Characterizing water holding capacity and total solids of bedding-manure mixtures

Beef producers in the Midwestern United States, driven by environmental regulations, have shown an increased interest in alternative solid manure bedded-systems. In order to precisely design these systems, accurate knowledge of manure-bedding mixtures is required. This experiment characterized these manure-bedding mixtures properties, specifically water holding capacity (WHC) and the final total solids of the mixture (TSmix). For this study, WHC and TSmix were evaluated for seven organic bedding materials (corn cobs, corn stover, pine shavings, switchgrass, miscanthus, wheat straw, and soybean stover) using beef manure-slurry in varying TSm contents (4%, 8%, 12% and 16%). Results indicated that WHC increased significantly with manure slurry addition. Bedding materials water holding capacity measured ranged from 4.0 to 15.1 g of liquid per g dry-bedding when manure slurry was used, compared to 1.3 to 4.3 g of liquid per g dry-bedding when water was used. The greatest WHCs were measured using 8% and 12% manure slurry TS for all bedding materials, when reported in terms of dry-bedding added.