Heat Treatment of Turkey Litter for Reuse as Bedding

Abstract

Local and national laws regulating poultry litter (PL) land application may require that PL be applied based on crop needs and PL nutrient content such as N and P. In addition, some may require monitoring of soil metals such as Cu and Zn. Even with efforts to decrease fecal nutrient excretion, there is also a need to extend the useful life of current bedding materials and to develop alternative uses of spent PL. Heat treatment of PL may extend bedding life and offer alternative uses of PL. The objective of this study was to determine if heat processed turkey litter (TL) can be reused as bedding for turkeys. Pine shavings (PS) which had been used as bedding to rear Large White male turkeys from hatch to 20 weeks of age was processed at 95 and 220 C in an enclosed auger system. Four litter treatments (LT) were used: 1) control - new PS (T ), o 1 2) TL processed at 95 C (T ), 3) a 70:30 (w/w) mixture of TL processed at 95 or 220 C (T ) and 4) a 95:5 o o 2 3 (w/w) mixture of TL processed at 95 or 220 C (T ). These bedding mixtures were placed in 36 floor pens in o 4 a randomized block design to provide 9 replicate pens per LT. Thirty Large White turkey hen poults were placed in each pen on day of hatch. The birds were reared to 14 wk. Mortality and feed consumption were monitored. Period and cumulative feed conversion (FC) ratios were calculated. Regression analysis of SAS, Inc. was used for data analysis. The LS Means procedure was used to separate treatment means (P<0.05). At 6 wks, T hens were heavier than T (1.78 kg), T (1.80 kg) or T (1.81 kg) hens. There were no differences 3 1 2 4 in BW at 10 (5.42 kg) or 14 wk (8.67 kg) among treatments. There were no differences in FC. The LT did not affect bird mortality. Litter treated by the heat process used for this study produces a bedding material suitable for rearing market turkeys.