Fine-tuning the bedding process

LEWISTON, Minn. — When drought in the summer of 2023 revealed an almost 30-year build-up of sand in Mitch Thompson’s fields, he decided to change the bedding protocol at Thompson Dairy.

“Trying to better everything, that’s why we were like, ‘OK, this is a decision we need to look at further,’” Thompson said.

In April, Thompson Dairy started using a manure press system to bed with manure solids rather than sand.

“I was so tired of seeing sand in the field and just hauling out sand and your manure tank is full of sand,” Thompson said.

Thompson Dairy, located near Lewiston, milks 680 cows at two locations. Thompson farms alongside his dad, Cliff, and 18 full-time employees as well as his wife, Hilary, who helps with the bookwork, and his three children aged 14, 11 and 8.

All the free stalls at Thompson’s main milking farm are deep bedded with green manure solids. Thompson uses the manure solids mixed with sawdust for the compost pack for some of his heifers as well. Thompson’s other milking farm, which houses far-out dry cows through post-fresh cows, is still bedded with sand.

Last winter they built a lean-to for the setup, including a press room, an area for the pressed solids and a large grate area to siphon manure into the system. During the project, Thompson also added stalls to the freestall barn to spread out his cows.

Thompson’s manure press is from ALL-INS of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Thompson said having the company nearby has been helpful to problem solve.

The manure press operates by auguring manure through weighted screens and pushing out the fibrous solids at the end.

“You think, ‘OK, how hard it can it be? It’s an auger and some screens, and it pushes,’” Thompson said. “There’s so much more to it. … The mechanics of it is that simple, but the fine tuning of (it is harder) because everything is variable: speed, drive and control.”

All water and manure at the main farm go through the manure press. Thompson has to manage the effects of excess water when the barn is cleaned, which change the consistency of the manure and therefore the efficacy of the press.

Thompson said adjustments to the press must be slow.

“Depending on what time of day it is, you go drink a cup of coffee, or you go drink a beer, before you come back and look,” Thompson said. “If you make too many changes too quickly, it’s too hard to see what you did.”

The holding tank for the press holds 14,000 gallons. Using the press saves Thompson about 30% of his lagoon space. Thompson said he likes the recycling aspect of the manure press and that he no longer has abrasive sand wearing out his equipment.

Thompson considered a sand separator. However, installing a manure press costs 10%-20% of a sand separator.

“If costs were the same, I probably maybe would have stayed with sand just because of the fact of the stigmatism with manure press,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of love hate.”

Each day during first shift, stalls are bedded with a thin layer of manure solids placed near the cows’ knees. Any solids on hand for bedding are discarded if they are not used within 12 hours.

Stalls are mechanically raked and smoothed during the second and third shifts in addition to hand raking as needed.

Thompson is saving money on labor costs per stall because he does not have the eight hours of labor and skid loader time for weekly adding sand in addition to processing the stalls three times daily.

“I was always very heavy on stall maintenance,” Thompson said. “It was pretty easy for my guys to be able to keep doing the stall maintenance.”

Figuring out how dry to press the solids has been a challenge Thompson said. He has settled at 62%-66% moisture.

“The details matter, as far as how getting the machine set to try to get it to the right moisture,” Thompson said. “That’s kind of been a roller coaster trying to figure out where that is, because there also is a point where we can get it drier, but are we pushing the machine too far and we’re wearing it out prematurely?”

Thompson’s barn has a forced air system which further dries out the manure solids. Thompson said he recommends having this air system if working with pressed solids. The farms test dryness by kneeling in the stalls and checking if their knees become damp.

Thompson said his cows are cleaner since switching.

“Their legs aren’t splashed because the manure is so much drier,” Thompson said.
“You’re kicking that dry bedding in the alleyway that’s soaking up moisture.”

Thompson made multiple other changes to his operation at the time of the transition to pressed solids which together caused his somatic cell count to increase. Thompson said some professionals have a prejudice against pressed solids.

“It has really seemed like there’s certain professionals that are just 100% against it,” Thompson said. “It’s very hard to get them to come in with an open mind.”

Thompson has been able to determine those other changes are part of the issue, not the pressed solids.

“It’s very dry, it’s clean, the cows are clean,” Thompson said. “The more we’ve been digging into this and finding out, we don’t feel that’s where it’s coming from.”

He said they expect to get their SCC back to normal. Managing pressed manure solids requires attention to detail Thompson said.

“Sand definitely can forgive and cover up a lot of things,” he said.

Traction-wise, Thompson said he has not noticed slime build-up on the floors. Thompson said having the barns regrooved eliminated the traction problems he had seen.

Overall herd health and milk production has remained the same.

“I was expecting to not notice much difference,” Thompson said. “What I was hoping for, for the best success with doing it was noticing no change.”

Thompson said he expects to continue to make changes.

“It’s a learning curve thus far, and it will be continuing through the foreseeable future,” Thompson said. “We’ve done a lot of adjusts.”