Cornell Waste Management Institute Using Dairy Manure Solids (DMS) as Bedding: Properly managed DMS can provide an economic benefit without compromising herd health Mary Schwarz and Jean Bonhotal RESEARCH QUESTION: Are bacterial concentrations in the bedding different for the various farm/bedding strategies? UNUSED BEDDING: Sand, composted DMS and solids that were digested started out with lower bacterial levels than the “green” DMS. USED BEDDING: However, those strategies that started out with “clean” bedding tended to have significantly higher levels of bacteria in used bedding, indicating the bedding may have started out too clean (i.e. no competition from other bacteria). Cornell Waste Management Institute ● Department of Crop and Soil Sciences ● cwmi.css.cornell.edu ● MASTITIS: Although mastitis differed among farm/bedding strategies, bacteria levels and properties of bedding had no effect on mastitis incidence. SCC: TWO UNEXPECTED RESPONSES: More Klebsiella in the used bedding for one bedding system saw fewer cows with high cell count, and greater moisture and fine particles in used bedding in a different bedding system saw fewer cows with high cell count. Farm/BeddingFactors B - WindrowSeason, Lactation # C - DigestedLactation #, Moisture and fine particles in used bedding (-) D – Separated 1Season, Milk production (-) E – DrumLactation #, Milk production (-), Klebsiella in used bedding (-) E – SandLactation # E – Separated 2Lactation # F – Separated 3Milk production (-) Factors Affecting the Number of Cows with > 200,000 cells/ml for each FBS *BEDDING SAMPLE ANALYSIS FOR BACTERIAL LEVELS MAY NOT NECESSARILY RETURN USEFUL INFORMATION FOR ENHANCING HERD HEALTH. ECONOMICS OF DMS: Economic analysis showed an average savings of 12 cents per hundred weight of milk produced through the use of manure solids as bedding on five farms. RESEARCH QUESTION: Do the bacterial counts in the unused bedding have an effect on the bacterial counts in the used bedding? Bacteria in the unused bedding had little to no effect on bacteria in the used indicating that bacterial levels in used bedding are more dependent on bacterial levels in the manure of the cows using the stalls and how well the stalls are scraped, rather than the cleanliness of the bedding before it is placed in the stalls. Returns (d) = a + b + cExpensesSavings FarmDMS Sales (a) Savings on Manure Hauling (b) Savings on purchased bedding (c) Total Fixed and Variable Expenses (e) Annual Cost to Farm = (e – d) Annual Cost per Hundred Weight of Milk B$0$5,490$57,200$51,750-$10,940-$0.05 C$0$8,450$44,800$22,236-$31,014-$0.08 D$0$8,325$53,082$59,856-$1,552-$0.01 E$0$8,425$156,115$87,161-$77,378-$0.20 F$15,000$50,000$81,600$79,257-$67,343-$0.26 *NO DMS STRATEGY IS BETTER/DIFFERENT THAN ANY OTHER IN TERMS OF THE PRODUCT PRODUCED. Total Costs and Returns From Using Manure Solids as Bedding on Five Study Farms For more information on using DMS as bedding, go to our website at: