Managing re-used litter
Re-using litter can improve chicken meat production by reducing costs and decreasing environmental impacts but requires additional management and preparation practices. Practices to prepare litter...
Litterpedia
Litterpedia
Litterpedia brings together chicken bedding and litter management information for the Australian chicken meat industry in one, easily accessible location.
Chicken litter, or bedding, is an essential part of breeding and growing meat chickens. Litter in good condition—dry and friable—optimises chicken health and welfare, improving their growth and productivity.
Here you will find litter resources and tools for meat chicken growers and breeders including fact sheets, guides, videos and webinar recordings. There are also links to research project summaries and completed project final reports.
The Best practice manual for managing litter is a comprehensive and useful guide for growers. It covers topics on bedding selection, including sourcing letter and quality control; shed heating and cooling; litter pests; litter re-use, caking and litter conditioning and spent litter utilisation.
Download Best practice litter management manual
An online e-book version is also available here.
Litter selection
Bedding material is an important component of a meat chicken’s environment. It absorbs moisture, mixes with fresh droppings, insulates and cushions the floor, supports a rich microbiome, and allows birds to display preferred behaviours.
In Australia, the bedding material traditionally used is sawdust, wood shavings, cereal straw and rice hulls. The type of bedding material chosen will depend on location, availability and suitability. Re-using litter is an option in some areas, but will depend on the requirements of each individual company.
Some of the key factors to consider when selecting bedding material is provided in more detail in the Best practice litter management manual for Australian meat chicken farms: Key factors in bedding material selection.
The chicken litter screening and search tool provides information on the different types of litter and their suitability in Australia.
If re-using litter is an option for your farm, the litter re-use video describes the process of how litter can be re-used and how it should be treated between each grow-out period. A standard operating procedure for pasteurising litter also provides information on how to treat litter between batches.
Litter selection resources
Litter assessment
Many factors can affect litter condition during a grow-out, so it’s important to check and record litter conditions daily. Doing this in a consistent manner and keeping records will show what the litter is doing over time and can help with management decisions.
Download the fact sheet on Assessing litter conditions
A pocket-size litter guide and poster is available that can be used to assist staff quickly and consistently assess litter conditions.
Watch the video on assessing litter in meat chicken sheds.
A pocket-size litter guide and poster is available that can be used to assist staff quickly and consistently assess litter conditions.
Drinker management
Drinker management is an important consideration when managing litter conditions. To reduce the amount of additional water going into the litter under drinker lines, consider the following:
- Drinker pressure and height
- Flushing and cleaning drinker lines to remove biofilm, sediment and scale
- Replacing worn and leaky drinker nipples
- Replacing high-flow with medium-flow drinker nipples.
Paying attention to these areas can help to reduce leakage and spillage from drinkers.
The following fact sheets have more detailed information on each of these areas.
Download the Drinker pressure and height fact sheet
Download the Flushing and cleaning drinker lines fact sheet
Download the Replacing worn drinker nipples fact sheet
Download the fact sheet on Medium-flow drinker nipples
Detailed procedures for measuring drinker flow rates and adjusting line pressure based on litter condition can be downloaded from the following links.
Download Procedure for how to measure drinker flow rate
Download Procedure for adjusting drinker line pressure
For more information on drinker management, watch the video and animation on drinker management.
The webinar presented by Mark Dunlop on Options to keep the litter dry provides information on adjusting drinker pressure height, measuring water from drinkers, adjusting flow rates based on litter conditions and replacing drinkers.
Litter tilling
Litter tilling (also known as litter conditioning, turning, stirring, rotary hoeing and power harrowing) is used to break apart litter that has become caked – a hard, dry crusted layer on the litter surface. When combined with adequate ventilation and heating, litter tilling can keep litter friable.
Read more about what causes caking in litter and how to manage it in the Best practice litter management manual for Australian meat chicken farms: Caking and litter conditioning.
The litter tilling fact sheet outlines the benefits and risks associated with tilling as well as some examples of the different types of machinery that can be used.
Download the Litter tilling fact sheet
Litter management can also depend on the type of material that is used. The following fact sheet describes the properties of the main litter types used in Australia, plus some their management and tilling requirements.
Download Shavings, sawdust, straw and rice hulls fact sheet
Managing ammonia levels after tilling is important, the following video (3 mins, 3 sec) explains how ammonia forms in the litter and the best way to remove it from the shed after tilling.
The Litter moisture recap webinar talks about litter conditioning in more detail, starting at 13 min 30 sec.
Litter tilling resources
Ventilation
Ventilation is a key part of keeping the litter dry as it helps to evaporate and remove water from the shed.
Evaporation is the key to keeping litter dry and friable to reduce ammonia production, contact dermatitis, pathogen growth and ensure chickens can work in fresh droppings. There are four critical elements to evaporating water from litter:
1. Moisture at the litter surface
2. Warm litter
3. Warm, dry air that can remove more water
4. Air speed at the litter surface.
There is no single solution to improving water evaporation from the litter. Growers need to consider their own situation and choose which of the elements is likely to give them the most cost-effective improvement in litter conditions.
The following fact sheets and videos provide more detail on how water moves in the litter and how ventilation is used to evaporate water from the litter.
Download Introduction to drying litter fact sheet
Download The elements of drying litter fact sheet
Watch the animation that explains how humidity and condensation can contribute to wet litter.
Pre-heating litter
Drying and pre-heating litter before chick placement is essential for maintaining chick body temperature during brooding. It is important to dry litter before placement to ensure the success of the batch. Dry litter has many benefits, including warm and dry conditions for the day-old chicks, removal of moisture and ammonia, increased water holding capacity of the litter during brooding and reduced heating costs.
Download Drying and pre-heating litter before chick placement fact sheet
Watch the video on pre-heating sheds and litter that looks at how cold floors can affect chicks and litter moisture, and how to dry wet bedding before placement.
Watch the webinar on Drying litter chick placement with Mark Dunlop.
Circulation fans
Circulation fans systems redistribute hot air that collects at the ceiling of the shed. Hot air accumulates when minimum fans turn off (top), when there are low levels of ventilation, or when air currents in the shed are inadequate or poorly defined (centre). Poor air movement in the shed may be due to incorrectly adjusted side-wall vents, not enough static pressure, obstacles in the shed or on the ceiling, or due to duty cycles not running long enough to get all of the air in the shed moving. This leaves hot air against the ceiling and doesn’t generate air movement across the litter surface to remove water from the litter.
Running circulation fans constantly (bottom) is one way to mix the warm air throughout the shed to produce more uniform conditions. There are different styles of circulation fans. Most are mounted on the ceiling where the hot air accumulates. Some fans blow air directly towards the floor while others pull the warm air down and blow it horizontally in all directions, but usually well above the litter surface to minimise drafts. Other circulation fans blow air horizontally and are installed as a system of fans. Warm air is blown from one circulation fan to the next, and then the next, to build air momentum within the shed and get all the air moving.
All these circulation fan styles redistribute warm air and bring it down towards the litter. By doing so, some heat is transferred to the litter and the relative humidity of air that is in contact with the litter is reduced. This improves two of the elements required for drying litter and will have positive benefits. However, to maximise the drying effect it would be beneficial to add air speed at the litter surface.
Download the fact sheet on Circulation fans
Watch the webinar recording with Connie Mou on Using circulation fans to keep litter dry.
For more information on shed ventilation systems is available from the Best practice litter management manual.
Litter YouTube playlist
A range of webinar recordings are available on the litter playlist about litter management, ventilation, amendments and alternative litter options for meat chicken growers. This playlist also hosts videos and animations on factors that can affect litter moisture.
Industry guides
The AgriFutures Australia Chicken Meat Program has invested in many litter related projects. There are five guides for meat chicken growers relevant to litter:
- Best practice litter management manual for Australian meat chicken farms (PRJ-011589), published 2021
- Litter re-use: An evidence-based guide to reusing litter (PRJ- 006440), published 2015
- Grower options for spent litter utilisation (PRJ-006440), published 2015
- Energy recovery from litter: a guide for users (PRJ-006440), published 2015
- Land application of chicken litter: a guide for users (PRJ-006440), published 2015
Acknowledgments
The Litterpedia concept was born from the Best practice litter management manual for Australian meat chicken farms project (PRJ-011589) conducted by Eugene McGahan and Nic Gould of Integrity Ag & Environment, and Mark Dunlop of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland, funded by AgriFutures Australia and published in 2021.
Litterpedia was developed as part of the Litter and environment – BMPs and baseline information to support industry production and growth project (PRJ-011502) and the Training and extension for the Australian chicken meat industry project (PRJ-011920) also funded by AgriFutures Australia.
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This website is administered on behalf of the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program.
For more information about the AgriFutures Chicken Meat Program, click here.
