Poultry bedding

Abstract

There is provided a composition suitable for use as poultry bedding based on wood shavings and sphagnum. The flow-flowing characteristic of the composition renders it very easy to apply and distribute on the floor of the stall. Moreover, the composition is easy to turn around and mix for the farmer. The composition exhibits effective absorption of ammonia for a complete production cycle for commercial poultry operations. A major effect of using the present composition is that foot burns and feet blisters of poultry observed with conventional bedding can essentially be avoided.

Claims

1. A composition suitable for use as poultry bedding, said composition comprising: (a) wood shavings obtained from pine or fir wood, said shavings have sizes within a range from 1-50 mm; (b) sphagnum of a light peat type; wherein the ratio of the wood shavings and the sphagnum ranges from 30/70% vol/vol to 80/20% vol/vol, and wherein the composition has a bulk density of 100 to 250 kg/m3, in a non-compacted state.

2. The composition of claim 1, wherein the ratio of the wood shavings and the sphagnum ranges from 30/70% vol/vol to 70/30% vol/vol.

3. A method of reducing ammonia levels in a poultry barn by applying on a floor 4-12 litres per m.sup.2 of a composition according to claim 1.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein 4-8 litres per m.sup.2 of the composition is applied.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the composition is applied after the barn has been warmed to at least 30 degrees Celsius.

6. The composition of claim 1, wherein the shavings have sizes within a range of 5-20 mm.

7. The composition of claim 1, wherein the composition has a bulk density of 130 to 200 kg/m.sup.3 in a non-compacted state.

8. The composition of claim 1, wherein the sphagnum has a pH of less than 6.

9. The method according to claim 3, wherein the composition is applied after the barn has been warmed to 34-35 degrees Celsius.

10. A method of using a composition according to claim 1 as bedding for preventing foot burn of poultry, the method comprising: applying and distributing on a floor the composition in a dosage of 4-12 litres per m.sup.2.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the dosage of the composition is 4-8 litres per m.sup.2.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) The FIGURE shows a sample of the composition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(2) The invention is in the following described in more detail.

(3) The sphagnum used in the present invention may be any commercially available sphagnum. As used herein the term sphagnum includes all species of living plants within the genus sphagnum whether naturally growing or cultivated. Sphagnum moss includes sphagnum that has been harvested, regardless of whether it has been subjected to further processing such as milling. Sphagnum peat moss includes partially decomposed sphagnum and/or partially decomposed sphagnum moss. Although the present invention prefers commercially available dried sphagnum moss, principles are considered to extend to sphagnum and sphagnum peat moss as well.

(4) The wood shavings are obtained from soft wood. Examples of suitable woods include Ponderosa, Lodgepole Pine, Spruce and White/Alpine Fir. For example, a mixture of Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pine is suitably used together with a mixture of Spruce and White/Alpine Fir.

(5) As appears from the FIGURE, the composition of the present invention may attain the typical form of a free flowing particle-based composition when properly mixed. This means that the composition is very easy to apply and to distribute on the floor of the stall. This also give improved aeration of the bedding.

(6) In a comparative study the composition of the present invention showed a significant reduction of the foot burns in a chicken stock relative to a comparative stock held on normal poultry bedding.

(7) In the comparative study a composition according to the present invention had 70% vol wood shavings and 30% vol sphagnum (with pH about 5), whereas the conventional poulry bedding was essentially based on wood chips. It has been speculated by the inventors why the present composition gives to an unexpectedly efficient removal of the ammonia than is normally observed with conventional poultry bedding. It appears that the size of the wood shavings in conjunction with the sphagnum constituents renders the bedding very spongy or aery and provides a large surface area of sphagnum that can absorb the ammonia. In any event it is very unexpected that such simple means results in an significant reduction in foot burns.