Why use a Cubicle Bedding Powder?
Mastitis results in discarded milk, medication, vet charges and premature culling. Even somatic cell counts of 250,000 will typically reduce annual herd yield by around 150 litres of milk. Mastitis and high somatic cell counts cost the average producer over £50 per cow per year more than the top 25% of producers.
Good hygiene is important not only because of mastitis. Up to 30% of cows have wounds resulting from contact with concrete, steel work and abrasive cubicle bedding materials. Damaged skin in contact with bacteria often results in hock or foot infections which impact on performance. Hock infections are a major cause of lameness in dairy cows. It is estimated that in Holland wound infections are the second biggest cause of abortion in cows.
Hygiene is Important for Cow Health, Performance and Profitability
Bacteria only multiply in warm, damp conditions. It is very important that cubicle beds and bedding are kept dry. Adequate ventilation can play a major role in removing moisture and heat from buildings,
reducing humidity, and allowing beds to dry.
Ventilation can have a surprisingly large effect on cleanliness of cows and amount of bedding needed, as well as on infection levels. Housing and hygiene are an integral part of any mastitis prevention programme.
Dry Beds, Absorbent Bedding Materials and Cow Comfort
Most dairy farmers will use an absorbent bedding material to soak up excess moisture and to keep the beds dry. Deep sand or straw beds are often used or thin layers of chopped straw or sawdust are spread on top of a variety of surfaces including concrete, rubber mats and mattresses. Waste paper bedding materials may be used but do have a tendency to set like concrete when they become wet resulting in very hard uneven beds. Sawdust and straw are probably the most widely used bedding materials but both suffer from a number of disadvantages as well as being relatively expensive.
Straw
cannot be used in many situations due to blocking slats and the formation of thick crusts on slurry stores.
Sawdust is very variable from fine dust which sticks to hooves like concrete, to coarse abrasive material
which can result in hock infections and lameness. Both sawdust and chopped straw float and form crusts
on slurry and both are very dusty products to apply and as a farmer pointed out to me "Dust is good
for neither
man nor beast".
Whilst both straw and sawdust are effective in soaking up moisture, sawdust in particular is very slow to dry. The major problem with sawdust is that damp sawdust is an ideal breeding ground for bacteria. Consequently if bacteria are to be controlled an effective long lasting disinfectant needs to be applied to control bacterial growth on the sawdust.
Research has clearly demonstrated that even the best disinfectants will at best knock out around 99.9% of bacteria and that the remaining bacteria are capable of multiplying back to there full population within 8 hours in warm conditions. This means that there is no point using any disinfectant or antiseptic bedding powder unless it can be demonstrated to have long lasting residual disinfectant properties.
Cubicle Lime for Bedding Cows?
Many farms use ash based products which can be very caustic cubicle lime and have been known to cause severe burns to the cows skin and teats followed by severe outbreaks of mastitis. Products based on hydrated lime or calcium hydroxide on their cubicles are also very widely used. Cubicle lime products are widely used simply because they appear to be cheap. Calcium hydroxide when it comes in contact with moisture is a strong alkali, similar to but weaker than sodium hydroxide or caustic soda. Whilst it will effectively knock out bacteria. However calcium hydroxide does have a number of disadvantages.
Calcium
hydroxide is extremely unpleasant to handle damages the skin and can cause severe burns to the eyes.
Secondly like caustic soda, when damp it will react with the natural oils in the cows skin turning them
to soap. This is a similar effect to prolonged handling of wet cement, it disrupts the natural waterproofing
and anti-bacterial defences of the cows skin. This can result in chapping and cracking of the skin which
could increase damage to teats, hocks and the skin surrounding heels and feet.
It is likely to actually cause rather than to prevent the entry of bacteria resulting in more not less infections of the udder, hocks and feet. Do we really want to expose our cows to a caustic skin irritant on a daily basis?
Bedding Materials which are Caustic are NOT Recommended
The third major problem with hydrated lime is that when lime is used for bedding cubicles most of the lime ends up in the slurry. Lime reacts with ammonium nitrogen (NH4+) to form ammonia (NH3) which is lost to the air. This in effect means that less nitrogen is available in the slurry and this will need to be replaced by applying more nitrogen fertiliser. If ammonium nitrate costs £300 per tonne. One tonne of cubicle lime containing 99% calcium hydroxide can displace nitrogen worth £245. So cubicle lime is not so cheap after all.
Some farmers use ground limestone or limestone flour on cubicles which is even cheaper than calcium
hydroxide based cubicle limes. Limestone flour is relatively insoluble and will not kill bacteria. Consequently
Richard Webster does not recommend either the use of ground limestone flour alone or hydrated lime based
cubicle bedding powders.
RWN Cubicle Bedding Powders
Cow comfort, cow health and good hygiene are essential for efficient and profitable milk production in high yielding dairy herds. Richard Webster Nutrition works with two highly effective tried and tested antiseptic cubicle bedding powders RWN Cubi-Powder and Vulkamin.
RWN Cubi-Powder and Vulkamin may be used alone but are generally used with an absorbent bedding material such as straw or sawdust to control bacteria in cow cubicle housing, straw yards, calf rearing accommodation and dry cow housing. Both products have different modes of action and both are highly effective and competitively priced. Both products are non-caustic, safe and pleasant to handle.
Gypsum Cubicle Bedding
Powdered Gypsum is an extremely effective bedding material for cubicles and loose yards. Gypsum provides an extremely attractive alternative to straw, sawdust, sand or paper bedding materials. Gypsum is non-caustic, more absorbent and cheaper than lime, straw, paper or sawdust. Gypsum is inert and doesn't breed bacteria. Gypsum bedding keeps cows cleaner than sawdust and doesn't stick to the cows feet.
A major advantage of Gypsum is that it locks up nitrogen in the slurry reducing ammonia losses retaining valuable fertiliser nitrogen. In addition Gypsum dissolves into the slurry and does not add to the crust improving flowability and slurry handling characteristics. Gypsum contains calcium and sulphur and is widely recognised as a superb soil conditioner.
RWN supplies Pure Gypsum Bedding Powder alone or mixed with Paper or Sawdust
Which RWN Cubicle Bedding Powder should I use?
RWN Bedding Powders are an extremely
effective means of both improving hygiene and controlling bacteria in dairy cow and calf housing and
of keeping cows clean. RWN Cubi-Powder, Vulkamin and Gypsum all work well on rubber cow mats and on
mattresses.
RWN Cubi-Powder is available in 25kg bags. Vulkamin is available in 1 tonne tote bags and Gypsum is available in 28 tonne bulk loads.
For use in conjunction with sawdust or straw some customers prefer RWN Cubi-Powder and some prefer Vulkamin.
If you are looking for a complete replacement for straw, sawdust or paper bedding and have space to store bulk material then gypsum will keep cows cleaner for less cost.
RWN bedding powders are competitively priced, pleasant to handle, non-abrasive, non-caustic and will not damage the cows skin. Why not try some and tell us what you think?
Click here for more information: RWN Cubi-Powder - Vulkamin Powder - Gypsum Bedding
Natural Disinfectant Cubicle Bedding Powders
BETTER HYGENE, HEALTHIER COWS, MORE MILK, LESS CULLING, MORE PROFIT
Cheaper and more effective solution to hygiene in cubicle housing
For advice on improving cow comfort and hygiene in livestock housing contact Richard Webster