Peat, slats and mats best alternatives to straw for bedding
It costs €1.19 to bed a 200kg suckler calf for a week, using straw priced at €25 for a 150kg bale. Woodchip costs €1.07, and peat is a fairly trouble-free bedding material which costs only €0.87, according to the latest Teagasc advice.
There are viable alternatives to straw for bedding, especially peat, slats for calves, and rubber mats in calving pens.
Peat is a highly absorbent material which keeps livestock warm, clean and dry with minimal labour.
The bedding is cost effective, and can last for months.
Afterwards, it can be immediately spread on land, adding nutrients and conditioning the soil without depleting nitrogen the way straw and wood chips do.
Peat is acidic so it inhibits growth of pathogens. Sphagnum moss, a component of peat, is a natural antiseptic.
Gurteen Agricultural College have used peat for bedding dry cows and weanlings for a number of years.
They have found a deep layer works best, 76 cm (2.5 feet) is placed in the back of the pen and it slopes down to 25 cm (10 inches) near the slats where the animals feed.
A double slat is used to prevent the peat spilling into the slatted tank.
When the top layer becomes wet, the whole lot is dug up, placed out into the yard, mixed up and put back in.
350 cubic metres (14 silage trailer loads) was used in the winter of 2017/2018 to bed 50 dry cows and 140 weanlings for five months.
The experience of other farmers is that bedding with a 15 cm layer is simpler in that it can be topped up or cleaned out as required.
Calves can appear very dirty on peat moss and it will be necessary to regularly clean off the top layer. Cleaning out used peat moss is more labour demanding than straw.
In the busy spring period, farmers can clean out a straw bedded calving pen with one grab of the loader.
Farmers have successfully used peat in a group calving facility.
Bulk peat is more available in the midlands (there are depots for collection at Tullamore, Thurles, Clane, and Kilcullen) with an artic load (93 cubic metres or 27 tonne) costing €1,581, including VAT, delivered about 70 km.
Organic farmers are not allowed use peat.
Outdoor woodchip pads as standalone entities have gone out of favour. Initially, cheap recycled timber was used. The use of recycled or treated timber on woodchip pads is now illegal. Logs have trebled in price since 2007.
There were also problems with drainage on parts of the pad where there was heavy animal traffic.
Construction of woodchip pads requires planning permission. There may be scope to use woodchip on an existing Class 8 structure (as defined in S.I. No.600/2001 - Planning and Development Regulations, 2001), such as a silage pit where there is adequate storage available for run-off (classified as ‘slurry’ in terms of storage requirement).
Woodchip pads may also have a role as an outside ‘lie back’ for an existing animal house to reduce the demand for indoor bedding, provided, once again, runoff can be collected and stored and the necessary planning permission is obtained.
There is scope to use woodchip for indoor bedding, but there is little experience of this in Ireland.
In Moorepark, when calves were reared on 25 cm of woodchip, the surface became moist, and the woodchip retained moisture. In the UK, the recommendation is to initially place 10 cm of woodchip and top up as required which is generally every 7-10 days, but this is very dependent on the diet.
Woodchip, in general, is very suitable as bedding, animals stay clean and there is little dust.
A 100 cubic metres load weighing 20-25 tonne will cost approximately € 1,230 delivered including VAT.
In the UK, some farmers filter woodchip through a sieve so that it can be re-used in subsequent years. In this scenario, buying a ‘chunky’ woodchip costing €2,000 a load may be attractive (delivered price, including VAT).
Coarse woodchip is preferred, and it is better to secure a supply in the summer as it is likely to be drier.
It is recommended to compost spent woodchip for 2-3 years. It can be spread directly on land, but decomposition will consume soil nitrogen.
Woodchip from outdoor woodchip pads may be contaminated with drainage stone, so it will be necessary to roll it after spreading.
Some farmers spread and plough this material in.
Woodchip can be mixed with peat moss to extend the bedding period of the latter.
Where straw bedding is allowed to accumulate, woodchip can be used as a base layer to reduce straw usage and improve drainage.
At about €8 per bale, rushes are viable as bedding, according to Teagasc. They can be dusty, and there is some evidence that lice can be a bigger problem with old rushes not cut for a few years.
Rushes are a bulky bedding material, not as absorbent as straw. It is important that rushes are allowed to dry out for a few weeks after cutting. Drying will also help to break down the wax coating.
Rush bedding is readily broken down when spread back on land. Spreading it on productive silage ground will reduce the risk of establishing a new stand of rushes. A good ‘crop’ of rushes will yield about eight bales per acre.
Sawdust mixed with straw that came from horse stables has worked well for cattle bedding. Sawdust can be dusty and is not suitable for calves unless cleaned out and replaced regularly.
Calves may also tend to eat sawdust and shavings.
Miscanthus is clean, dust-free, excellent bedding.
Unfortunately, it is generally not available and, like straw, it is also not available to import.
Paper commands a price of €160 per tonne for recycling, and is generally not available for bedding.
Calves can be kept on timber, plastic slats, or concrete slats with a rubber mat and calf jackets. For example, plastic slats include:
- JFC slats of 1.2 m X 0.9 m X 120 mm high at €105 each.
- Easyfix: 2 m X 0.9 m X150 mm high at €130 each (treated timber with rubber top and bottom).
- Durapak:1.51 m X 0.7 m X 89 mm high at €105 each.
Other suppliers include Irish Recycled Products, Birr; Murrays Recycled Plastic, Co Mayo; O’Donnell Engineering, Emily, Co Tipperary.
The prices exclude VAT, but this can be reclaimed on slats and mats.
It is important that the fall in the floor is adequate to drain away urine, to avoid problems with ammonia gas. Good ventilation and regular cleaning are critical with this system. Calves reared on slats are more prone to draughts.
Timber slats made from hardwood may also be constructed (20 to 28 mm gaps and 22 to 50 mm ribs, see Department of Agriculture Specification S124).
Calf jackets can be used to keep calves warm for the first three weeks of life.
They cost approximately €35 per jacket, which is not expensive compared to using one round bale of straw to rear a calf. Each jacket could rear about three calves per year.
It is necessary to separate the calf from its faeces and urine, so slats are the preferred complimentary housing option.
Research indicates no scientific benefit to using calf jackets, although farmer feedback would suggest ‘a nice shine’ after removal of the jackets on calves for sale.
Use of calf jackets on outdoor reared calves has been trialled in Grange for the first six weeks of life, and there was no advantage in terms of calf performance, and ectoparasites proved more troublesome.
Calf jackets need to be washable.
- See more information, including suppliers, in the report by Tom Fallon, Teagasc, at www.teagasc.ie/media/website/publications/2018/Alternatives-to-straw-bedding-July-2018.pdf
