Sarge Bilgili, Joe Hess, John Blake, and Michael Eckman

SAND—while most of us don’t consider sand as “trash,” we usually don’t think of it as a treasure either. But AAES researchers have found a way for poultry producers to turn sand into a treasure. Using sand as litter, these scientists have found, can help poultry producers reduce pollution, improve production, lower costs, and create a side product to sell.

Traditionally, pine shavings and sawdust have been used as inexpensive and readily available sources of bedding material, also called litter, for rearing broilers. Cost and availability of these preferred litter sources are often affected by the rapidly growing poultry industry and by the development of alternative uses and markets for wood products, such as building materials. Efforts to utilize other sources for litter—especially agricultural by-products, like peanut hulls, wheat straw, and rice hulls or recycled consumer products, like newspaper or dry wall—have been partially successful, depending upon local or seasonal availability, volume, and cost. Furthermore, all plant-based litter materials require either replenishment between each flock, following the partial removal of the caked areas where the material has become saturated and dense, or total replacement following annual or bi-annual clean-out of the broiler houses. These activities create an ongoing need for a clean supply of litter and appropriate disposal programs.

Typically, used litter is applied to agricultural land as a crop fertilizer. As the poultry industry in Alabama continues to grow, there has been a parallel decrease in the availability of agricultural crop land that could accommodate the by-products of this expansion. Many states are developing nutrient management regulations to limit and control land application of litter. Both high cost and low availability of litter sources and regulatory limits for its land application may become the biggest constraint for the long-term growth and viability of the poultry industry in Alabama and the United States.

For the past four years, AAES researchers have examined the feasibility of using washed mortar sand as a litter source for broilers. The advantages of considering sand as a litter material are many: less caking, a level surface for optimum feeder and drinker management, longer use time, less organic decomposition and build-up, and unique horticultural characteristics as a soil amendment. More than 60% of the broilers produced in the United States, or nearly five billion broilers, are grown near coastal plains so producers have access to sand as a reasonably low-priced raw material.

From 1995 until 1998 multiple broiler flocks were grown on sand and pine shavings for comparison of live production (growth rate, livability, and feed conversion efficiency) as well as processing characteristics (carcass and deboning meat yields, carcass grade, and foot pad quality) at various market ages at the Auburn University Poultry Research Unit. In addition, environmental sampling was also conducted to assess litter moisture, temperature, ammonia production rate, microbial levels, and nutrient composition.

Broilers raised on sand performed as well as or better than those raised on pine shavings. Male broilers raised on sand outweighed their counterparts raised on pine shavings in some of the grow-outs. Foot pad quality was also improved, based on litter moisture, time of the year, and type of drinker provided. Once sand had been dried, it performed better than expected in pilot research facilities. Moisture and ammonia levels were similar to pine shavings, with significantly lower numbers of bacteria in the sand.

These results have also been confirmed by recent, but limited use of sand in a commercial broiler operation. Two 40 × 400 feet broiler houses in North Alabama were equipped with sand, one with washed mortar sand and the other with sand from a creek bed, at a depth of four inches (about 300 tons per house). After 10 consecutive grow-outs of broilers, the elements of commercial interest such as production, processing, or house environment were all satisfactory. In addition, a number of other positive benefits were detected during this ongoing field trial. Houses equipped with sand as a litter had less dust, lower darkling beetle levels, less caking, and more beneficial temperatures (the temperature was 2^oF cooler in summer and warmer in winter months). Depending upon the cost of alternative litter sources, brooding and clean-out programs, and market age, sand has a pay-back period of 1.5 years.

Johnny McCoy (left), a poultry grower in Cullman Co., and Bill Peterson, Live Production Manager for Golden Rod Broilers of Cullman, examine a house bedded with sand.

Field research is currently measuring the physical, nutrient (see table), and microbiological characteristics of sand over time. In addition, litter treatments such as surface heat sterilization, pH modifiers, and screening are being evaluated. Finally, potential horticultural markets for the used sand, such as pasture lands, turfgrass farms, nurseries, and even golf courses, are being investigated. Statewide utilization of sand as litter should greatly reduce environmental concerns associated with litter disposal and actually provide poultry farmers with a valuable by-product to market.

Fertilizer Value of Sand
	Nitrogen (N)	Phosphate (P205)	Potash (K20)
	lbs/ton1	lbs/ton	lbs/ton
Pure Sand Litter	0.2	0.1	0.7
Used Sand Litter 2	78.6	67.6	57.6
Used Pine Shavings Litter 2	62.4	69.9	55.1
1 Pounds per ton on a dry weight basis.
2 Eight consecutive flocks were grown on pine shavings and on sand. The pine shavings litter was replenished with clean shavings between each flock; the sand litter was not.

The “sand as a litter” project, spearheaded by Auburn University, has raised tremendous interest, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Efforts are underway to facilitate the transfer of this research-based technology to commercial use in the state. Successful demonstration, acceptance, and application by the poultry producers should ultimately help Alabama’s agriculture grow in an environmentally sound manner.