About every 3 weeks, we would collect about 2 truck loads of grass to be dried as bedding for the chickens and ducks. As we are using a deep litter system, there’s a constant need to replenish the bedding material when it’s soiled or starting to smell. It’s quite labour intensive but that’s the way it is.
Hence, it’s helpful to have more biomass grown at the farm. As it’s never enough, we do venture out of the farm to collect at times, but only at places we’re sure there have been no herbicides sprayed.
These high carbon material is also used to line up nesting boxes. Lalang is much preferred as its soft with high biomass qualities. Other types of grass used are vetiver and lemon grass. Of course, another better option is bamboo leaves. An established clump of bamboo yields excellent amount of high quality carbon material. Plans are underway to have bamboo planted in the vicinity of the coop to facilitate collection of the dried leaves.
Besides being used as animal bedding, the soiled grasses (especially in nesting boxes) gets broken down as nutrient to feed the soil. Biomass-rich plant material is one of the key components in an integrated farming practice to be used as food source not just for animals and plants but for the soil.
I’ve never looked at lalang the same way again since having chickens and ducks.
