Bedding for Dairy Cattle

Bedding for Dairy Cattle

Every dairy facility utilizes some type of bedding for the cows, young stock and calves, but what they use will vary depending on the seasons, climate and facilities. Dr. Pete Erickson, Professor of Dairy Management and Extension Dairy Specialist at the University of New Hampshire says that where you are located will often determine what you use, depending on what’s available, and your climate.

Marcia Endres, PhD (Professor and Extension Dairy Specialist in the Animal Science Department at the University of Minnesota) has worked with more than 600 dairies in that region and has done some research on a number of things that affect dairy cattle, including bedding. She says that no matter what kind of bedding you use, the principles are the same. You want the cattle to be dry, clean and comfortable. Those are the three things to always think about, keeping in mind the season of the year,” she says.

“Different classes of animals have different needs for bedding, but it is always important. We have done a lot of research on cow comfort and animal welfare, and having some sort of bedding is key for comfort. We can’t put cows on concrete, for example because this can create lesions, lameness and a lot of other problems,” she says.

Bedding for Cows

Sand

“Ideally, in my opinion, the best bedding for cows is sand,” says Erickson. “It is inorganic (less apt to harbor bacteria or provide habitat for organisms that might cause mastitis). You just need to make sure it receives regular raking and is clean. Nothing is 100% perfect for bedding. The downside with sand is that it raises havoc with machinery if you use a chain manure scraper or anything like that; it causes issues with chains and moving parts. If you use sand you probably will be cleaning it out with a skid steer,” he says.

“We’ve done quite a bit of work here with cows, looking at things like lameness incidence in free-stall barns and confinement,” says Endres. “We always find that the best bedding is sand. It is dry, comfortable—providing a good cushion—and inorganic. It provides good traction for when the cows get up and lie down.” They don’t slip around on sand like they would with some other surfaces.

“These animals are huge and heavy, producing a lot of milk, and sand provides a good environment. Sand has become very common in free-stall barns where cows can have comfortable bed. We use sand for cows year-round here, even in winter, because they are large animals that produce a lot of body heat. Once they lie down on sand, they warm it up,” she says.

“If the cows are bedded on sand, once a week you put in more sand. For organic bedding on top of mattresses you might be putting more bedding onto those mattresses more often—like every other day or two times a week—since every time you clean it a little more comes off. There is equipment you can attach to a skid loader which is like a side shooter that blows/shoots the new bedding into the stalls.” Many farms use this type of equipment, enabling people to apply the bedding a little more evenly as well as quickly and efficiently.

Dairies do the best they can to avoid overcrowding the animals in barns that do not have sand—making sure they have a good layer of some sort of bedding on top of the mattresses or waterbeds, and that the stalls are designed correctly for the size of the animals. “The more uncomfortable the bed, the more lesions you’ll see on cows in a mattress barn. If the surface is abrasive and the cows are moving a lot because they are uncomfortable this creates lesions on their hocks, for example. You need to make stalls the appropriate size so the cows feel comfortable enough to lie down more and not cause injury to themselves,” says Endres. If they are not lying down enough because they are uncomfortable lying down, this can adversely affect milk production, as well.

Recycled Manure Solids

Other things that can be used for bedding include manure solids. “This requires a liquid/solid separator,” says Erickson. “We recommend that it be dried, and then you can recycle those manure solids. In the Southwest—an arid region—we see a lot of manure solids used as bedding. A few farms here use manure solids but this material must be dried out. Don’t use raw manure solids,” says Erickson.

“In places like California or the Southwest where it’s more arid, we often see bedding created from recycled manure solids,” says Endres. “The manure is put through a press that presses out the liquid and leaves the fibrous material that is drier and it can be used for bedding,” she says.

“We did some research with recycled manure bedding and it is basically 84% fiber. This is the fibrous material from the feed that didn’t get digested and comes on through in the manure. If we press out the liquid and separate it out, we get this fibrous material that can be used for bedding.” This is another option—other than sand—and can be utilized as deep bedding, because it is relatively soft and dry.

“Recycled manure bedding is quite commonly used, especially in the West, more than the Midwest or Northeast. We use it sometimes in the Midwest on some farms, but it’s a bit more challenging for us because we have a more humid climate. When it’s humid or cold, that material doesn’t dry as well. Wet bedding is not good because it can lead to bacterial growth. With dairy cows we must always think about mastitis and try to avoid situations that might lead to that problem,” says Endres.

“The first option might be sand and the second option could be these deep solids, or solids on top of stall mattresses and waterbeds for dairy cows. That surface is not only cushioning and comfortable but then we put bedding on top of it to absorb moisture and provide even more cushion. Even the farms that have mattresses or waterbeds need to put some material on top of it,” she says.

That material can be cleaned off at every milking, which would usually be two or three times a day. While the cow is being milked, people come into the stalls and rake that bedding off and get rid of any manure and wet spots so it will be clean again when the cows come back.

Wood Shavings

“In our region, with forested areas, we use a lot of wood shavings for bedding because that’s what we have readily available,” says Erickson. “Shavings make comfortable bedding but they are organic so you have to make sure you can keep them clean. Another challenge with shavings is that if they are what we call green shavings rather than kiln dried, there is some potential for more pathogens in those raw shavings, directly out of sawmills.”

Straw

In regions of the country with a lot of small grain production, straw is often used. “Straw here is extremely expensive because there isn’t much produced and it would be too expensive to haul it here—so we don’t see much straw being used,” he says.

Compost Bed Packs

“In free-stall situations I like sand the best because it is inorganic. Around here and in the upper Midwest, however, we see a lot of compost bed-pack barns. With this kind of facility you turn the bedding, manure and urine over twice a day and add more bedding as needed. By turning it over with a tiller you are essentially cooking it like compost (which tends to kill bacteria, etc.) and if it starts to get a little wet you add 6 inches of organic material like straw or shavings,” he says.

This type of facility works well in the Northeast, Southeast and upper Midwest, especially in smaller dairies. “Our recommendation for Holsteins would be 100 square feet per cow—a 10-by-10 area—for a compost bed-pack barn. You don’t have to clean the barn much; you don’t have to pick the pack like you would with a typical bed pack; you just turn it in and it acts like compost and shrinks in size. Once or twice a year you take it out as nice compost to put on your fields, or sell to someone who is gardening or needs good compost to augment their soil. The University of New Hampshire has a compost barn that we use with our Jerseys and it works very well,” says Erickson.

“Years ago there was a lot of research on bedded pack systems in open barns,” says Endres. “In open systems there are no stalls; the cows can lie down anywhere they want. Usually that big space is a bedding with sawdust. You put in a big bed of sawdust with 100 square feet (10 by 10 feet) per animal and just keep adding more bedding on top to keep it clean and comfortable. The bedding is cultivated every day, mixing new bedding over the top,” she says.

“This system isn’t used as much anymore in the U.S. partly because this bedding can be very expensive; instead of spending 30 cents per cow per day you are spending $1 to $1.50 per cow per day. So this has become less common in the U.S. It is used more in other countries that have sources for the bedding that are less expensive. The bedding packs are common in Israel for example, where they have big spaces for cows and an arid climate so it stays drier. This is not as feasible in a more humid climate,” she says.

“Sand is the most comfortable for cows, followed by recycled manure solids, followed by water beds or mattresses with some kind of organic bedding on top. Those are the most common ways of bedding cows,” says Endres.

Bedding for Calves

For calves in hutches, straw works well in cold weather, so they can nestle down into it and keep warm. Straw provides a lot of good insulation. “You just have to make sure you can clean it out and put in fresh straw periodically, so that it doesn’t get wet,” Erickson says. Wet straw loses its insulating quality and also may harbor more microbes.

Endres says that in Minnesota it is super cold in the winter. “We recommend using deep straw for baby calves because it will keep them more comfortable,” she says. “We can use sand year-round for cows, but not for calves. For calves we prefer to use straw in the winter and maybe sawdust in the summer.”

Straw is fluffy and provides more insulation; the calves can nestle down into it and stay warmer. “The bedding we use must be dry, clean and comfortable but it also must be economical. When we put all these factors together we then try to come up with the best options for the type of animal—whether baby calves, weaned heifers or cows that are milking,” says Endres.

“In the summertime, fly numbers increase when you use straw bedding, so it can be a challenge at that time,” says Erickson. “This is less of a problem in cold weather when flies are inactive, and we want calves to be able to nest into it. In summer, however, there is some research data that shows when straw and shavings were compared, there were a lot more fly numbers in the straw than in the shavings,” he says.

“Our area, if I had a choice and could use straw for calves in the winter, I would use straw, if it was available. In the South some people use sand for bedding in calf hutches and it seems to work well for them in that part of the country,” Erickson says.

Cost

“Bedding must be dry, clean and comfortable but also affordable, so we also have to look at the cost,” says Endres. “Do I have the equipment to use it and put it into the beds?” Availability is also an issue—whether you can get straw in your area, or wood shavings or sawdust, or sand, or if it might need to be hauled a long distance.

We want cattle to be comfortable; happy cows make more milk and are healthier, so we can’t get away without the cost of bedding. “It’s not a huge cost, not a very big portion of a dairy’s operating cost, but we do need to spend x amount of dollars each year for bedding,” says Endres.

Each dairy must determine what is best for their animals, that they can afford—which means looking at availability so they don’t have to pay too much for transporting the material. “We looked at this situation in Minnesota where farmers were not using sand, and it was because they didn’t have a source nearby, and it is also destructive to equipment.” Even though sand may be the best, if you have to spend more money to haul it in, and to maintain the equipment, it may not be feasible.

“There is no perfect bedding because even though sand is very good for the cows it is not so good for the budget. Organic bedding like sawdust is easy to manage but may not be so good for the cows. My research over the years looking at housing and bedding has shown there is no perfect situation for dairies,” says Endres. Each operation must weigh the pros and cons and then decide what to use.

“We just provide the data, the results of the studies where we see benefits to the animals, but we understand the economic and equipment restraints. We rate bedding on the benefits to the animal, and the dairy producers have to also think about what they can afford or make some kind of compromise they can live with,” says Endres.

March 2026

By Heather Smith Thomas

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