With winter finally over and spring on its way, its time to talk about some summertime activities, like lying on the beach. There are many reasons to love the beach: the amazing sunshine all day long, the food stands filled with ice cream and fries, and the gorgeous sunsets across a great lake. Even the feeling of the sand between your toes as you are walking down the edge of the water can have awesome relaxation effects. We are not the only species that love sand and beaches – cows actually love it, too!
Cows love sand for different reasons, however; the main being that it is a comfortable bed. Sand tends to mold around the body of a cow, much like memory foam. When a cow goes to lie in her bed, she always chooses it carefully – she is looking for something on a slight incline so that she always has a 360-degree view around her. She always wants a super clean bed, with no manure or water in the stall. She also requires it to be soft and accommodating to her size. Lastly, a cow is a herd animal, so she will select a bed with all of her friends around her.
The farmer, on the other hand, will have different reasons to purchase a specific bed for a cow. He or she will require a bed that is not a breeding ground for bacteria, but it also must be easy to work with – and it must be cheap.
This is why sand is awesome. It is non-organic, so bacteria cannot survive on the sand without some form of food, like manure. Sand is also cheap and easy to locate at any local aggregate pit. It is easy to work with, it cleans easily, and it’s also easy to separate out of the manure before the fertilizer goes on the field.
On our dairy farm, we have sand beds for our cows. You can see from the picture that the cows must love it. They are all lying together, in a very comfortable and natural way. They are lying on the slight incline that they love, in a clean environment, and the sand seems to form around their bodies. This is what farmers love to see – cows need to lie down to produce milk; so more time spent lying down means more milk.
We can also see from the picture another comfort feature we added to our barn –green bed separators. We need these separators so that cows know which bed is where, allowing for a more organized lying area. What is special about these green separators is that they are made out of plastic, and because of that, they are very flexible. They are used to guide a cow in the stall, but basically are non-existent when a cow gets out of the stall, because they move with her body so that she can get up any way that she would like.
There are many things we like to do in the summer – like lying on the beach and eating ice cream, checking out the passers-by, and watching the sun go down as we stroll along the water front – but next time you are enjoying the sand, remember that you are not alone. Cows love it to, and I am sure would they would lay out all day on the beach if they could.