By Hannah Cargill, contract production manager, Avara Foods
Every winter, the farms that stay ahead of litter aren’t always the ones with the fanciest kit, they’re the ones with the best habits. And I don’t see that changing, despite the lower stocking density this winter.
On my own farms, I can walk into a broiler house where the birds look perfectly happy, but the litter will tell me a different story. Winter doesn’t forgive hesitation, and the farms that consistently thrive aren’t doing anything magical, they’re simply sticking to the basics with discipline.
The first habit I see on the best-performing farms is ventilating enough, even when it’s cold outside. There’s always that moment each winter when temperatures drop and the instinct is to shut everything down to “keep the heat in.” But the growers who stay ahead of litter don’t fall into that trap. They keep minimum ventilation ticking over so moisture keeps moving upwards and out, rather than settling into the bedding. They don’t let CO₂ creep up too high, because they know a shed full of stale air always ends in a shed full of wet litter.
The next is pre-emptive heating; warming the air before problems start. The farms that manage litter well don’t wait until it’s already going wrong. They aren’t blasting heat at the floor once the litter is damp; they’re raising the overall air temperature earlier so it can actually hold the moisture the birds produce. They treat warm air as a tool, not an expense: warm first, ventilate second.
Then there’s early litter attention. I see this on the farms that stay consistently dry. They don’t wait for a wet patch before reacting. Instead, they’re walking the sheds from day one, checking for compaction under drinker lines and on outside walls and spotting dips in airflow. They understand that litter is a living, breathing part of the environment. Once it turns wet, you’re fighting a losing battle, so they intervene early, lightly, and often.
And finally, the biggest habit of all: drinker discipline. Winter exaggerates every small mistake with water lines. Too high, too low, too much pressure, a few worn nipples – it doesn’t take too many drips to cause a lot of damage. The farms that stay dry are obsessive about daily checks in the first ten days. They know that the tiny droplets they catch early are the podo issues they prevent later.
Winter litter management isn’t complicated. It’s consistent. And these are the steady, simple habits I see making the biggest difference as we head into the cold season.