Alternative bedding, sand.

Fii

Fii

Well-Known Member
Joined
28 July 2009
Messages
5,735
Location
Dorset
Visit site
A lot of large dairy farmers use sand to bed down their cows , now i know that their system is different than ours, as the cows are in cubicles, and they poo, outside of them, but the sand is cleaned and recycled, so no real waste.
Has anybody used sand in their stables?
I have been pondering this for a few days, and wonder if it would feasable, and what the pro's and con's would be.

What do you think??:)
 
Don't even go there:)

Dozens of other types of bedding to use, personally I'd try something else first. I don't know anything about farming cattle so can't comment, but horses/food and sand - trouble waiting to happen.

My Vet deals with a lot of sand colic cases because locally, our ground is so sandy and sand ingestion is common especially here where horses are often in dry lots.
 
Agree with the above poster. Sand colic is even an issue when horses are turned out with some forage in schools, so definitely not to bed down in. Not good.

Egg boxes are a very cheap alternative, I have seen this in a horsey mag somewhere. Google it, as it's a good use for a waste so to speak. They are very absorbant, comfy and they wont eat them!
x
 
I don't know about using sand for horses,but I would say the above comments are correct. I know that we wouldn't even use it on our cows but we are fussy about our cows and though it looks like this years straw bill could be towards £15,000, we wouldn't skimp or change. My horse I use Auoboise and find that works really well and cheapish to maintain once started and lovely to muck out.
 
There was a kind of "cat litter" bedding being promoted a few years ago in North America, which looked very efficient, economical etc. But they just couldn't get it to take hold because it looked so different than people are used to and everyone is hardwired to think horses prefer a cushy bed when in fact, if you watch them on their own time, they hardly ever lie down in deep grass, much prefering harder, dry, clean areas.

My guess is they get away with sand for cows because they never get a chance to eat off the bedding and/or because their totally different digestive system reduces the risk of sand colic.
 
All good points, i am not thinking of changing to sand, it came up in conversation between me and the OH, and i thought i would, throw out the question on here, to see what others thought.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top