Torvströ till svenska mjölkkor
Peat litter is a soft material with high absorbency. About hundred years ago many farmers in Sweden used peat litter to their dairy cows. After the World War II the use of peat litter decreased and the farmers used more straw. Nowadays (year 2007), when it is harder to find straw and sawdust to buy, peat litter is advancing again. The purpose with this study is to investigate peat as a litter to dairy cows. The study consists of two parts, one station experiment and one interview with 20 farmers that had used or were using peat litter.
The focus in the station experiment was on lying and standing behaviour, hock lesions, cleanliness, hygiene at the lying area, milk production, food consumption and the growth of Staphylococcus aureus in peat, straw and sawdust. In the behavioural study we saw significant difference in lying down time as it took longer time to lying down on straw. No other differences were showed. The hock lesions decreased after four weeks using peat. The lesions at the tarsal joint deceased with 40 % (p=0,0039) and the lesions on the tuber calcis decreased with 50 % (p=0,0001). A cleanliness study was done on legs, udder and flank. Theses parts of the body were significantly cleaner after the treatment with peat litter. On the flank it even become significant dirtier again after the following straw period. In the analysis of the hygiene in the lying area, straw had significantly lower number of aerobe bacteria compared to peat litter (p=