Compost Bedded Pack Dairy Barn Management

The objective of the proposed project is to improve understanding and recommendations for dairy compost bedded pack barns management. The proposed project will: (1) establish cow-based benchmark criteria for monitoring compost bedded pack barns (2) characterize mastitis pathogen prevalence among clinical mastitis cases among farms adopting compost bedded pack barns; and (3) determine alternative bedding materials that can be produced locally to sustain the barn system when competition for sawdust decreases supply.