Managing Free Stall Bedding Materials: Organic bedding
To continue from our last post on managing sand bedding, we’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the use of organic bedding.
For farms that cannot or choose not to use washed sand as bedding, organic bedding is also an option. According to Joe Hogan of Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Ohio State University, the material selected will influence the amount and type of mastitis pathogens in the environment. Hogan’s full-length report can be found in the June 2016 issue of M-2 Magazine.
Environmental mastitis pathogens each utilize different bedding materials as a food source for growth with different efficiencies. Factors affecting how they use different bedding materials include type of bedding material (straw, sawdust and/or chopped paper), particle size, and environmental factors, such as moisture and ambient temperature.
Particle size has an influence on teat exposure to environmental
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