Inoculated Deep Litter System for Cold Climates

Commodities

• Animals: goats, sheep

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, manure management
• Farm Business Management: feasibility study
• Natural Resources/Environment: carbon sequestration
• Soil Management: soil quality/health

Farms of all scales struggle with
livestock housing that meets the big goals of
regenerative/sustainable agriculture: 

• Safety and Comfort for the
  Animals, 
• Providing a Positive Impact on
  the Environment, 
• Safe and Easy to Use for the
  Farmer, and 
• Scalability.

The Inoculated Deep Litter System
(IDLS) is an innovative system that checks all four boxes. IDLS
is a bedding and housing solution which, once constructed, never
requires the removal of bedding/waste while providing a
comfortable and safe space for livestock. It achieves this by
using a multi-layered system with a foundation of inoculated
biochar, followed by logs, sawdust and a layer of loose bedding
which is added to as needed.

While IDLS is used widely
throughout the tropics, little to no research has been done in
cold-climate agriculture. Working with engineers from Hawaii and
New England, we are adapting the system to our climate where
we’ll test the design with small ruminants (goats and
sheep).

We believe that this technology
can substantially improve animal welfare and reduce farmer labor
while also acting as a carbon sink, eliminating supplementary
heating needs, and significantly reducing ammonia
production.

This will be a three year project
so that we can evaluate the long-term impact on the animals,
farmers, and environment. We’ll write a paper with our findings
along with Plans for Constructing Cold Climate IDLS Housing and
provide video content throughout the project.

We plan to develop and test a
cold-weather Inoculated Deep Litter System for small ruminants
which can be deployed at farm-scale.

We also hope to demonstrate that
the claims of IDLS (i.e. no bedding removal, little-to-no aroma,
animal health benefits, reduced ammonia production, and complete
containment/composting of waste) hold true for cold
climates.

Through rigorous bookkeeping, we
will also present our findings on the cost-effectiveness of this
system at small-scale so fellow farmers and researchers can make
an educated decision on deployment.