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Columbia City, Indiana | Just wondering how some of the feedlot guys manage bedding. I've seen pics of the big sand piles they use out west. For my small (18) group, I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do. Two years ago, I bedded at least once a week with straw, and by spring it was a wet mess in there, the cattle had lice or something and were rubbing all over gates and posts, etc. So last year, I decided I wasn't going to put any straw in there until it got wet. It's just a dirt floor in the shed where the calves lay, and amazingly all winter long their urine, etc seemed to soak into the floor and it stayed fairly dry in there. Didn't have the problems with lice or whatever, either. The past two years before this year I had 12 head in there, probably a 20 x 50 space. This year, with a few more calves, I gave them double the space, figuring they would need more room to get inside. It's not staying quite as dry in there though. But I'm afraid to use straw or something for bedding because it'll be a wet mess like two years ago, which could cause lice, etc. Some of the guys around here that feed cattle don't bed them, and they seem to do fine. Some guys put cornstalk bales, etc in there. I have plenty of those on hand. The shed is open fronted and faces south. The calves are in the east half of it. I use the west half to store hay. | |
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Bedding question
