The digestibility of ensiled broiler house litter / barley rations for sheep.

Abstract

Proc. Aust. Soc. Anim. Prod. (1974) 10; 400 THE DIGESTIBILITY OF ENSILED BROILER-HOUSE LITTER/BARLEY RATIONS FOR SHEEP G.J.L. JACOBS* and JANE LEIBHOLZ* Broiler-house litter disposal has become a major problem for the poultry industry. Noland, Ford and Ray (1955) have suggested that broilerhouse litter would replace conventional protein supplements in the rations of both gestating-lactating ewes and fattening steers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have issued three policy statements (most recent, 1971) refusing to 'sanction the use of poultry litter as a feed or as a component of feed for animals' since 'disease organisms may be transferred from poultry to other animals through the use of poultry litter as animal feed'. Pomeroy (personal communication 1972) has studied litter ensiled in a 'Harvestore' on a commercial feedlot property in Minnesota. He detected Salmonella in the litter going into storage but none in the 'poultry silage' (ensiled about 30 days). Drake, McClure and Fontenot (1965) fed steers poultry litter at levels of 25% and 40% of rations. Average daily weight gains were 82.7% and 89.0% of the controls and feed conversions were 126.2% and 126.5% respectively. In the present experiment, ten yearling wethers (mean weight 50 kg) were fed five diets in a Latin-square design experiment all incorporating broiler-house litter and barley in a 1:l ratio. One diet included poultry litter in a dry unprocessed form and the others included poultry litter ensiled for 3 or 6 weeks or poultry litter and barley ensiled for 3 or 6 weeks (approximately 70% dry matter) - Table 1. TABLE1 Chemical composition of diets (% D.M.) Dry matter intake and nitrogen balance were significantly improved These results would indicate by the ensiling process (P < 0.05) - Table 2. that ensiling (poultry litter + barley) increases palatability and nitrogen availability. TABLE 2 REFERENCES J. Anim. Sci. 14: 860. NOLAND, P.R., FORD, B.F., and RAY, M.L. (1955). Va. agric. Exp. DRAKE, C.L., MCCLURE, W-H., and FONTENOT, J.P. (1965). Sta. Livestock Res. Prog. Rep., p-3-6. * M.C. Franklin Laboratory, University of Sydney Farms, Camden, N.S.W., 2570.