Effects Of Cow Manure Bedding On Lying Behavior Of Dairy Cows And Environmental Hygiene

The objectives of this study were to solve the problem of cows bedding source and decrease the cost of dairy cows bedding as well as realize the recycling of waste. The fresh cow manure after sieving and drying as object of study, the effects of cow manure on health and lying behavior of dairy cows were studied. Chose two dairy cow barns as control and test barns that have the same size and style, rubber mats were bedded in control barn and rubber mats covered with3to5cm manure bedding were fitted in the test barn, the effects of manure bedding in summer and problems in the using process were also studied. Physical characteristics of manure bedding, bacterial of manure bedding before and after using, and behavior of dairy cows, and cleanliness score of dairy cows’rear part body were measured.The results showed:(1)Air temperature and relative humidity of test barn that bedded cow manure was25.7℃and78.8%respectively, control barn only fitted rubber mats was26.6℃and77.4%respectively; Surface temperature on bed in test barn was26.3±0.3℃,27.4±0.2℃and27.9±0.2℃respectively at8:00,14:00and20:00, however surface temperature on bed in control barn was26.8±0.1,27.7±0.3and27.9±0.2respectively, there was no significant differences between two barns at the same time (P<0.05); NH3concentration of the barn fitted with manure bedding was3.5±0.3mg/m3and5.8±0.3mg/m3at8:00and19:00respectively, which had no significant differences with3.3±0.2mg/m3and5.5±0.2mg/m3of barn without manure bedding at the same measurement time (P<0.05).(2)Counts of Klebsiella spp, Streptococcus spp and Eschericia coli of manure bedding used for three days were11.0Log10cfu/mL,10.5Log10cfu/mL and10.8Log10cfu/mL, counts of Klebsiella spp、Streptococcus spp and Eschericia coli of manure bedding unused were10.8Log10cfu/mL,9.9Log10cfu/mL and10.7Log10cfu/mL, compared to the same kinds of bacterial group were no significant differences (P <0.05);(3)The cleanliness score of dairy cows’ rear part body using manure is2.1, belongs to category2(Moderate pollution), the cleanliness score of dairy cows’rear part body using rubber mats is1.7, belongs to category1(light pollution), the dairy cows using manure bedding were dirtier than cows using rubber mats;(4)Time spent on lying and the number of lying bouts were different significantly between control barn and test barn (P<0.05), time spent on lying and the number of lying bouts were49.9±3.0min and15±0.6bouts per24h on manure bedding,37.5±5.1min and13±0.6bouts per24h on rubber mats respectively; Standing time between bouts (9.0 ±0.6min) and time before lying(22.6±5.2s) on manure bedding was lower significantly than standing time(11.2±0.7min) and time before lying(86.7±7.38s) on rubber mats(P<0.05).In conclusion, the microclimate and health status in dairy cows barn were not affected by the using of manure bedding, while the lying time of dairy cows was increased, the standing time of dairy cows was decreased, and dairy cows welfare was improved. To some extent, the problem of manure disposal with dairy farm was resolved at the same time, which had a certain significance for the sustainable development of the dairy farming. Yet, the modification of bed and cleanup of manure needs to pay attention when dairy cows manure bedding was used.