This study was designed to examine the characteristics of sawdust and cocopeat bedding materials, including physicochemical properties (Exp. I) and on-farm trial (Exp. II). In Exp. I, the proportion of particle size was in the order of sawdust> cocopeat India>cocopeat Vietnam (p<0.05), and cocopeat contained higher proportion of small particles (250 μm+below 250 μm) than sawdust, causing a dust production problem. Bulk density was cocopeat India>cocopeat Vietnam>sawdust (p<0.05), thus cocopeat treatments showed 4.4 times higher bedding cost than sawdust. The water absorption rates were 702.0% in cocopeat India, 678.3% in cocopeat Vietnam, and 444.0% in sawdust, showing cocopeat had approximately 1.5 times higher water absorption rate than sawdust. Moisture evaporation rates after 12 h of air blowing (2.00 m/s) were higher (p<0.05) in cocopeat Vietnam (80.4%) than sawdust (71.2%) and cocopeat India (72.8%). In vitro ammonia emissions were higher (p<0.05) in sawdust (2.71 mg/m2/h) than cocopeat India (1.59 mg/m2/h) and Vietnam (1.22 mg/m2/h), and total ammonia emissions were higher (p<0.05) in sawdust (37.02 mg/m2) than cocopeat India (22.51 mg/m2) and Vietnam (13.60 mg/m2). In Exp. II, an on-farm trial was conducted with 48 Hanwoo cattle in 16 pens using the same bedding materials as in Exp. I, with fan (blowing 2.00 m/s) and no fan treatments, and feed bunk side (FB) and water supply side (WS) within a pen (4.5 m, width×9.0 m, length). Beddings were replaced with fresh bedding materials when moisture concentrations were over 65%. No interactions among treatments were detected for moisture concentration and increment rates, and ammonia concentrations, but a significant effect was observed (p<0.01) for each of the treatments. Both concentrations and increment rate of moisture were higher (p<0.01) in the beddings without fan than with fan. Moisture concentrations and increment rate within a pen were also higher (p<0.01) in FB than WS. Thus, the whole no-fan-FB and sawdust-fan-FB were replaced with fresh bedding material between 4 to 5 experimental weeks. The ammonia concentrations and pH of beddings were not significantly different among treatments. Therefore, using cocopeat bedding with a blowing fan can extend twice the bedding utilization period, and WS within a pen showed twice the bedding-life compared to FB. Despite the outstanding characteristics of cocopeat compared with sawdust, using cocopeat as an alternative for sawdust bedding is not recommended for cattle management, considering it has 4.4 times higher bedding cost and a dust production problem.

Methane production during anaerobic fermentation in the rumen represents an energy loss to the host animal and induces emissions of greenhouse gases in the environment. Our study focused on comparison in methane production from growing Korean native steers fed different grain sources. Six Hanwoo steers (BW = 180.6 ± 3.1 kg) were fed, on a DM basis (TDN 2.80 kg), 40% timothy and 60% barley concentrate (Barley) or corn concentrate (Corn), respectively, based on the Korean Feeding Standards. Each period lasted 18 days including a 14-day adaptation and a 4-day measuring times. The steers were in the head hood chamber system (one cattle per chamber) during each measuring time to measure heat and methane production per day. Different grain sources did not affect digestibilities of dry matter, crude protein, crude fiber, crude fat, NDF, ADF and nitrogen-free extract. The mean methane concentrations per day were 202.0 and 177.1 ppm for Barley and Corn, respectively. Methane emission averaged 86.8 and 77.7 g/day for Barley and Corn, respectively. Methane emission factor by maintenance energy requirement for the growing steers fed barley based concentrate was higher than the steers fed corn based concentrate (Barley vs. Corn, 31.7 kg CH4 head -1 yr -1 vs. 28.4 kg CH4 head -1 yr -1 ). Thus, methane conversion rate was 0.065 (6.5%) and 0.055 (5.5%) for Barley and