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Northwest Iowa | Started with sand in 1990, thought like dieseldoc and converted to mattrases in 1995. Hocks swelled so bad and cows had no traction in alleys and cull rate skyroceted. Always short of cows so tried waterbeds bedded with lime. Same story all over again. Cost of these things is unreal also. Mats cost over $100 per stall installed and had holes worn through in 3 years. Waterbeds over $150 per stall and still had lame cows. Knocked out all concrete and back to sand by 2000. Finally built sand lane to reclaim sand in 2012 and happy as can be. No lame cows, cull rate so low we don't know were to put all the cows, and scc under control. Wood shaveings and straw are not free either with sand never blowing away. Never going back to any other bed type. Put it in stalls with a sand shooter on a skidsteer because of low ceiling hight and narrow alleys in the older barn. The first winter I had to buy new sand for about 3 months when the sand froze comeing out of the sand lane. Now I have a stock pile for next winter and depending on the duration of the cold, I doubt I will need to buy much more than a couple weeks supply. | |
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Sand bedding
