help explaining deep litter benefits

[mzgarden]

I came home today to find DH had cleaned out the deep litter in the outside goat pen and replaced it with deep nice clean straw.
Since it's been a very cold winter so far, I'd been counting on that deep litter to help keep my 4 adults warm.

We have this 'discussion' every winter, about half way through.  He just can not stand the thought that under that 12+ inches of straw it is dirty with goat poo and pee.  I try to explain that top cleaning the poo-piles, adding clean straw, making sure you can kneel without getting wet, lets the waste compost which provides a bit of heat to help them stay warm.  He just can't stand the thought of the goats sleeping on top of it all, and so it all ended up around the trees in the orchard today.

Any ideas how I can convince him - or should I just let it go?

[Deleted]

"Any ideas how I can convince him - or should I just let it go?"

A good bribe? Or show him this:

simplelivingcountrygal.com/the-deep-litter-method/

There are other similar online articles. Good luck.

[MeandTK]

I think Joel Salatin has something about it on his web page, and I expect you'd find something from him on Youtube also.

[mzgarden]

Thanks. I'll show him the articles again. I just think he cannot get over the fact that under that nice straw is yucky stuff and his poor little darlings (and they are out divas) are laying on top of it. Not the end of the world, of course.

[dustawaits]

Never a fan of it myself. I had two goat barns. One had a concrete floor. We put 6-8 inches
of saw dust then straw in the kid pens.
The other barn had a dirt floor, they just dug it deeper. I fed hay in feeder in that barn and sometimes they
slept under or against the feeder. Mostly though it was near the open door. Or like @redfish, said outside.

[Use Less]

It sounds like there are mixed opinions and mixed results. I'd let it go. Especially if Plan B is it becomes your job

[mzgarden]

One reason I love this forum is you can ask a question, get differing perspectives without anyone getting argumentative. It's good to get different perspectives. I did notice for the first time this year, our big/oldest wether had frozen rain/snow on his back one morning. Put up a game camera to see if he was being bullied out (not likely) and nope, he's just choosing some days in and some days under the less complete shelter. Thanks again everyone!

[here to stay]

I used to pile straw up but it was no thought out practice. Just laziness.

Then I had an unexpected and complicated delivery and found myself laying down on top of the straw to reach into a doe to pull kids. Usually my delivering girls would have been movedvto their own delivery shed with brand new bedding.

And, although it was clean and dry on the surface, it was full of ammonia smell when I was down in it myself. There might be a technique to it that I missed but I changed what I did after that.

[shellymay]

I like and dislike......straw is not an absorbent in my opinion, As you all know I raise chicks up and sell at 4 months of age, when I use straw for bedding, remember they are raised completely indoors before they are sold, when using straw all chicken poop sits on top of straw and stays moist, then more poop then more moist, then more poop, repeat.....

When I use pine shavings for chickens, the shavings absorb the liquid in the poop and the poop turns to a powdery substance, this I like as it all dries out....Trust me when I clean coop all that stuff floating in air isn't chicken dander, LOL......

But for me sheep, good old mother nature for them as they are all out doors laying around on waste hay, they have lento's which are dirt floors  

[Maura]

For our chickens, when little they are indoors in a large cardboard box with newspaper on the bottom and paper towels on top of that. I change the paper towels as needed, then newspaper as needed. Then, they go outside. In the henhouse we kept a bale of straw, picky side up. The poop drops to the bale and down. It does stay on top, but keeps going. This spreads the manure out and no amount of trampling will break the bale down. It worked for us for several winters.

As for your goats, I would start with a deep layer before there are freezing temps. I'd use a hay fork to turn it over and mix it up after just a few days. As needed, I would add another layer of straw. After a couple of days, mix that up with the old stuff and put new on. This should keep the straw from turning into a horrible ammonia mess on the bottom and encourage decomposition. Once the weather is freezing, the decomposition should keep the manure and urine heated. At the point that the weather is just too cold, add straw without mixing.

[jd4020]

I like deep litter and usually start with it, but leaving it there and just adding new doesn't really work for me as it gets frozen etc.
For all my animals, I like to keep it cleaned out. Doing it every week lets me keep up with it. I have a place to dump the cart and then sometime during the summer dh moves it over to the garden with the skid loader. It gets turned and moved at the same time. Right now I am behind and it is mostly frozen, so I do put in clean, but when it thaws out, I'll clean it out. Since they are milking animals I just don't feel good about having the manure underneath the clean. Too many germs and ammonia build up too close to the teats. I always try to have a clean pen ready for kidding but sometimes I missed. Didn't seem to have any trouble with the kids getting sick from it.
For the chickens, in my experience, the best bedding out there is shredded corn cobs. They don't mat together & I can almost sweep the mess out with a broom. Otherwise I like using the pine bedding. My ideal is to clean the chicken house every week. Maybe if I have the chickens out in a chicken tractor or in the hoop house, I let it go, and then rake it where I want to plant in it. I've been thinking over the idea to dig some shallow trenches and then fill it with bedding and have the chicken tractor sit on it for however many days, then move it to the next one. Seems like less work to me.

[mzgarden]

Thanks all. This year we started with deep litter, top cleaned for obvious goat berry piles and added to it during the cold/freezing spells. During thaw periods, we cleaned out and prepped for the next cold spell by building up a layer of deep litter. It seems to have worked for us - periodic cleaning out made us both happy.