THE REALITIES ABOUT POULTRY The Modern Farm - The Realities About Poultry_Seco | Page 31

Advantages of Deep Litter System
Safety of Birds: Birds on rage of even in a netted yard can be taken by wild animals, flying
birds, etc. When enclosed in deep litter intensive pen which has strong
stron g wire netting or expanded
metal, the birds and eggs are safe.
Litter as a source of food supply: It may come as surprise to learn that built- -up deep litter also
supplies some of the food requirements of the birds. They obtain "Animal Protein Factor" from
deep litter and some work indicates that this could learn that birds obtain sufficient of this to
enable to suitable feed ration to be prepared with only a vegetable protein such as groundnut
meal included in the feed. The level of vitamins such as riboflavin
ribofla vin increases up to nearly three
three-
fold. According to experiments conducted. The combination of this and the Animal Protein
Factor is necessary to good hatchability of eggs and early growth of chickens.
Disease control: Well managed deep litter kept in dry condition
c ondition with no wet spots around
water has a sterilizing action. The level of coccidiosis and worm infestation is much lower
watered kept on good deep litter than with birds (or chickens) in bare yards and bare floor sheds
particularly where water spillage
spillag is allowed.
Labour saving: This is one of the really big features of deep litter usage. Cleaning out poultry
pens daily or weekly means quite a lot of work. With correct conditions observed with well
managed litter there is no need to clean a pen out for a whole year; the only attention is the
regular stirring and adding of some material is needed.
The valuable fertilizer: This is a valuable economic factor with deep litter. According to
McArdle and Panda, 35 laying birds can produce in one year about 1 ton of deep litter fertilizer.
Page 30 of 163