Quite simply, healthy animals are more productive!

For all farmers, the well-being of livestock is paramount. Housing hygiene is important for all round health, performance and profitability. One often overlooked aspect that can significantly impact the health and comfort is bedding. Bedding has a significant bearing on animal health and welfare.

Bacteria is everywhere in the environment

Keeping cubicles, pens and shed floors dry and free of bacteria is essential.

E coli bacteria can multiply rapidly in damp, warm conditions. Damp bedding can become the perfect breeding ground for infectious disease-causing bacteria. Adequate ventilation can play a major role in removing moisture and heat from buildings, reducing humidity, and allowing beds to dry. With bacteria multiplying faster in damp and warm conditions it vitally important that bedding remains as dry as possible.

1: Housing Hygiene and Infection Prevention

Ewes and Lambs: Clean bedding minimises the risk of infections like mastitis, uterine infections in ewes, or navel infections in lambs, which can be caused by bacteria in soiled bedding.

Cows and Calves: One of the biggest concerns for dairy cows is mastitis, which can be caused by bacteria. Environmental mastitis is by far the most common type of mastitis in the UK herd (AHDB).

Environmental mastitis is caused by bacteria picked up from the environment, rather than bacteria spread from other infected cows. The risk of infection from the environment is likely to be lower if the cow and her environment are clean. Clean, dry bedding reduces the chance of bacteria from manure or wet bedding encountering the udder, helping to lower the risk of mastitis.

During calving, clean bedding helps reduce the risk of infections in both the cow and the newborn calf. A clean environment is essential for preventing conditions like metritis (infection of the uterus) in the cow, or joint and navel infections in calves.

2: Comfort and Stress Reduction:

Ewes and Lambs: A comfortable, dry area is important to help the ewe during labour, reducing stress and the risk of complications. Stress reduction is critical to ensuring a smoother birth process.

Cows: Clean fresh bedding provides a soft and dry surface for cattle to lie down on, promoting better lying times and reducing stress. Comfortable cows are more likely to rest well, leading to better overall health and higher milk yields

3: Temperature Regulation:

Ewes and Lambs: Newborn lambs struggle to regulate their body temperature, so having clean, dry bedding ensures they don’t get too cold. The bedding insulates them while they dry off.

Cows and Calves: Clean, dry bedding helps with temperature regulation, especially in colder weather. If bedding is wet, cows can become chilled, which can lead to stress or illness. In colder weather calves too can quickly succumb to hypothermia if born on wet or damp bedding.

4: Better Lamb/Calf Survival:

Ewes and Lambs: A clean environment greatly improves the chances of lamb survival by ensuring they don’t face additional risks like hypothermia or infections. The ewe’s health is also supported, leading to better maternal bonding and care.

Cows and Calves: Clean bedding is key for the survival and health of the calf. Calves born in a clean, dry environment are less likely to face complications like infections, and they can more easily bond with the mother.

Be prepared for housing

Much like feeding, it’s important to calculate your usage of bedding to see your livestock through the housing period. Work out what you’ll need to have in stock for a season and be prepared. Bedding material should be clean and practical before use. Keep the material dry by storing it under a roof. Keep in mind that covering with plastic can often result in mould formation and bacterial growth due to condensation.

Bedding conditioners

‘Bedding conditioners’ (lime or commercial products) are often promoted for hygiene control. The effectiveness is likely to be affected by the type of bedding material, and the frequency and rate of application.

Reduce bacteria by up to 98.4% with FarmShield

Research carried out at AGROLAB (Denmark) confirms that FarmShield effectively reduces bacterial and fungal spores often found in wet bedding, with research conducted by Biocide reporting up to a 98.4% reduction in bacteria.

FarmShield is a non-toxic hygiene powder for pens, cubicles, stables, calf hutches and box floors. Containing a unique formulation, FarmShield is designed to absorb moisture from livestock bedding, creating a healthier environment for animals to prosper.

Interested in finding out more? View the FarmShield brochure here