When we bought our first goats back in June, the breeder used the deep bedding method. I thought, wow, great idea, so will I! I loved it. I never had to worry about changing the goats bedding, it stayed dry and clean and only every so often I would need to add a bit more. Then about seven months later I thought, "Hmm, maybe I ought to clean that goats pen...it's been awhile." So I sent Farm Girl out to the barn to clean it, thinking it would take half hour to an hour. When she was out there something like four hours later, I finally went out to see what was taking so long. She was wiped and grumpy....and the goats pen didn't look any different. I asked her what the heck she had been doing and she glared at me and said she had already taken out 10 loads of straw to the manure pile.
What I hadn't realized that deep bedding is exactly that. Deep. It requires a lot of straw. And a full two days to empty. In addition, the top layer may be nice and dry, but the layers beneath were damp, dirty, and already starting to decompose. And the longer you waited to clean it, the more decomposing was going on. It was this that had me so humiliated and feeling like the dumbest first time farmer ever. After all, decomposing manure can be a fire hazard! I had horrible visions of my barn going up in flames. I immediately scolded everyone in the household for my own stupidity and drilled the importance of daily stall cleaning. I felt so daft....I knew the importance of daily stall cleaning! How the heck could I have made such a careless mistake?
Then about a month ago, we went back to our goat breeder and thought out of curiosity I would ask her her routine for keeping up with the cleaning out of a stall with deep bedding. She shocked me when she admitted she does it maybe once a year---sometimes longer---since it took so long and so many loads. I asked her if she didn't worry about a barn fire and she looked baffled (whether at me or my question I have no idea) and suggested I look it up. And so I did. This is what I learned.
Deep bedding is a very popular choice for all types of barnyard critters besides goats. It is used in pig pens, horse stalls, and even in chicken coops. And that decomposing that had me so worked up and worried, actually is a good thing. You are creating a wonderful nutrient compost right beneath the feet of your animals as well as added comfort and warmth in the winter months.
In addition to that, deep bedding also,
a) controls odors
b) reduces flies
c) keeps the stall clean looking
d) reduces your workload
e) maintains good hygiene for your critters feet
f) keeps the smell of ammonia from urine buried deep
All those things I had already discovered. And if I needed any more proof, there it was in my Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep.