The Natural Farming Concept: A New Economical Waste Management System for Small Family Swine Farms in Hawai‘i

Inoculated Deep Litter System, or IDLS, is a relatively new best management practice (BMP) that addresses the manure treatment process for swine confinement-rearing operations. This differs from previous deep litter systems used with swine, which did not involve inoculation, a key component of IDLS.

IDLS incorporates four components: 1) self-collected, site-specific (or indigenous) microorganisms (IMOs), 2) green waste, 3) natural ventilation, and 4) facility posi- tioning relative to sunlight. The livestock facility is kept dry with natural ventilation and sunlight, which promotes proper fermentation of the pen litter, itself a combination of green waste and livestock waste. This in turn prevents nuisance fly breeding and the odors generated by the proliferation of undesirable organisms.