Abstract
<abstract> <bold>Abstract.</bold> Solid manure bed pack systems use bedding materials to absorb excess moisture to improve animal comfort and reduce negative environmental impacts from livestock facilities. Various biomass types are used as potential bedding material, such as corn stover, wheat straw, miscanthus, switch grass, soybean stover and ground corn cobs. The objective of this paper was to characterize properties of manure-corn cob bedding mixtures for deep-bedded beef facilities. These property characterizations include evaluating the impact of corn cob bedding and manure mixtures on water holding capacity (WHC) for the bed pack. Corn cob bedding was characterized for its particle size distribution, bulk density, and initial moisture content. The effects on the water holding capacity of corn cob bedding when beef manure is used in place of water for substrate, were determined. Varying percentages of manure total solids (8%, 12% and 16% TS) were evaluated. The WHC rises significantly (from 2.1 g of water per g of dry bedding to 5.2 ± 0.2 g of water per g of dry mixture for 8%TS, 4.1 ± 0.07 for 12% TS and 3.5 ± 0.44 for 16% TS) with manure addition.
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