What are the methods for handling bedding material in goose farming?

In goose production, meat-type goslings, fattening geese and breeding geese are often raised on the floor, and brooding is also often carried out on the floor; bedding material is often needed in these processes. The bedding material used at goose farms is mostly sawdust, rice straw or other straw. The general pattern of use is: more bedding in winter, less or no bedding in summer; more bedding on cloudy and rainy days, less bedding on sunny days. After a production cycle ends, the removed bedding material is actually a mixture of goose manure and bedding. There are several methods for handling this mixture:

1 . Pit storage or heap storage

The mixture of meat-type gosling manure and bedding material can be “ensiled” on its own. To make fermentation work well, the moisture content of the mixture should be adjusted to 40 %. On the 4th to 8th day of heap storage, the heap temperature reaches its highest peak, which can kill many kinds of pathogenic bacteria; after being maintained for several days, the heap temperature gradually drops and balances with the air temperature. After pit storage or heap storage, the mixture of goose manure and bedding material can be fed to ruminants such as cattle and sheep.

2 . Direct combustion

When litter-floor raising is used, because the interval between manure cleanouts is relatively long, as long as the house is well ventilated and the drinkers do not leak, the collected goose manure and bedding material are relatively dry. If the moisture content of the goose manure and bedding mixture is below 30 %, it can be used directly as fuel for heat supply. It is estimated that a relatively large goose farm, if it can reasonably and fully use the goose manure and bedding mixture produced on the farm as fuel, can basically meet the farm's own thermal energy needs. Of course, the direct combustion of the goose manure and bedding mixture requires special combustion equipment, so a certain investment is needed in advance. If an infectious disease breaks out at a goose farm, the bedding material at that time must be handled by incineration.

3 . Producing biogas

Using the manure and bedding mixture as biogas raw material is very convenient because it already contains a relatively large amount of litter (mainly some plant tissues) and the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is relatively suitable.

4 . Direct return to the field as fertilizer

Sawdust, rice straw or other straw that is in fragment form before use can be directly returned to the field.