Deep Bedding for Cattle: Our Experience
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ค. 2024
- A deep bedding/deep litter system can be a great way to provide a comfortable winter environment for cattle. It provides animals with a warm, soft bed, saves pen maintenance labor, and provides a jump start to manure composting as part of a farm's fertility program. We have been building our cattle's deep bedding pack for three months ...What have our experiences been so far?
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Overview of deep bedding: www.regenerativefarmersofamer...
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Hi everyone. One thing I forgot to mention in the video is the use of pigs to root through the bedding to turn and aerate it after the cattle have left for pasture in the spring. This is a practice popularized by Joel Salatin. Joel uses wood chips as his carbon source in the bedding pack, and sprinkles kernel corn in the pack as it is built. The corn ferments in the pack, and when pigs are released onto the pack, they root in search of the fermented, sweet corn kernels. In the early years of our farm, we tried this practice with our hay-based bedding packs. Unfortunately, the hay pack was compacted too much for the pigs to root in it too deeply and this method did not work. This gets back to the problems with having a pack that is too dense for optimal aerobic fermentation. We have found that when we remove the pack in the spring and it is piled outside for further composting, this turns, loosens, and aerates the pack enough to get aerobic composting started.
Actually this method was popularized by Edible Acres who does it with chicken 🍗
@@barebones5884 Ok, I disagree, but it's not really an important point. Joel's been doing it for much longer. Chickens are really poor at working tight material loose on a large scale. EA has a really small setup usually consisting of household waste and tree litter.
Thank-you!
@@barebones5884 In his earlier videos about it, Sean actually credits Joel Salatin with the idea.
Is there a good source for woodchips nearby? Must be cheaper and more available than hay? Though if you have hay that isn't suitable for consumption, then why not. Good luck! I use deep bedding for my chickens and makes awesome compost for the garden.
I am 70+ years old and grew up on a mixed farm that included both dairy , registered Black Angus and terminal breed feeders . In that cold winter environment bedding pack was a key component of stock health. We grew cereal crops for both feed and barley for the malting . We bailed the straw , my Father used to say we were borrowing it from the soil as it got returned as manure. I remember morning feeding in -30 weather as the cattle got up from their spot it their sheds the beds would be steaming , we bedded by hand and you soon learn. Your feet are going to be toasty warm. Thanks for bringing this to everyone!
Thank-you!
Me too southern Mich. in the early 50's
You got to do what you got to do for your animals and 😮😊you and what's good for your farm
@@lorrainestafford3809Very true you do the best Job that you can and what you can afford 😊
The part about beneficial bacteria reminded me of a video I saw several years ago about a woman that was making yogurt with raw milk to sell. She was using wood buckets for the process and never had any issues with anyone getting sick. The FDA swooped in and said she had to use stainless steel containers and that they had to be sterilized before each use. She then started having issues with the yogurt spoiling early and a few of her customers started to get sick from eating it. She got a hold of some experts and a legal team and they found that the use of wooden buckets allowed an environment for good bacteria to thrive which killed off the bad bacteria. She ended up wining a legal battle and was able to go back to using wooden buckets. It just goes to show that sometimes you just need to let nature do it's thing and not intervene.
Nothing like sterilization and anti-biotics to bring out the real dangerous stuff. If you kill all the other stuff, what's left is the stuff that you can't kill.
Similar to a study I saw years ago about cutting boards. Man-made material boards were compared to wood cutting boards and the wood boards were found to be far more sanitary.
The barn extention is a real game changer. Nice upgrade. Good investment.
Great video Pete . Very informative. I’m 66 years old and I learn something every time I watch your videos . Thank you so much . God Bless .
Your cattle are living their best life Pete!
I have been watching you for a few years. The education you give is very valuable and there should be a course taught in school and college on farming and how to become a farmer and the benefit of the small farm for a community. Small farms can sustain a community economically, food source for local markets and all around just good for the surrounding communities in which the farm is operating. We would depend less on foreign food or genetically modified and process foods if we look to our local farmers the way it used to be. I for one wouldn't mind paying more for better food and support my local farmers and community. It's a win win situation if we would do it
Better yet. It would be nice to see your local FFA have kids volunteer to come and learn from someone like you.
Yes!
Yes! High schools and colleges are too focused on a lot of nonsense and not enough on practical real world self sufficiency!
He is creating a library right in front of us. Loving this.
Thank you so much Pete for showing us how God made the world to take care of His creatures - both us and our animals. Science is simply to study what He did so we know how to work with it to be kind to them and feed ourselves. Thanks again for all you do and your cheerful kindly presentation of information, a rarity on (anti) social media. God bless you and your family and Just a Few Acres.
Its so cool how kind the cows are when you ask them to leave. So polite!
That is because he is kind to them , he interacts with them so they are not afraid of him , unlike other famers who have way too many cows to be friendly to them all . And Pete has basically hand raised all his cows, and his bulls. They are tame compared to the huge farms.
Probably how most cattle husbandry operations were until large corporate farms. Or before huge grasslands were met. @@snarky4lyfe144
COME ON COWS! COME ON COWS!
Good morning ...we used deep bedding for our dairy heifers ...and now my husband and I use this method in our chicken coop during the winter.
Interesting. I was curious how this would work with chickens and sheep. Seems at least it works with chickens.
Thank YOU Pete! As a person who grew up from age 15 to 21 on'The Farm' I am appreciative of what You and family do... I do miss it...GOD, bless
I appreciated how you showed the layering to the bedding pack and how that affects composting success. I like all your videos, but this one was especially interesting.
Best "dad joke" yet, delivery, timing and subject....just perfect!
I found your channel a few days ago and I love it! I grew up on a small dairy farm in NW washington state. The farm has been sold and my dad passed away after working the farm for 60 years. I was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year and had brain surgery and radiation that left me with cognitive deficits so I can't work anymore. I often have anxiety as a side effect. Watching you farm brings me so much peace. Takes me back to my childhood and to better days. Thank you!
Pete: I watched this episode and it validated something for me. When I was growing up on our dairy farm, the cow barn was cleaned out in the spring. This was the standard practice as cleaning the barn during the winter was infeasible. As the winter went on and more bedding was added, the level of manure grew to a depth of 3 to 4 feet some years. It was difficult to spread the bedding when the manure was this thick as one had to stoop over due to lack of clearance. It was the practice in those days and your video has validated the work. I feel good that we did the right thing! Thanks
I think their bedding is more supportive than my fancy dancy mattress! Thanks for the episode, Pete!
I love this method, what a wonderful compost that's going to be. Really saves on your labor and your equipment. Love to see your cows when you add their new fresh layer. They act like it's the best thing in the world and for them it's great for them. Blessings
Yes, well composted manure is the best thing that The Creator, God makes!
@@johncourtneidge love it!
Love how your videos are educational for everyone that doesn't understand how things work on old school farm. We clean our barn out twice a year. Spring and fall, before crops and after crops. Nice that it gives off heat in the winter to help keep the barn a little warmer. Thanks Pete
Pete, one thing we have experienced is that with the deep pack the preasure on the post increases, we have snapped a few of older post off, we have since added stub post along the outside walls…love the videos, thanks so much!
I love this show 🐄🚜 your method of explaining things in an easy to understand way is super helpful. Thanks Pete 🙏🏽💗🌱
The best part of the video for me was the glimpse we had of the cattle FROLICKING in the new added hay!
I grew up on a grain and livestock farm in central Illinois, where we fead about 70 to 80 head of beef cattle on dry lot every year . Never heard of "Deep Pack " bedding, but that is exactly the method we used, The feedlot was all concrete and we used oat straw bedding almost daily this was supplemented with corn cobs when they were available and was needed. The feedlot was cleaned out once a year ,and by then it could be up to 30 inches deep. Great fertilizer,
Just found you last month & have been watching all the videos with a thumbs up. Like them all I’m 75 & too old to start farming but I like learning I also like the rebuilding tractors which I’ll never do but I am restoring a 66 Chevy pickup, by watching you can pick up tips to use elsewhere thanks I enjoy very much all of them
Absolutely, still love how informative your videos are. As always, thank you for sharing your videos.
We used this method every year here in the UK. Worked really well. Great video. All the best 🇬🇧.
Thank Pete for educating us I get more from your explain to us all the details as far as how to upkeep the animals how to maintain farm equipment and all of your resources that you need to have a running farm.
you have explained this in passing... thank you for the focus... See you next time pete...
Come on Dad...can we come in now??? We're hungry and little tired and please stop stepping on our bed! Good video - very informative, have a great week and we'll see you again soon!!!
I love ALL you videos. The one you did 2 years ago, when you were sitting in the field trying to get Rusty to come to you. That was so relaxing to watch. I have seen tour videos so much, I know all your jokes.
Excellent informative video. Thank you Pete,.
Great explanation of the Bedding process. I noticed Orden and his Nemesis were the first two back inside!. Orrden was peeking in the gate/door while you were explaining things. thanks for sharing. ECF
An excellent explanation of the deep bedding pack system. When I was farming we used the system all the time with straw as the brown product. We had one shed with 100 cattle in it and a long feed face where silage was fed. The bedding pack at the end of the winter was about 8 (eight) feet tall and very cosy / warm. The cattle would be in from October to April and we never mucked them out until they’d all gone. The feed barriers were very similar to yours and we would raise them about once a month from December time. The gap underneath was filled in using old wooden railway sleepers and a loader tractor. The water trough was on a block plinth (made of wooden railway sleepers) and was also raised using railway sleepers laid on top of the plinth. The base floor was concrete which made mechanical cleaning out very simple. We would sometimes get poor quality silage and this was put onto the bedding pack.
I would recommend aiming for a deeper bedding pack and particularly from mid winter onwards. Using a tractor loader to raise the barriers is a practical proposition if the system is set up at the beginning of the in wintering period. We used old wooden railway sleepers and lot of them there must be similar products available where you are. The advantage of wood is that you can cut them to the size you want fairly easily with mechanical saws etc.. A small lorry load of second hand sleepers would be more than enough for a barn 20x 40 feet.
Railway sleepers are impregnated with highly toxic chemicals to keep them from rotting. The water throug made from them sends shivers up my spine.
As for cutting, they make a chainsaw chain dull real fast, because of on the sand on their surface. My dad got a load of them in the 80's when we first got a woodburning boiler.
Fair comment about railway sleepers particularly about the products used to preserve them which is why they make good items for muck retention. We were using them in the 1970’s when eco considerations weren’t so prevalent. They were almost indestructible but that said they all eventually ended up as scrap. Re cutting them you are correct we tried chain saws but in the end we only used old chains on clean sleepers. Dirty sleepers we used concrete cutters. Today I think only concrete railway sleepers are available in the UK and these may be an alternative source. Old metal motorway barriers could also be an alternative and these could be cut.
Corn stock shredding was also a method that was use to give pigs a warm place to root in during the winter months.
There’s another channel called Sonne Farms on TH-cam. They are farmers and beef producers in South Dakota and they still use shredded corn stalks for bedding their cattle at times. Good folks with a great family friendly channel.
Watching the cattle enjoy new hay on their deep litter pack is the greatest.
Thank-you! I did the same with winter-housed sheep, but on straw on a concrete floor, back in the day.
Another benefit is that the composting pile isn't being leached by rain.
Growing by leaps and bounds😂😂😂
Wonderful how well the barn edition is working for you all😎
Thank you for teaching the Farm illiterate individuals about the old practices farming I learned this from my Grandparents when they were alive we'll see the old practices go away without an illiterate Society and the increasing generations who refuse the old life.
I'm am so glad that you are teaching with it because keep up the good work up thank you for going the old way I do know that it is very less stressful than the new practices of farming.
Your education on old barn practices is better than present farm practices.
Sincerely!
R.S.V.
Looks like a great system to me! Anything that keeps you both from having to do extra labor while benefitting the cows is good in my book. And it's lots of fun to see the cattle romping around when a fresh layer is added.
We composted our dead cattle and had 2 foot of used bedding or feed below, around, and above the dead cattlle. Penn State extension agent took its temperature and it averaged about 160°F. All but the head and hips of a mature cow composted in 6 months.
Thank you for all this information, I wondered how you could stand the smell the manure and now I know that it isn't a bad smell. I learn from you every day!!
Yes. Another thing I learned from Joel Salatin is that if a farm smells, then something is wrong with their manure management. Smell is a sign that nutrients are leaking off the farm.
@@JustaFewAcresFarm I must have a lot of nutrients leaking off my body
Pete, thanks for show and tell about getting the right hay for the cow's bed.. My grandpa used the same method..
It looks like Orden and Titus are getting along better.
Yep brings back memory's
This is like the Ritz for cattle! ❤My dad always bedded his cattle, no roof but bedded. I see places around that the cattle get hay outside & no bedding. Not a good deal😮
I found this fascinating, Pete. I remember reading this in Joel's book and seeing it on his farm. There's great wisdom in the old ways, isn't there? Steve
Who would have know that cow pooh could be so interesting and important on a farm. The knowledge that a farmed has is unbelievable, where would be without Farmers............ btim SWPa.
As always great info. Great way to learn farming from my Office Chair. Thanks for what you do.
Great idea. Don´t forget Pete, it´s winter. A very mild one, but far from summer warm for decomposition. Also difference betwen your outside manure pile and in the barn is concrete slab. Outside it´s probably full of earth worm not counting bacteria that came from the soil. Next time try with few buckets of soil, preferably with a good worm population.
I do some growing inside in the winter. I had plenty of bad apples and pears well rotten. Put them in the soil (anaeroby in my pot with
"Brand new" bags of gardening soil with mycorhizes. Now i have a mushroom growing. In cooler solarium i can see that white stuff rootings good. Pretty cool to see my brocolis removed from the field under snow in late fall and seeing them now blossoming. I got 2 of these pesky butterflies that hatched. I won´t cultivate them outside in summer. They´ll stay in buckets for winter growth. They love that colder temperature
I´m on north shore of St Lawrence river.
I love seeing your interactions with the animals. Highlights your husbandry abilities. They would not be so kind if you and the family were not. Great showing of, you get out what you put in. One of the reasons I've been subbed for a good while. Thank you for bringing us along.
Awesome video Pete thank you! I love the system of deep bedding. In the older days sometime the floor was under a slope (at least in the Netherlands we did), to let the urine drain to one side and not to make the bedding pack to wet.
Speaking for our 400 cow organic farm...we use deep bedding packs for all our heifers. They come off pasture oct-nov, we clean them in Jan. By then our big heifer shed is 4ft deep. That's 100 head getting 10-12 3x3 bales a week. It takes a lot of carbon to get the right ratio, also having proper draining.
too cool for school...very interesting...the old ways often seem to be the best
8:23 this must be the first time ever Ive seen Pete convert temperatures correctly without joking about it haha
Thanks for the information about your working practices Pete. 🙂👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
That's good animal husbandry there, Pete. Nice work.
Thanks Pete, I love it when you use your channel to educate us.. Even those of us who don't actively farm need to keep learning.
Who on earth cannot benefit buy your advice, bless you ,
Thanks for always saying the Celsius for us Canadians
Very educational and very interesting. Thanks, Pete!
Sounds like the cows love it!!
The re-discovery of ancient wisdom about the unseen world of bacteria and its potential to be harnessed for human good (whether it be gut health (human or cow) or in agriculture) is one of my favorite stories of the last two decades. It's part of the story that led to the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Great video.
Thanks for sharing Pete! AS always, appreciate your videos and the educational material that you are so good at sharing. Thanks again, take care, & stay safe.
Hi Pete! I remember when I was very young the old fellow that used to own my dad's farm used to do bedding pack with his feeder cattle. It would be 3 or 4 feet thick by pasture time. We used sawdust for the most part. Dad still uses sawdust under his draft oxen. In my opinion sawdust makes the barn smell nice. Some old barns around here had trap doors in the wood floor of the barn with a basement to where the manure would go. I was told that's where they kept their pigs in winter so they'd be warm.
We leave our cattle on the range all winter and then feed them hay and cake. We need heat makers so they’ll winter through okay. They’re bred for our harsh winters which can go to 45 below and sometimes even colder. The coldest I’ve seen here was 60 below, not real common but 40+ below is common. Seems we always get a blizzard around calving time in March and April. We keep our heifers close by in case we need to get the OB chains which is rare as they’re bred for ease of calving. We used to feed calves but now we sell in October and keep some replacement heifers. We brand in June before the calves get too big. We use a calf table now but we used to heel them using horses which was faster but we don’t have horse anymore except for pleasure riding. All the best and I think you have it figured out plumb good.
I notice you don't separate all the hay when you bed it, but lay it out like a blanket. What if you made sure all the hay is perfectly loose and not in a blanket, and then bed about half a bale, but do it twice a week? We used to make sure our straw was loose and airy, and then we bedded every evening. I enjoy watching (and listening) to you. Keep it up.
Love your channel Pete. Thank you. 👍
We started raising goats this last summer and decided this was the method we wanted to use for winter. It's worked out extremely well! I sit on the floor to milk, and it's surprisingly toasty! So we decided to try it for the bird coop and it's worked out very well in there also. We use a mix of cut grass and pine shavings for the goats, and pine shavings for the birds.
Wow, it is absolutely amazing to see how much love and passion you inject into your farm.
Thank you for making those videos.
I remember as a kid in the 80's, we did deep bedding for our Jersey heifers. Once spring came around and it was warm enough for the cows to be turned outside everyday (lived in Atlantic Canada). We had a John Deere 600 industrial loader tractor that they would pin on a large custom built bucket for cleaning out the heifer barn.
great informative video pete. we deep bed here in southern ontario canada. mainly because im lazy in the winter but also because it gives a good amount of heat. only drawback was when i cleaned it out about a month before lambing, some ewes got hit with foot scald. all that deep bedding was keeping the bacteria down underneath the straw and as soon as i took it out, i released all the hellions. it would have happened if i were cleaning it regularly as we had a nasty warmer than usual winter here, so just goes to show how a good deep bedding system can really keep things clean!
Been there done that i think this is my back problem never got tractor till i was 14 years old 1957 love your show bring back good mems
Very interesting video.
Thanks for making my morning coffee better.
Peter i m glad to see your back. It must have to do with its february. Closer to haying and sunshine.
Good day to all, peace .
Don't forget to start making plans to raise the feeding bars and maybe the gate. Easy to let it slide and find the cows have jumped it or are caught half in half out. Great video and thanks.
What a system!
We always do this in our dairy maternity pens. If a cow comes down with milk fever it's easier for her to get footing to stand up again. When we do clean it out we only do half a pen at a time. Been doing this all of my life.
Never did I think I would find this topic interesting 😂 can't wait for April now.
Thank you for the video
Another advantage of the bedding pack is the cows can get up with no slipping like concrete
I have done the same thing every year,mostly because of necessity ( to much snow and cold to clean)anyway I have found that yes the twmp are low during cold months but as soon as you clean and pile that pack that pack is black dirt by fall and the best time to spread on summer pastures..
Great stuff , props go to mother nature and biology.
Great job, I have a lot more naps, much needed
Thanks for the great explanation and another great video!
Nice job Pete I like your barn also very nice I like how you represent your post nice work ☺️
Another great video
I find the optimal combination is hay and woodchips. I have a 6" chipper and make chips from tree tops and thinning of my woodlot. I also use slabwood. Little easier to dig out as well. I do find that to keep the cows really clean I need to renew the bedding multiple times a week - but I don't put as deep a layer as Pete does
I roll out hay bales on pasture right now. There are benefits to that, but I really would prefer to move to deep bedding in the future. I hate to start without having the bedding pack covered by a barn or shed. Unfortunately, that change would require the reappropriation of funds that are needed in other places right now. Such is life. Great video! Thanks!
Great information. Thanks Pete. 👍
As always....a GREAT video!
So glad to hear youre sticking with the deep litter system. The greatest benefit to myself is the ease of it, so much less work.
First video I’ve seen you post on Saturday
I would put a foot of wood chips on bottom and then continue with your hay after that. It’ll give the pack porous structure
So you do know Celsius conversions, lol 😅 keep up the awesome videos.
Agreed it made a serious video funny
❤for these wonderful weekend videos.
Excellent explanation. Thanks for your time, talent and thoughts.
Thank you 😊
Very Interesting video thanks Pete.
All great info Pete, thanks
Your explanation is so very well done. Thank you.
Your Fahrenheit and Celsius comparisons were quite accurate...hmm...lol. Great video, very imformative