Design and implementation of a survey quantifying winter housing and bedding types used on Vermont organic dairy farms

Abstract

We conducted a descriptive observational study to quantify the frequency and diversity of winter housing and bedding types used by organic dairy farmers in Vermont. This report describes the survey methods, results, successes, limitations, and lessons learned from administering the survey. Beginning in December 2018, a short questionnaire was administered by web, mail, and telephone to a source population defined as all producers of organic dairy cow milk in Vermont (n = 177) listed in the United States Department of Agriculture Organic Integrity database. Our approach yielded an 82% (n = 145) response from certified organic farms producing cow milk in Vermont at the time of the survey. The 3 most common housing and bedding material combinations used by respondents were tiestall housing with wood (sawdust or shavings) bedding materials (45%), freestall housing with wood bedding materials (14%), and freestall housing with sand bedding (12%). Fifteen percent of respondents reported using more than one type of facility for winter housing of lactating cattle. The median number of lactating cows on farms among respondents was 59.5 (range: 2-400), and the odds of using more than one type of facility to house lactating cows increased positively with the number of lactating cows reported for a herd. Breed distribution was similar across the housing and bedding type categories. An association between frequency of individual cow milk somatic cell count testing and housing type was identified; respondents using freestall sand facilities tested less frequently than respondents using tiestalls with wood bedding. Although the questionnaire length limited the amount of information gathered, the response proportion was exceptional, and overall our survey results provide valuable insight on Vermont organic dairy housing and bedding practices that should inform future extension and outreach efforts for this sector of the dairy industry.

Lactobacillus sp. participated in the adaptation of Rongchang piglets to cold stress

“…However, the growth and development of piglets is not complete (Zeng et al 2012), which makes them susceptible to temperature and humidity fluctuations in the breeding environment, and affects their later fattening period. At present, Rongchang piglets are often raised in an open hog house by free-range farmers (Figure 1B), where the temperature is easily changeable due to the environmental conditions, especially in the winter (Andrews et al 2021;Kim et al 2022). According to the tendency of the thermal neutral zone in breeding pigs (Ross et al 2015), the lower critical temperature of piglets is the highest when in cold environment (He et al 2018), hence, the low temperature not only leads to the slow growth of piglets, but also leads to various underlying diseases (Zhang et al 2020;Yu et al 2021;Chen et al 2022).…”