Substrate animal bedding

I recently took a class on Korean Natural Farming. I was particularly interested in their use of IMO (indigenous micro organism) inoculated compost for odor free and reduced pathogen animal bedding. The IMO is a wild collected mycorrhizal culture gathered on a buried basket of rice. Most of the year we keep our KuneKune pigs and chickens rotating on our grass... but in the Pennsylvania winters we keep them in pens that we consider sacrifice areas. I keep them bedded on straw and wood chips. I was wondering if there is a potentially edible mushroom that could be cultivated and then the substrate used for deep bedding.

I am just getting ready to start with some Oyster Mushroom cultivation. From my reading this is the easiest to start with, as it is aggressive and fast growing.

My curiosity really centers around some references found on the 'net referring to the animals consuming the spent substrate. Do I have to worry about them consuming it all and it being turned into more manure, instead of becoming a healthy bedding? Can I stockpile spent substrate throughout the year for winter usage without any loss of potential benefits?

Excellent idea! Do you have any links you can share regarding this topic? I'm in East TN. We deep bed our dairy goats through the winter but it takes considerable effort to manage the ammonia at the start. Even innoculating the bedding 6 weeks before we remove it may make it considerably easier to do and faster to compost.

I think your pigs and chickens will eat the heck out of the stuff! It should reduce your feed costs on any count and you'll be left with some choice compost! Keeping the substrate aerated with plenty of carbon will reduce the stink as well. Any remaining IMO should inoculate any new substrate you add to the bedding and keep the whole thing rolling through the winter...sounds like a good plan to me!

Here is a link to some info on the Korean Natural Farming. Aaron was the instructor at the seminar that I attended. It all makes sense and is very natural.

http://www.nofamass.org/articles/2014/05/korean-natural-farming-managing-farm-systems-holistically

Here is info about the odorless pig setup, with a video presentation on its details:

http://naturalfarminghawaii.net/learn-natural-farming/odorless-pig-technology/

Danielle Pannhurst wrote:Excellent idea! Do you have any links you can share regarding this topic? I'm in East TN. We deep bed our dairy goats through the winter but it takes considerable effort to manage the ammonia at the start. Even innoculating the bedding 6 weeks before we remove it may make it considerably easier to do and faster to compost.