Programs & Projects:
Project Profiles
NYFVI Grant Helps Evaluate Use of Treated Manure as Dairy Bedding
Connie Patterson owns and operates Patterson Farms, Inc., a 1,000-cow dairy in
Auburn, NY, in partnership with her son Jon, his wife Julie and their Dairy
Manager Bob Church. She is constantly looking to increase efficiencies and
decrease costs, and so is part of the New York Farm Viability Institute,
Inc.-funded project evaluating the use of treated manure solids as bedding for
dairy cows.
“Bedding
is a high cost item for dairy farms. This research is allowing us to quantify
the effect of using treated manure as bedding. Fifteen to twenty factors can
cause udder problems, but the quick thought is always to blame the bedding.
The project results will help us interpret the best choice to make for our
cows,” Patterson says.
Patterson Farms has had a manure separation system since 1999. Using separated
manure solids as bedding reduced the farm’s bedding costs in 1999 by $30,000.
Patterson says by today’s costs that cash savings is even higher, however,
Patterson says, “We save money, but the trade off is in increased labor and
equipment costs. An additional gain is that recycling the manure as bedding is
an environmentally-sound practice.”
Jean Bonhotal, Ellen Harrison and Mary Schwarz of Cornell University’s Waste
Management Institute lead a project team that includes veterinarians,
economists, and nutrient specialists studying the use of dried manure as
bedding and its affect on herd health and milk quality on six NY dairy farms.
The bedding practices under study include use of dried manure solids directly
from a separato and from an anaerobic digester prior to separation, partially
composted solids, vessel-composted solids, and sand. Data is being collected
on pathogen levels, moisture, particle size, nutrient analysis, milk records,
somatic cell counts, mastitis, hoof health, and costs.
“One question is can a herd produce enough manure to sustain its bedding
needs,” Bonhotal says. “Several factors will influence the answer.”
Through another NYFVI-funded project farmers can work one-on-one with
Cornell’s NY FarmNet to add up the business costs of digester systems, analyze
long-term factors such as repair budgets and depreciation, and assess
opportunities for selling digester-based products off-farm.
A final report on the bedding and herd health project, which also has funding
from the NYS Energy Research and Development Authority, is expected in 2008.
For More Info:
Click here to read feature story on
this project in January 2007 American Agriculturist.
Jean Bonhotal, Ellen Harrison, Mary Schwarz
Cornell University Waste Management Institute
607-255-1187
http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/