Litter in Broiler Farming

The poultry industry in India has proved to be the fastest-growing industry to date. Efficient and sustainable poultry farming techniques help this industry climb the ladder to success. While multiple methodologies help boost your poultry business, taking care of your farm animals is indeed a successful step taken. While manure and litter tend to accumulate on a larger scale, facing common disposal and environmental problems are quite common in most poultry farms. Hence being alert does save up in the long run. Let’s read more about the same.

What is a Litter?

If you have ever visited a poultry farm, you might have come across the floor bed that covers the entire area. During the careful inspection, you might have witnessed a floor bed that’s made of concrete or compacted soil. While taking care of your broiler chickens is important, ensuring their eggs and chicks are safe is equally important. This layer of protection, i.e. litter serves as bedding material to remove all previously used litter. That’s not all. It also assists with washing down broiler houses after every flock ensuring the best poultry litter treatment.

However, it’s ironically true that most livestock farmers do not pay full emphasis on effective litter management. This leads to a noticeable drop in shelter quality in the long run. Since this puts a stop to effective litter management, it also hampers overall broiler performance and growing profits.

Before we move into further detail, here’s an understanding of the importance of effective broiler litter management.

Importance of Effective Litter Management
 

While effective management is beneficial, having good litter management is equally important. Here’s why this is the ideal practice for every farmer looking to boost their poultry business.

• Good litter does absorb moisture and promotes drying by increasing the surface area of the floor house.

• Dilutes faecal material. These distances are close contact between birds and manure.

• It insulates chicks from the cooling effects of the ground by providing a protective sheet between the birds and the floor bed.

Since we’ve understood the importance of good quality litter, there is not one, but multiple materials that cover up this protective sheet. Here’s a list for a better understanding of the same.

1. Softwood Shavings and Sawdust- This litter material is mostly preferred among most poultry farms. However, since they are limited and expensive in most areas, most poultry farmers do not get the chance to purchase the same.
2. Hardwood Shavings and Sawdust- This material isn’t that beneficial as compared to Softwood. Hardwood on the other hand is high in moisture, and susceptible to dangerous mold growth if not stored properly before use.
3. Softwood or Hardwood Chips- This is generally used on a successful scale. However, it also has its side effects. This may cause an increased incidence of breast blisters if it does become too wet.

4. Rice Hulls- This is one of the best litter materials that are used among most poultry farms. However, this is still purchased at a competitive price point that's a little higher/lower than the others.

5. Peanut Hulls- As the saying goes, everything that’s best for the business comes with a price. This litter material is relatively more expensive than others but tends to cake and crust with time. There have been some noticeable events of witnessing pesticides and mycotoxins in the past.

6. Sugarcane Pomace- Even though this product tends to cake with time, it can be used effectively across all litters.

7. Crushed Corn Cobs- This litter material is known for its limited availability to most poultry farmers. This on the other hand also tends to pose a threat to increasing breast blister problems.

8. Chopped Straw or Hay- As researches suggest, this material is proved to be an effective one with risks of caking and mold growth.

9. Processed Paper- Since paper tends to be a more economical option, choosing this over others tends to prove to be a good litter material. However, there are signs of slight caking with time.

10. Sand- Out of all the above-mentioned litter materials, this one is preferred to be utilized over others.

Nouriture Technical Services
 

Since the quality of proper litter material is directly proportional to the effectiveness of any poultry farm, Nouriture has put forward another initiative. With its fully-fledged technical services, they have assisted poultry farmers with a solution to every problem they face.

Being the pioneers in the animal feed business, they also focus on after-sale services to assist poultry farmers in the best way possible. So if you have any queries concerning poultry litter management. If you are also looking to sustain better litter management for your poultry, do contact 18003131577 and resolve your queries today.