
There’s no bedding like sand bedding and that’s all Vern Scherping wanted to use on his dairy after converting to a freestall setup. But once it started taking a toll on his manure-handling equipment and soils, he knew he needed to find a better way to manage the sand, so Scherping began looking for a way to reclaim the sand bedding.
The old system required pushing manure down the center lane to a reception pit. They hauled 40 loads every six days and were also in need of long-term storage.Scherping Farms in Little Falls, Minnesota, is surrounded by wetlands and must keep to a 300-acre footprint. Knowing most manure management systems would not work in this scenario, Scherping contacted Matt Silbernick at Genex Farm Systems in Melrose, Minnesota, to help devise a plan that would suit his family’s land-locked 800-cow dairy.