on top of mats for about ten years.
Initially added a lip to the back of the cubicle to hold 50mm of sand on the bed, removed the lip as the sand at the bottom was getting mucky and needed shoveling out regularly, a job no one wanted to do.
Removed the lip and used a thin layer of sand, worked well if you can get soft sand.

Good quality soft sand has become difficult to get hold of locally, plenty of sharp sand available but I'd be concerned using a thin layer of sharp sand as it could act like sand paper on the cows skin.

 

[D_123]

Any trouble with sand in the slurry? See the deep beds of sand and cows seem to love it.

 

[Cotlandfarmer]

No trouble really, just the slurry acts like grinding paste on anything mechanical and the sand will need to be dug out of your lagoon as it settles out and doesn't mix back into the slurry easily.

From a cow point if view you can't get a better bedding.

 

[ProDrive]

Sand……great for the cows, awful for everything else!!!

 

[Milkcow365]

No trouble really, just the slurry acts like grinding paste on anything mechanical and the sand will need to be dug out of your lagoon as it settles out and doesn't mix back into the slurry easily.

From a cow point if view you can't get a better bedding.

Any pictures of the cubicles ?

 

[Cotlandfarmer]

Any pictures of the cubicles ?

I haven't got any pictures of the beds with the lip on.
I was literally using the sand as you would use saw dust or milled straw once I removed the lip.

 

[Cotlandfarmer]

I'm using milled straw this winter, with wet autumns it's difficult to dispose of the used sand without making a mess in grassland.

 

[Headless chicken]

Any pictures of the cubicles ?

lots of people our way did it with a piece of
Angle iron bolted onto back of heel

 

[vantage]

I'm using milled straw this winter, with wet autumns it's difficult to dispose of the used sand without making a mess in grassland.

lots of people our way did it with a piece of
Angle iron bolted onto back of heel

I’ve got deep sand beds and I like sand for the cows, but my son is working away on a large housed herd and they’re using milled rape straw. He said it’s a big improvement on sawdust and flows through the bedder easily.

 

[Spudley]

@Cotlandfarmer you can get dredged sand from Llanelli apparently