Why should you consider wood chip bedding?
This year’s shortage of bedding-quality straw is a fact. There are multiple reasons that have led to its unprecedented scarcity. Poor weather conditions during harvesting seem an obvious reason. This, however, was followed by dry spring. If you add strong demand from renewable energy plants, you have a recipe for the situation that we are in at the moment. So what can you do? Fortunately, you can use alternative bedding. We have prepared a comparison of some options, including wood chip bedding, so have a look below.
Comparison of livestock bedding
Wood chip
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
Reusable throughout multiple seasons, clean. |
Requires dry storage. Must use highest quality wood chip for animal welfare. |
Use wood chip below 30% moisture to manage bacterial growth. |
Sawdust
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
Comfortable and clean solution, ideal for deep littering. |
Requires regular maintenance – dry matter decreases after absorbing urine. |
Consider dealing with damp, moulds, and bacterial growth. |
Paper
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
Easy to store and dispose of. |
Must be removed if paper gets wet or sets hard. |
If wet allows pathogens to flourish. If clumped and be difficult to spread. |
Crushed-husks
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
Easy maintenance. Can be mixed with other products such as lime. |
Requires dry storage conditions |
Easy disposal on land. Doesn’t set hard on beds and remains free flowing for cow comfort. |
Lime - Calcium carbonate
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
No bacterial growth. |
Can be spread on fields but advisable to analyse soils first because of its alkaline nature. |
Easy disposal on land. Doesn’t set hard on beds and remains free flowing for cow comfort. |
Sand
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
Worth knowing |
|
Clean, dust-free and well-drained bed. Good for deep-litter beds. |
Can accelerate wear in slurry handling equipment and concrete surfaces. Also will stick to teats, udder and wear hooves. |
Can be spread on the land, but be aware of long-term effect on soil pH. |
