back of the cows (Fig. 43). He was 

 able to store 1000 bushels of sawdust 

 without handicap to the othei- chores. 

 Sawdust was unloaded directly from 

 the truck by shovelling through the 

 windows. A mechanical unloader 

 would save some labor in this opera- 

 tion. 



Bedding 



On a number of farms, the sawdust 

 was carried from storage in bushel 

 baskets and spread by pushing it out 

 by hand. This method required a 

 large amount of time and travel. For 

 instance, on one farm in bedding 40 

 cows, 9 trips were made to storage 

 requiring- 1170 feet of travel and 13.5 

 man minutes. On farms where saw- 

 dust was stored immediately back of 

 the cows, the sawdust was spread by 

 scoop very efficiently. Due to incon- 

 venient storage location, bedding took 

 about 30 minutes on two farms. 



On one farm a special cart, large 

 enough to hold the daily requirement, 



Fig. 4.5. This sawdust cart is filled 

 quickly by gravity from an 

 overhead bin. 



had been constructed. This was filled 

 by gravity from above. Approximate- 

 ly 3.4 man minutes, adjusted for 40 

 cows, were required. 



There is no one best way for stor- 

 ing, handling, and spreading bedding. 

 It is suggested that the operator pro- 

 vide convenient storage for at least 

 25 bushels per cow, which would be 

 about half the annual need, and adopt 

 one of the several good methods for 

 spreading it quickly and easily once 

 a day. Five man minutes daily for 

 40 cows should be sufficient for this 

 task. All work of preparation can 

 be done at some convenient time. 



Superphosphate to Cutter 



Most dairymen were spreading 

 about one and one-quarter pounds of 

 superphosphate back of the cows. 

 Those with gutter cleaners discon- 

 tinued this practice and instead added 

 superphosphate to the spreader load. 

 Most operators used a pail and pushed 

 the material out by hand as they 

 walked along the gutter. In larger 

 barns some of them made two trips 

 because the pail did not hold a suffi- 

 cient amount for the entire herd. This 

 task took from 1.2 to 6.5 man min- 

 utes for 40 cows. The operator with 

 the lowest time had superphosphate 

 stored in one corner of the barn and 

 had sufficient animals to warrant the 

 distribution of a 100-pound bag a day. 

 He tore a small hole in one corner 

 of the bag, picked up the bag, regu- 

 lated an even flow of material from 

 the hole, and walked quickly around 

 the barn. A special bucket holding 

 50 pounds, sufficient for 40 cows, can 

 be devised for spreading superphos- 

 phate. This has a controlled opening 

 in the bottom which enables the op- 

 rator to spread the superphosphate 

 as he walks along. This could be 

 mounted on a wheel if the 50 pounds 

 seemed to be a burden.* 



* A special superphosphate gutter spreader 

 is now manufactured and can be purchased. 



48 



