Impacts of drainage beds covered with sand and wood shavings on the comfort behaviour of dairy buffalo in a temperate climate

BACKGROUND: Comfortable beds play an important role in increasing the ruminant and milk production efficiency of dairy buffalo. In loose housing systems, cow lying comfort depends on both the bedding materials and bed base. RESULTS: Buffaloes spent more lying time on sand beds at depth of 15 and 20 cm (S-15 and S-20) than on beds of 10 cm (S-10a) beds or in the feed alley in Exp1 (P < 0.01). No significant difference in the cow comfort index (CCI) was detected between S-10a and S-15; however, both showed higher CCI than that of the S-20 bed. In Exp2, buffaloes spent more time lying on the wood shavings at depth of 15 cm (WS-15) bed followed by the WS-20 and S-10b beds, respectively (P < 0.01), and CCI was greater in the WS-15 bed than in the S-10b and WS-20 beds (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: A depth of sand or wood shavings at 15 cm can meet the lying comfort requirements of dairy buffaloes when bedding materials are used above drainage beds.