Built-up Litter for Poultry Houses

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 87, Issue 2, 15 August 1953, Page 169

Built-up Litter for Poultry Houses

LITTER in poultry houses is important and is put in for two main reasonsto act as a sponge or absorbent for collecting surplus moisture and the birds' droppings (a safety measure), and to provide warmth and exercise for the birds. These reasons apply equally to small flocks or large flocks, and when the birds are running out on free range, in runs, or are housed intensively. The warmth in correctly handled litter can be felt with the hand. It can be responsible for some of the difference between good winter egg production and mediocre production. In this article S. G. Haddon, Poultry Instructor, Department of Agriculture, Auckland, describes management methods for the use of built-up litter.

THERE is nothing particularly, new in the idea or practice of builtup litter. It has, however, been given considerable publicity in New Zealand and overseas in recent years. Commercial poultry men who have been established for years have made a practice of giving their laying sheds a thorough yearly clean out. Between cleanings the litter has been allowed to build up by the accretion of the birds’ droppings. Provided it stayed reasonably dry and loose, no special care has been taken. This litter is built-up, but it is very different from the original straw or shavings. The recent litter publicity started in America, where certain poultry farmers, faced by an acute labour shortage, neglected to clean out their sheds, clean litter being placed on top of old litter. Contrary .to general expectation and expert advice, flock health remained good and production was excellent. The problem was handed over to state . experimental stations, which have since done an enormous amount of work in controlled experiments, with interesting and sometimes contradictory results. Meanwhile many claims were made for built-up litter it was labour saving, it was hygienic, it possessed disinfecting properties, it

could check coccidiosis, it was fatal to disease organisms, and it boosted egg production. Birds Thrive on Built-up Litter It is now fairly certain that adult birds will thrive on old built-up litter provided certain management practices are used. It must first be emphasised that built-up litter is not an excuse or remedy for bad or slovenly management, and any- farmer who believes that he can use deep litter and then neglect his flock may expect trouble. The building up of litter is begun gradually by placing 4 to 6in. of straw, sawdust,, shavings, or similar material in the pen. As this becomes broken down and . absorbs droppings and moisture from the birds a composting action occurs. . Because of the importance of this composting the- making of deep litter should be begun in the warm period of the year, never in autumn and winter. Once this composting has started fresh . litter may be added in small quantities. Common sense, must dictate the rate at which new litter can be incorporated into the old. As an illustration, 50 pullets in an Auckland backyard intensive house composted down 4 bales of straw and 2 sacks of wood shavings in 18 months. The litter

was originally about 3in. deep and was 9 to lOin. deep at the end of the first laying year, though many barrow loads were removed for topdressing a garden? '? ' Litter Must be Loose Once a good depth of loose, freely working litter is attained, every effort must be made to keep the litter from packing or solidifying, particularly around drinkers or under perches which have no- droppings boards or pits. This may mean shaking the litter over with a fork occasionally, but the feeding of daily scratch grain will greatly assist in keeping the litter loose. Persistent over-all dampness can be treated by improving the ventilation of the shed, by reducing the number of birds in the pen, or by sprinkling agricultural or hydrated or burnt shell lime at about lib. to each 10 sq. ft. The last-mentioned treatment should not need doing more than once or twice during winter. As the litter becomes deeper through the accretion of droppings, some of it may be removed for gardens or for selling and new litter added. In this way there is a constant circulation of new litter being broken down to composted litter. Composting Action Important The composting action in old litter is stressed, because it is important. The American experiments established that old litter contained an unknown factor labelled animal protein factor (A.P.F.). This factor the Americans found was mainly responsible for the good health

and good production of flocks kept on old, built-up litter. The A.P.F. was recognised as being present in meat and fish meal proteins, but not much was known about it beyond its extremely beneficial effect and the fact that it was essential for health and production. Further work on the A.P.F. isolated a new member of the complex vitamin B group and it was labelled 812. Later other workers proved conclusively that 812 could be synthesised by micro-organisms in the presence of trace amounts of cobalt, and named cow manure as being a prolific source of 812. Now it is known that built-up litter in good order is a good source of vitamin 812. However, the presence of this vitamin depends solely on the composting action taking place. Shed Cleaning Procedure The question will arise as to what happens at the end of the year, when normally all the litter is removed from the sheds for the annual clean up. A method used successfully by many poultry farmers is to remove about half the litter, leaving the free-running dry port! .ns, which are heaped at one end of the shed and covered with sacks or a tarpaulin while the shed is cleaned. The heap of old litter is then shifted on to the cleaned portion of the shed and the house cleaning is completed. The old litter is then spread, new litter is added on top, and the house is ready for the new flock of birds. There are exceptions to this pro-? cedure. If during the year the pen suffers an outbreak of a virus disease such as fowl pox or an outbreak of bacterial infection such as infectious coryza, all the litter must be discarded and no portion kept for a second sea-

son. Old, non-infected Utter from another shed could be used to start off the built-up litter. Method for Chick Rearing Some farmers in this country and overseas have endeavoured to apply the built-up litter principle to chick rearing. It has been applied successfully to at least one Auckland farm for over 3 years. The layout of this farm and the rearing programme (about 2000 day-old chicks each season) called for a steady flow of chicks into one end of a brooder shed, each brood being moved along one stage weekly. Previously each little pen was cleaned between moves and all chicks irrespective of age went on to clean litter each week. Now each batch goes on to clean litter, beneath which is the best of the last batch’s litter. This means in effect that at no time are any chicks on litter which has been used by chicks or birds which were more than 1 week older than themselves, though the litter may contain some litter which is over 3 years old. This seems to be the secret of the successfill working of the deep litter system applied to chicks. It is dangerous and not recommended to attempt the rearing of chicks or young stock on litter, however good and dry it may be, which has been used by adult stock. Old litter from young birds should be used for young birds and old litter. from adults for adults. Built-up. litter and its relation to disease, particularly coccidiosis, has stimulated a lot of thought. Some workers consider that under this system flocks appear to acquire a degree of immunity against coccidiosis, and other workers claim that built-up litter carries a very high count of the organisms. However, flock treatment against this disease is practicable and efficient.

No outbreak of disease in. this country has been traced to the use of deep or built-up litter, and there is every indication that flocks on built-up litter where the housing, feeding, and overall management are satisfactory are giving results equally as good as those obtained from the older, more orthodox systems of litter management.

Bulletins for the Commercial Poultry I Keeper Free Bulletins Nos. 239 Curd Feeding to Poultry. 318 Pullorum Disease. 327 Internal and External Parasites of Poultry. || 331 Symptoms and Control of Fowl !| Pox. 332 Tuberculosis of Poultry. I Chargeable Bulletins j Nos. ; 197 Theory and Practice of Incuba- H tion. 6d. 199 Chick Raising. 6d. The above bulletins, part of a series of over 350 on all aspects of farming, are available post free from the nearest office of the Department of Agriculture, or from the Head Office of the Department, Box 2298, Wellington.

II Book Review I||| IJznimTmnmiiJ “Arable Farm Crops of New Zealand’’: J. W. Hadfield STUDENTS of agriculture of a generation ago used as their guide Connell and Hadfield’s “Agriculture”. That book is still a standard work in New Zealand, but students of this generation are able to add to their list of text books “Arable Farm Crops of New Zealand”, by a co-author of that earlier publication, Mr. J. W. Hadfield, until recently Director of the Agronomy (now Crop Research) Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. The first book from the pens of the co-authors, written when they were at the thresholds of their careers, has admirably filled a place in the study of agriculture by many students. Since then Mr. Hadfield has made a close study of all phases of arable crops in New Zealand, particularly the improvement in the varieties and. strains available to the farmer. Now at his retirement some of . the knowledge he

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