July 22 ,1918 
Bedding Materials for Live Stock 
189 
At the same time that these tests were being made, records were being 
kept on the relative amounts of oat straw, wheat straw, and shavings 
required to keep beef cows, dairy cows, and horses bedded, and on the 
amounts of manure saved by the use of each kind of bedding. 
Twelve head of beef cows kept in single stalls were divided into three 
comparable lots. One lot was bedded with oat straw, one with wheat 
straw, and one with shaving^ from a car load bought in Chicago. The 
wheat-straw and shavings lots were reversed at the middle of the 60-day 
period. With the dairy cows only two lots were used, 9 head in one lot 
and 10 head in the other. One lot was bedded with oat straw and the 
other with shavings from the local planing mill. The lots were reversed 
at the middle of the 30-day period. Only 3 horses were used: draft 
mares in box stalls, one bedded with each kind of material. The shavings 
used were from Chicago. 
The animals were all handled in the usual way. The beef cows were 
out of the bam about 9 hours a day, the dairy cows about 8 y 2 hours, and 
the horses about 9. No special attempt was made to regulate the 
amount of bedding used, the men in charge of each barn bedding as 
usual. The bams were cleaned out daily—that is, the manure and 
soiled part of the litter were removed. Table II shows the amount of 
bedding used. 
4 Table II .—Material used in keeping animals bedded 
Animals, period, and material. 
Total bed¬ 
ding used. 
Amount per 
animal per 
day. 
Relative 
amount 
used. 
Horses (1 per lot, 49 days) : 
Oat straw. 
Pounds. 
716 
844 
1,192 
1,766 
1,928 
3.207 
2,064 
2,892 
Pounds. 
14. 6l 
17. 22 
24.32 
7 - 36 
8. 03 
I 3 * 36 
7.24 
10.15 
IOO 
Wheat straw. 
118 
Shavings. 
166 
Beef cows (4 per lot, 60 days): 
Oat straw. 
IOO 
Wheat straw. 
109 
182 
Shavings. 
Dairy cows (9X per lot, 30 days): 
Oat straw. 
IOO 
Shavings. 
140 
In keeping the animals bedded, 40 to 82 per cent more shavings than 
oat straw and 9 to 18 per cent more wheat straw than oat straw were 
used. About 15 pounds of oat straw per day was required to keep one 
of the horses bedded, about 7K pounds to keep one of the cows bedded. 
The hbrses were on an earth floor, the cattle on concrete floors. The 
Ohio Station found that about 7 pounds of straw were needed for steers 
on concrete floors (6). 
From the fact that the oat straw was capable of absorbing more 
liquid than wheat straw or shavings, one might suppose that more of the 
manure from the animals could be saved by the use of oat straw. In 
this experiment, however, about the same amount of animal excreta was 
saved, regardless of the kind of bedding used To be sure, less oat 
