Wet winter conditions can create animal welfare issues in feedlots if the pen surface becomes a deep, wet, penetrable substrate. Feedlot pens with a clay and gravel base (N = 30) bedded with 150 mm (W15) and 300 mm (W30) depth of woodchips were compared to a control treatment with no bedding over a 109-day feeding period, while irrigated to supplement natural rainfall. The pad substrate was measured for variables which would affect cattle comfort and value of the substrate for composting. The penetrable depth of control pens was higher than both woodchip-bedded treatments from week 2, and increased until the end of the experiment. Meanwhile these scores were steady for W30 throughout the experiment, and increased for W15 only after week 10. Moisture content of the pad was higher throughout the experiment in the control pens than in the woodchip-bedded pens. In the control pens, the force required to pull a cattle leg analogue out of the pen substrate was three times that required in woodchip-bedded treatments. The W15 treatment increased C : N in the substrate to the upper limit of suitability for composting, and in W30, C : N was too high for composting after a 109-day feeding period. Overall, providing feedlot cattle with 150 or 300 mm of woodchip bedding during a 109-day feeding period improved the condition of the pad substrate for cattle comfort by reducing penetrable depth and moisture content of the substrate surface stratum, but composting value decreased in W30 over this feeding period duration.

The aims of the paper are to characterize the ornamental bedding behaviour of selected Glandularia materials, to evaluate breeder and public preferences (PP) of new potential ornamental plants to be introduced in the market and to obtain a ranking with the best-selected materials. After hybrids characterizations through different traits of ornamental interest, a survey was conducted to identify the breeder and PP separately but also with an integrated index. The indices were applied to systematize bedding data considering breeder and public aesthetic preferences using persistent (12-months plants) and new (3-months plants) materials. Similarities were found in the breeder and PP for new materials. The perception of a similar aesthetic value by the breeder and the public was reflected in the scores assigned to Glandularia hybrids materials. For persistent materials, breeder and public perceptions presented some differences that are interesting to be considered at the moment to introduce new ornamental plants into the market.

Choice tests are an effective means of assessing the short-term environmental preferences of captive animals. The preferences shown by eight thoroughbred horses (Equus caballus) for three commonly used bedding materials (paper, straw and shavings) were investigated. For each preference test two choices were presented in separate boxes joined by an unbedded corridor. Time spent in each compartment and associated behaviours were recorded. Despite a positional bias, horses clearly showed a preference for straw bedding (42·9 (s.e. 3·6) %) over shavings (35·2 (s.e. 3·4) %, P < 0·05), straw (42·0 (s.e. 37) %) over paper (29·3 (s.e. 3·4) %, P < 0·05) and shavings (41·6 (s.e. 4·3) %) over paper (27·7 (s.e. 3·7) %, P < 0·001) based on percentage of observed time spent on the substrate. Straw bedding increased the occurrence of bedding related activities, with more of these activities in choices where straw was available (P < 0·001) and in these choices the activities being preferentially expressed in the straw alternative (P < 0·001). Straw may therefore be preferred as it allows the expression of a wider number of motivationally significant activities.