Hardwood Sawdust as Poultry Bedding - USDA Forest Service

compost litter was nearly double that of sawdust, this difference would also decrease withfecal dilution over multiple flocks.Table 3. Litter composition at 42 days*.Componet Compost SawdustNitrogen (%) 2.34 2.22Ammoniacal N (%) 0.27 0.27Phosphate (%) 1.80 1.61Potash (%) 1.60 1.70Calcium (%) 1.27 1.08Magnesium (%) 0.32 0.30Sulfur (%) 0.37 0.34Aluminum (ppm) 2607 800Boron (ppm) 23.6 22.0Copper (ppm) 79.2 76.9Iron (ppm) 2752 941Manganese (ppm) 271 251Zinc (ppm) 239 220Dry matter (%) 76.8 76.7Ash (%) 15.6 9.0Carbon (%) 31 34C:N 13.4 15.3*Reported on a wet-weight basis.The use of portable plastic netting pens inside a commercial poultry was our firstattempt at providing limited replication of bedding treatments under field conditions.Keeping the plastic netting sealed around the feed and drinker lines posed a challengeparticularly for one compost pen. There was a tendency for birds from outside the pensto enter this pen and on 3 occasions the bird density had to be re-adjusted. This factorwas taken into consideration when compiling the broiler performance data (Table 4).Body weights of the compost and sawdust pens were similar at 7 days (.33 vs. .33 lbs), 14days (.77 vs. .75 lbs) and 42 days (5.27 vs. 5.30 lbs). However, note the 42 day weightsexclude the compost pen biased by having the higher bird density.Average 42 day mortality was higher with compost (4.8%) compared to sawdust(2.7%). However this difference was due to higher mortality in just one compost pen andmay reflect a minor difference in equipment function or chick source for this pen. Sincethe other compost pen had mortality similar to the sawdust treatment, this may not be aconcern. When the birds were weighed in groups of five at 42 days there was respiratorynoise in 3% of the compost groups and 17% of the sawdust groups. This observationmay warrant further study.Although the incidence of foot pad lesions “appeared” to be higher with compostbedding at 7 and 14 days of age, this may be due to the difficulty in distinguishing a mild17