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Re: How to get rid of bedding straw ?
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Posted by Rick K (Lost In Our Back Yard Llama Farm) on August 13, 1999 at 12:52:10 from (205.181.231.254):
In Reply to: How to get rid of bedding straw ? posted by Truck on August 12, 1999 at 06:39:51:
There was an article in a llama magazine a year or so ago. If I run across if again, I will send you a copy of it. The guy tried everything for bedding. He came back to what I have been using since I got into llamas - SAND and RUBBER MATS. Straw is a pain to get rid of, and you have to remove almost all of it every time you clean up. Shavings are not much better, and it gets stuck in the wool as well. Shavings are great for horses, because the poop is bigger than the shavings and a fork will separate the two. Llama poop is too small to separate from the shavings. I fill my stalls with sand, and then lay rubber stall mats over them. The poop and wet stuff can be raked into a grain shovel and taken away. If some poop winds up in the sand, it separates pretty easily with a regular plastic lawn rake. What little urine is left behind can be gotten up by spreading a small amount of shavings into it and raking that up as well. I just dump the shavings into the poop pile. The small amount will decompose quickly. Llama poop is is great demand, by the way, so he should have no problem getting someone to take it. All my friends have the greenest lawns! The biggest help is to not let them poop in their stalls. Llamas are pretty much naturally potty trained, so if you get a poop pile started outside, they will continue to use that instead of making a mess inside. We do not lock the llamas inside at night. They can go out anytime they want, so thy USUALLY do not "wet the bed". If there is an indoor accident, I clean it up as best as I can and put down a substance called PDZ, which is a naturally occuring mineral that absorbs the odor. If the stall doesn't smell like a poop pile, they are less likely to use it as one. I don't know where in Vermont your brother lives, but they carry it at the Agway store in Greenfield, Mass (I live in Westfield, Ma). As far as spreading the manure in the pasture, your brother is right about that. Any parasites that come out in the poop should not be allowed to make it back into the pasture, or the cycle will repeat itself. Some parasites can survive in a dormant state for 10-20 years. Menangeal worm is one such sucker, and it can kill a llama by growing around the spinal cord and causing complete paralysis. I saw a llama at another farm get it. It was not pretty. Worm regularly! Tell him good luck! What is the farm name? I may know him. Rick
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