Flooring/Bedding in stalls

Pea gravel is a really good thing for drainage. I actually had pea gravel with sand over it. We ended up putting about six to eight inches of sand down. Its really easy to clean up.
beth

 

NO concrete!! I HATED the concrete floors I had in my barn. You waste sooooo much more shavings. Now I have a dirt floor and I love it. I use the PDZ to help keep things drier and cut down on the smell. You can get it at your grain store.

 

I have actually decided that I like wooden floors--they are warmer than concrete or dirt, they stay dry, and are relatively easy to clean. I didn't use any bedding for most of the spring and summer this year--I just swept up berries and any urine that was there would just evaporate. There was/is no odor.

 

Beth, I was wondering hoe easy it was to clean? Does the urine smell get to be a little strong? I ask because we have thought about the pea gravel and sand. but i was thinking the urine will go down to the pea gravel but I was wondering if it smelled. I am sure it must or you would not recommend it.
I do have the sand in the horse stalls. It is great except when the horses come from outside to go into the barn to pee. GGRRRRRR, that is a pain in the butt to clean.

 

We put down gravel in ours, but we're planning to add sand over that. Supposed to be better for preventing mastisis. I recently found out that a lot of the mega dairies use sand for bedding for that same reason.

 

I love the sand, I do use the PDZ that Stacey mentioned over the top and then straw. I use granular rather then powder.
AS for the Sand sweet goats, we made an overhang over the door that goes out about eight feet, this way new goats had somewhere to go out of the rain, my girls tend to push new ones out. I extended the sand out of the barn into the over hang, as well as sloping it down hill a bit. The drainage works great. There is a french drain at the bottem and it heads towards the ditch. My girls were going potty outside under the overhang.
beth

 

I just put about 4 inches of pea gravel than i put four inches of sand to keep it cleaner and the smell down and for some reason my goats been sleeping outside at night any idea why they been doing this?

 

I use lots of dry pine see pics. I hope to put it in the garden in the spring it has worked well so far.

 

I have pea gravel in one pasture and sandy soil in another including a barn in that one. The pea gravel is great when it is wet out to keep the mud down but it does get in their hooves even if they are just a little grown out. It is something you have to definitely keep up with. The other pasture and barn is great! I use bedding pellets to keep the odor down with hay/straw over it.

 

Ursaleguru.
Could you explain you "pine" a little further?
I don't get what that is. Is is shredded?

 

Pine tree needles were we are we have tons. I just pile it on it soaks up water real well too... Most import it's free..

 

Very cool.

 

I have a concrete floor for my buck and my four does have a falling apart wood floor with lots of straw and hay on top.

 

I love concrete floors-easy to clean-I use straw-very deep straw in MN-have never had an issue-
Love the Sweet PDZ-amazing stuff-I buy mine at Tractor Supply-Fleet Farm has it as do The Country Store and Dells

 

Dairies do use sand with cows. But they're in free stalls, made so the cow walks in and lays down, her tail is almost in the isle. If they pee or poop it goes in the isle, not so much in the sand. The ends of the stalls get raked out daily. Isles get flushed or scraped. The sand is reclaimed and composted (sort of) to remove organics and then put back in the stalls. I'm not sure how clean sand stays if they pee/poop and lie in it without it getting scraped/composted/fresh sand added on a regular basis.