Transcript Using Dairy Manure Solids as Bedding

Cornell Waste
Management Institute
Using Dairy Manure Solids (DMS) as Bedding:
Properly managed DMS can provide an economic benefit without compromising herd health
Mary Schwarz and Jean Bonhotal
RESEARCH QUESTION: Are bacterial concentrations in the bedding
different for the various farm/bedding strategies?
UNUSED BEDDING: Sand, composted DMS and solids
that were digested started out with lower bacterial levels
than the “green” DMS.
USED BEDDING: However, those strategies that started out with
“clean” bedding tended to have significantly higher levels of bacteria in
used bedding, indicating the bedding may have started out too clean
(i.e. no competition from other bacteria).
*NO DMS STRATEGY IS BETTER/DIFFERENT THAN ANY
OTHER IN TERMS OF THE PRODUCT PRODUCED.
RESEARCH QUESTION: Do the bacterial counts in the unused bedding have an effect on the bacterial counts in the used
bedding?
Bacteria in the unused bedding had little to no effect on bacteria in the used indicating that bacterial levels in used bedding are
more dependent on bacterial levels in the manure of the cows using the stalls and how well the stalls are scraped, rather than the
cleanliness of the bedding before it is placed in the stalls.
MASTITIS: Although mastitis differed among farm/bedding strategies, bacteria levels and properties of bedding
had no effect on mastitis incidence.
SCC: TWO UNEXPECTED RESPONSES: More Klebsiella in the used bedding for one bedding system saw fewer
cows with high cell count, and greater moisture and fine particles in used bedding in a different bedding system
saw fewer cows with high cell count.
Factors Affecting the Number of Cows with > 200,000
cells/ml for each FBS
Farm/Bedding
Factors
B - Windrow
Season, Lactation #
C - Digested
Lactation #, Moisture and fine particles in used bedding (-)
D – Separated 1
Season, Milk production (-)
E – Drum
Lactation #, Milk production (-), Klebsiella in used bedding (-)
E – Sand
Lactation #
E – Separated 2
Lactation #
F – Separated 3
Milk production (-)
*BEDDING SAMPLE ANALYSIS FOR BACTERIAL LEVELS MAY NOT NECESSARILY RETURN USEFUL
INFORMATION FOR ENHANCING HERD HEALTH.
ECONOMICS OF
DMS:
Economic analysis
showed an average
savings of 12 cents
per hundred weight
of milk produced
through the use of
manure solids as
bedding on five
farms.
Total Costs and Returns From Using Manure Solids as Bedding on Five Study Farms
Farm
B
C
D
E
F
Returns (d) = a + b + c
DMS Sales Savings on
Savings on
(a)
Manure
purchased
Hauling (b)
bedding (c)
$0
$5,490
$57,200
$0
$8,450
$44,800
$0
$8,325
$53,082
$0
$8,425
$156,115
$15,000
$50,000
$81,600
Expenses
Total Fixed and
Variable
Expenses (e)
$51,750
$22,236
$59,856
$87,161
$79,257
Savings
Annual Cost to Annual Cost per
Farm =
Hundred Weight of
(e – d)
Milk
-$10,940
-$0.05
-$31,014
-$0.08
-$1,552
-$0.01
-$77,378
-$0.20
-$67,343
-$0.26
For more information on using DMS as bedding, go to our website at: http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/bedding.htm
Cornell Waste Management Institute ● Department of Crop and Soil Sciences ● cwmi.css.cornell.edu ● [email protected]