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Discussion on Remove manure from pasture or leave it and harrow?
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Member:
maribeth
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Posted on Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009 - 11:49 am:
We've had my two horses now at my home since November now. Manure management is something I need help with. In the paddock by the barn and the two pastures. We have a nice JD Mid size tractor with a bucket, but blade doesn't work. Curious what tractor implements others use to move the manure. Was thinking about a the garden rake (not hay rake) that hooks onto the tractor. What do others use?
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009 - 12:13 pm:
HI Maribeth,
Lucky you, you have a tractor! I don't, can't answer the implement part, but I do have someone come and remove the manure in my paddock. For hoof health, and to control worms. With spring coming, I dread the "muck" that comes with the melting.
I mow the pastures with a JD garden tractor, mower deck at the highest setting, and that spreads the manure; I don't pick it up. I should with 4 horses on around 4 acres, but... Only so much time for maintenance like that!
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009 - 6:15 pm:
Hi Maribeth, I try to keep the paddock/lean to picked daily and wheel barrow it out to a pile. OR I use a muck bucket when there is too much snow. It's not a chore I like in the winter, but it does keep the area neat and less prone to mud. We also have a loader tractor and about once a mo. I have hubby push the pile up so it doesn't take up too big of an area. Then we spread it in the farmers field come spring. Manure spreaders come in real handy
The pasture... I just wait until it is dry enough and harrow it, a farmer gave us a piece of his harrow and I just drag it around with the 4-wheeler...used the lawn tractor before that. It does a good job, helps fertilize the pasture, but you want to make sure your horses are on a good dewormer program. I always try to harrow when it is hot and dry....then lock them off the pasture I harrowed until it rains good a few times.
You can get a harrow for your tractor if you watch the farm sales you can usually pick them up cheap, around here a lot of farmers have an old section of harrow laying around just waiting to be given away.
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 9:02 am:
I clean up all manure every day - when the horses are on pasture - from about June through November or whenever we get our first big snow - I clean the pasture using our garden tractor with trailer - It takes about 30-40 minutes to clean. I have 2 horses on about 8 acres of pasture. As long as I clean the manure daily it isn't a chore - two days starts to feel like work and three days is way more than I even want to think about. The benefits are numerous - the pasture is not contaminated - way less flies - and no pasture roughs where the horses won't eat. The past three fecal counts I've had done on the horses were negative.
Cheryl
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 9:13 am:
Maribeth,
I want to apologize for posting under your name this morn, after you had emailed us about problems someone logged in using your info to check your account and did not bother to log out yesterday. So when I picked up the notebook this morn, you will still in it. I have gone back and corrected them all...I think.
DrO
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Member:
hollyw
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 10:08 am:
Wow . . . Cheryl K . . . Eight ACRES??? I am so impressed. Would you like to come and live and work here? Please????
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Member:
maribeth
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 10:27 am:
Not sure what a harrow is but sounds like the concept is to drag, break up and spread the manure. That's kind of what we had in mind with a tractor utility garden rake. My horses are wormed every other month. I've got a mix of wasted hay and manure in the paddock and run in. I bought two large hay bags (can hold about 3 flakes) and have been using those to feed. A lot less wasted hay . We've had such a bad Michigan winter there has been no reprieve from all the snow. I think my best bet at this point is to clean up the run in and worry about the paddock and pasture in the spring
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 11:38 am:
Holly - just remember - I only have 2 horses - when I had three it was a little more work - but still not a big deal. Actually it is a good way to keep an eye on what's in the pasture that isn't suppose to be there - We've been here for about 2 years now - have picked up everything from tools to chains to old rusty disc plates - irritatin' I think I have enough work to keep me busy here
Cheryl
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Member:
tamarag
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 11:57 am:
Cheryl
We must have had the same previous owners. I swear they dumped boxes of nails. We don't get a lot of rain, but when it does, it means out looking for things that have grown up over night in the pastures.
We also have rocks that grow up at the same time. We are in the high Cascade mountain range. Volcano lava flows and shelf's of bed rock. You can go out and have the fields looking so nice for planting. Wake up the next morning and a 100 little lava rocks are sitting there enjoying the sun!
As for harrowing. I can't stand seeing a dirty field. My husband always tells me I am going to wear the tractor out cleaning the fields. But when I look at pastures that are full of horses and they have to eat around the poo....yuck.
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Member:
hollyw
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 12:04 pm:
Dang, Cheryl . . . well, I guess I will have good job security then.
We've been here almost three years and just this week, as I walked a few of the paddocks, I picked up pieces of metal roofing and, UGH . . . that awful thick, metal wire from demolished cattle panels. I hate those things. I don't know if I'll ever see the end of that bent, rusted, awful stuff.
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Member:
amara
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 2:37 pm:
i've gone so far as to even go out with a magnet in the paddocks to find pieces of metal.. and i'll think i've cleaned a section, and then a few days later there's this piece of wire or something... huh?.. do birds DrOp it out of the sky?.. does it grow like New England rocks?..
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 2:57 pm:
Boy, I think some of you have pastures that are cleaner than my house! Nooo...I don't have manure laying on the floor, at least I hope not, maybe some screws or nails though, always remodeling ya know, and the lab brings big sticks in if we forget to tell him to DrOP IT at the door!
Melissa,
Not to be discouraging, but we've had horses in the same pastures and paddock for 20 years now (WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?)and I still find interesting pieces of metal, big rusty screws, soles from old boots, etc.
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Member:
paul303
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Posted on Thursday, Feb 12, 2009 - 5:19 pm:
Oh dear, I think I'm worse than Cheryl. We pick up everything ( my 3 horses have access to indoor paddock, their stalls, outdoor paddock and pasture )twice a day during feeding time. Between the three of them, they fill a muck bucket in the AM and one in the PM. We have it on one of those wheeled manure bucket things that is easy to wheel around, even when full. It's only 3 to 4 acres....and, it's all flat.
There used to be a huge glassworks in my area, about 100 yrs ago. After a heavy rain, my ground belches up really old glass, so we're always on the lookout for that and the usual flotsam of past decades.
We keep two manure piles, an old "cooked" one, and a "fresh one". The "cooked" one gets spread on our hayfield usually in February.
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Member:
dsibley
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Posted on Friday, Feb 13, 2009 - 7:34 am:
We haver 21 horses on our place right now, with two due this spring. Currently four pastures, hopefully one or two more in the summer. Wow, I can't imagine going out every day to clean the pastures, although we are meticulous about cleaning the outdoor runs, lean-to and stalls twice a day.
Hubby harrows the pastures with a large piece of the old corn crib fitted with a dead tree...you gotta love it! He does this at least four times a year, weather permitting.
We poured a manure pit that is like a truck dock with a concrete bottom and sides that taper down to the bottom. You dump the wheelbarrow over the high end then when the pile reaches the top you walk on the older stuff and dump over the edge. Ewww....that's why they say to never go barefoot around horses!!!
Anyway, I'm going to do fecals this spring so will let you know what the verdict is. Last time we were OK. but still worm older horses every 60 days and babies under two get it every month.
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Friday, Feb 13, 2009 - 8:27 am:
It would be interesting to find out how many people do pick up all manure. I know for sure I am the only person in this area that does. The looks and comments I get are interesting to say the least. The benefits so far outweigh the small amount of effort involved for me it's a no-brainer. I'm not sure where the horse count would have to be before it turned into a chore but with just the two I have now I actually enjoy the task. It is at least something that will get me out of the house when we're having yucky weather.
Cheryl
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Member:
ajudson1
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Posted on Friday, Feb 13, 2009 - 9:39 am:
When we had 6 horses, and 2 willing teenagers, we did pick up what we called our "corral" then. But it never was daily; impossible in the winter, easier when it was all dry in the summer.
You'll all shudder at this, but I don't even clean out the 2 open stalls daily. They poop along the north wall in each stall, it's not really messy until we get wet spring days for a long period of time. Then I keep up with it, and sometimes throw the loose hay down too to soak up the moisture. Oh, I don't use bedding either, except for hay if they lay on it when locked in.
I have an old bedspring I drag behind the ATV to break up the manure; I do that a few times a year.
Without any equipment besides a wheelbarrow, I can't imagine spending so much time on picking up manure. I do have a distant neighbor though who does that. She has a horse and 2 ponies, never rides, and also never mows her pastures or does anything to keep the weeds down. Not sure if having no manure matters if the pasture is all weeds? Different strokes for different folks!
Ya'all got some lucky critters!
BTW, if you stop in for coffee, the house is clean, just always have a room in the process of finishing, lol!
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Member:
paardex
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Posted on Friday, Feb 13, 2009 - 11:22 am:
Cheryl you are not the only one getting weird looks. First in Holland then in Normandy I picked manure for up to six horses out of up to 18 acres of pasture[getting it out of the long grass was the hardest part!] But I twice ended up with pastures that had fed horses for about twenty years with owners that didn't deworm properly. It took each time about two years before the pastures were tidy and for the horses to be 'parasitefree'. In the meantime I learned which horses poop I saw if it changed if they made enough[about 15 piles every 24 hours on average] I found this useful information apart from finding the weirdest stuff in the pastures.
Needless to say the boxes were cleaned too and that my house never was as clean as the horsequarters.
I cleaned daily if possible but at least every other day if not I didn't get through the muck load anymore!
If possible timewise I would always advise getting everything out compost the manure and put it back on the pastures.
Jos
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Member:
cheryl
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Posted on Saturday, Feb 14, 2009 - 9:39 am:
The best tool for cleaning manure out of tall grass is a metal manure fork - the kind made like a pitch fork only with the tines about 3/4 of an inch apart - Works great -
One of the really great advantages is the fly population that just isn't here. No deer flies - last summer there were just a couple days when I saw horse flies after the horses - other than that the only flies we have are the little bitty ones that chew sores on their stomachs and chests - Fortunately my horses are pretty much isolated from other horses and cattle so the flies don't migrate here.
We will start adding the composted manure to the hay field this summer. Will be good for the soil - hasn't had anything but chemicals put on it for years - Who knows - maybe in a few years all the Robberman Gold and Fox Premium added to the mix might even be able to find a few earth worms
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Member:
mitch316
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Posted on Sunday, Feb 15, 2009 - 1:17 am:
I use the manure/hay mix from my stalls along with the manure from the pasture to make organic fertilizer. I bought a "Compost Tumbler" and add a little dirt, table scraps, coffe filters and brown paper bags, etc and in three weeks have 150 pounds of the stuff. It sells like hotcakes because horse manure is so much less acidic than other manures and so therefor isn't as apt to "burn" the plants. Works great on our garden to, as it hold moisture and got us through the DrOught last year with no losses. Neighbor lost everything!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Sunday, Feb 15, 2009 - 8:54 am:
I need to point out that while cleaning and covering of manure piles will greatly control house and biting stable flies. Deer and Horseflies breed in moving water, like small streams, so are not likely to be controlled this way.
DrO
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