New Study Shows Economics of Dairy Manure Solids as Bedding
Cornell Waste Management Institute recently conducted a study looking at the use of dairy manure solids as bedding material in terms of the impact on herd health and farm economics. With sawdust bedding getting harder to find and more expensive, many dairy farms have been looking for alternatives. I have heard of some people finding success using shredded newspaper, some replacing half of their sawdust with lime. But there has been a lot of interest recently (especially with more farmers installing anaerobic digesters which produce digested dairy manure solids as a byproduct) in using the separated solids from dairy manure as a bedding alternative. It's pretty dry, doesn't smell bad, and looks a lot like TMR...Why not?
Of course, the rather large looming question is: "Will DMS have higher levels of bacteria than other forms of bedding which will increase the likelihood of infection in my herd?"
Well that is what Cornell Waste Management Institute set out to discover. In addition, they took a look at the costs associated with DMS bedding and also the savings. They are currently still analyzing the results of the herd health component (Click here for updates), but have completed the economic analysis and found that the five farms participating in the economic portion of the study saved an average of $37,000 per year! Check out this article in "The Manager" for more information.