Deep litter for sheep...

[Beekissed]

Added leaves and twigs to the sheep pens on Sat. Will continue to add things that are large enough to add air spaces and things fine enough to compost down as the fall season progresses.

Got some good rain last night and today and that was sorely needed. Have some cooler weather coming up and that will bring down more leaves to gather.

 

[Baymule]

We got an inch of rain last night and it cooled off.

 

[Beekissed]

We got an inch of rain last night and it cooled off.

We got rain too and are just as happy! Cool and lots of steady rain to soak deep into the soil. I was needing that to get our fall forage going....this is the month our chickens grow fat on mostly fall bugs, legumes and tall fescue and the sheep are needing it as well.

Sept. was dry all month and horribly hot for this region, so it slowed all that good fall vendor way down. The sheep still got good and fat anyway and so are going into breeding season with a good body condition and no need for flushing.

Bay, I sure wish you could watch some of Greg Judy's vids on YT...he's got some of the same ideas I've had for years and never got to implement, but he's proven they work and that's a huge win for me to see that it does work if you work it right. He doesn't worm, vaccinate nor flush his sheep, nor his cattle and you should see them and their offspring...simply amazing!

 

[secuono]

Isn't there a risk of fire?

I did the yearly, let them build it up themselves with all the waste hay, until this year. This time, they managed to make it into a bizarre concrete-like layer that I still haven't fully removed...
I also hated how much they wasted. Hay is too precious and dollars too few to buy straw for it.
Easier to regularly sweep it out.

 

[Beekissed]

Isn't there a risk of fire?

I did the yearly, let them build it up themselves with all the waste hay, until this year. This time, they managed to make it into a bizarre concrete-like layer that I still haven't fully removed...
I also hated how much they wasted. Hay is too precious and dollars too few to buy straw for it.
Easier to regularly sweep it out.

It's a moist compost pile, so I can't imagine any fire taking hold there...it would merely smoke or just fizzle out.

It's not a simple let the bedding build up kind of thing...this is a planned, layered, composting bed of a variety of materials and air spaces to promote good composting. It's adding more dry on wet areas and flipping wetter stuff into the dry areas until it's a uniformly moist but not wet bed of composting materials. The top layer would be dry, but underneath all kinds of good things are happening.

I'm not buying a thing but their original hay and even that I fix so there is minimal wasting going on, by keeping cattle panels tight to the bales. There will be some hay, mostly leaves, garden waste of corn stalks, sunflower stalks, tomato and squash vines, twigs, sticks, bark and wood chip from our getting in firewood. I'll even be emptying some ashes from the wood fire in there in thin layers so the carbon can be added to the mix.

It's not hard work but more of a monitoring, adding carbon, and building it right. I've been doing this for 6 yrs in my coop now and haven't had to take out anything but finished, rich soil/mulch that's fine as powder and fluff. No smells, no flies, no cakes, no heavy lifting and no ammonia.

Since sheep give more and better nitrogen, well scattered and not concentrated under a sleeping area, it should be a snap to build a good, composting deep litter. It requires a lot of ventilation at all levels, which I have, and just the addition of all sorts of carbon and some moisture. Creates a thick sponge that wicks moisture to the bottom and leaves the top layer like a forest floor...good smelling, good footing, and a healthy digestor of fecal matter.

 

[Beekissed]

Did a little fork work in the pens this morning, placing wet stuff over bare soils and dry stuff over wet stuff until it's all evenly distributed. I put some of the build up that accumulates near the hay bale over by the fence where the sheep tend to pace or scratch themselves when in the pen.

Right now there's a lovely breeze that will dry out the upper layers but I've trapped all that lovely moisture below a cap of carbon, so now good things can happen there.

In one pen the waterer has a slow leak and I was going to fix that...but have found it adds some much needed moisture in that corner so that the material there can compost downward. That part of the pen stays pretty dry but I'd like it to have a bit more moisture if it's going to do what it needs to do.

A few minutes of light fork work now and again verses huge removal of urine and poop impregnated bedding that smells foul and has to be piled up to compost...it's an easy decision for me.

 

[Beekissed]

Placed some charred logs in the sheep pens yesterday...the ram lamb immediately gave it a nibble~he'll try anything to see if it's food. I'll place the rest of the charcoal from the apple butter making into the pens as well....that will make a great moisture wick and the charred wood is something animals will eat to rid themselves of parasites.

My grandmother used to give her pigs charred wood and also gave them her dishwater(she used lye soap), said it kept them healthier. She didn't know that both things work to rid them of worms. Anecdotal things but if they work, they work.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Our goats go to the wood burning pit and nibble on the chared wood also , great idea about putting the charred logs in the pens to wick up moisture.

 

[mystang89]

I'm a bit late to the party but I recently (within the past 2 months) replaced the dirt and hay I was using in my girls stall with wood chips. I have 4 full grown Awassi Ewes who stay the night in their stall every night. Before I replaced the dirt and hay I was cleaning it out at least 2 to 3 times a week. On top of that it was wasting much of my hay and it still had that ammonia smell by the end of the week.

My children and I dug down about 2 feet deep and replaced ALL the dirt with wood chips. This is an area of about 15' x 8' (I'm ball parking it as I'm not in there nor have I ever measured it.) Since that time, I have only dug up a small spot, literally about a 3' in diameter spot, put more wood chips down, and that was it. I've done this one time in all the time it's been since I've replaced it. I have no smell, I walk through without feeling like I'm walking through a sloggy, marshy, mess. I'm happy, the children are happy, (they were the ones who had to clean it) and the sheep are happy plus they don't look like they've slept in their pee and poop anymore.

I'm sure sometime in the spring I will go through and replace it, but the day it takes me to dig it out and replace is WELL worth it.

 

[Beekissed]

Sounds like a vast improvement! Could be you won't want to take it out in the spring but just let it compost in place and just add fresh layers now and again. A couple of years of that and you'll be taking out some of the best compost you'll have ever made. I have a feeling you won't have any problems with smells or flies either.

With a composting deep litter it's not like they are walking around on a foot or two of poop and pee, as that all gets digested into the mass and is never seen or smelled again. As long as it's kept moist under there and not disturbed too much in the bottom layers, one can flip dry stuff on the top in a thin layer and let the poop just be digested by the various bug, worm and microbial life in the mass.

I'm going to do a little experiment this winter if I can get my paddocks built and hotwired. I've got a 2-4 in. layer of mulch hay in most of the paddock space and I think I'll move the sheep over sections of that this winter so they can trample that into the ground, add poop and pee and then move on to the fresh stuff and do the same. Before spring I can move them back into the pens to let those paddocks rest and start growing some good grass. By lambing time I should be able to put them out in those paddocks again.

It would be sort of doing deep litter in a larger area and letting it compost right on the ground as the rains and bugs work on it and bring it into the soils.

Just need to work on a portable hay/water/mineral bunker to move along with them.