Andrew Lean is researching intensive dairy production in Australia.
Australian-first research has shown how farmers can effectively manage dairy shelters and compost barns in the local environment, leading to a wide range of benefits.
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PhD candidate Andrew Lean told a field day hosted at Panmure by Dairy Shelters Australia in August, more farmers are turning to compost barns and open-sided, clear-roofed, deep-litter shelters.
As part of his research into optimising intensive dairy production in Australia, Mr Lean spent 15 weeks visiting compost barns measuring bedding temperatures, moisture levels and carbon to nitrogen ratios.
He said the shelters not only benefit cows; they help to protect paddocks and laneways.
“They are important additions to farm infrastructure.
“If you have a shelter, you’re going to get a lot of benefits in terms of cow management, laneway management because the cows are only entering pasture once a day, and you don’t pug paddocks and destroy grass.
“They’re not just for giving cows somewhere warm and clean to lie, you also get benefits that may not be so obvious.”
Mr Lean, from Scibus and Charles Sturt University, said his research was promoted by the increase in shelters and compost barns across Australia.
“We need to understand them in an Australian context,” he said. “There is a lot of American and European research but we have very different systems.”
Mr Lean said both fully-stocked compost barns and partially stocked open-sided, clear-roofed, deep-litter shelters could have huge benefits to farms.
There has been a massive jump in management quality for compost barns over the last five years.
“With the clear-roof system, you get a benefit in terms of drying on the surface,” he said.
“If you can increase the temperature in your environment, which these clear-spanned roofs do, you get a definite benefit in terms of drying the bedding and increasing the bedding temperature.
“These systems are well suited to colder, wetter environments in southern Australia though they can also be modified with shade and cooling to be suitable for summer in hotter climates.
“There is good natural airflow in these sheds.”
Mr Lean said the key to good management was to remember this is cow bedding, not compost.
“If you get too obsessed with just managing it as compost, you can fall into traps of looking at temperature instead of just making sure it is dry enough.
“You have to stop moisture entering the pack and keep the moisture below 55 per cent year-round so the bedding doesn’t stick to the cows.
“This will decrease the risk of mastitis developing, it’s better for cow comfort and will stop them becoming dirty and you will get the best welfare and production benefits.”
At the field day, Mr Lean demonstrated a ball test that farmers could use to measure moisture.
He added that the bedding must be cultivated.
“You have to turn it regularly and don’t rush the process because increased cultivating time increases bedding temperature,” he said.
Farmers need to rip the flooring deep enough with a chisel plough to bring the bedding to the surface and allow the airflow to remove moisture, and then use a rotor tiller to break up clumps in the bedding.
Mr Lean said farmers were getting much better at managing shelters.
“When I started the PhD, there was still a lot of trial and error.
“Over the past four or five years, in general there has been a massive jump in management quality and it keeps getting better and better.”
More than 50 people attended the field day at the Panmure farm of Simon and Pip Rea which is home to several Dairy Shelters Australia shelters.
For more information: https://dairysheltersaustralia.com.au/, https://www.facebook.com/dairysheltersaustralia/
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