Ideas for manure disposal

Help Support Steer Planet:

4Rcattle

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 10, 2015
Messages
63
For those of you who have cattle in the barn, what do you do it regards to disposing of the manure? How often do you haul it off (if that's what you do)? We clean stalls daily as well as the "let-out" pen. Most days, we also haul it off with the wheel barrow and fill up low spots in the pasture around the barn with it. I've heard of people using manure spreaders and/or tractors also. From what I've looked at, the manure spreaders are pretty expensive.
 

knabe

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
for the barn manure, i mulch it and add some fert and water to heat it up. 


my neighbor does same with horse manure, and he uses tarps, but he's retired and has lots of time.
 

Medium Rare

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
459
Location
Missouri
I have a really old ground drive manure spreader parked next to the barn. It's so old and small most people use them for decorations in their farm yard. I think I gave $200 for it at a goat farm sale. It can be pulled with about anything and one of the 5 settings for the floor chain is very very slow so the spread pattern can be set to where it's barely noticeable.

Bigger sacrifice and winter feeding areas away from the barn and out of sight get pushed up into a pile with the tractor and loader or dozer to compost until I can get them spread on a crop field. The economics really don't allow for much hauling distance though. The larger piles can also come in handy when a live stock decides to become a dead stock. They'll compost away to nearly nothing with time, just make sure you remember what pile you put it in so you don't dig into it too early.
 

GoWyo

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 29, 2008
Messages
1,691
Location
Wyoming
In the big pen (100'x120') just pile it up in the center about 8-10' high and the calves work it down to about 4-5' high and lay on it.  It stays pretty dry compared to the rest of the pen.  The smaller pens, just push it out to a pile and keep letting it cook -- someday get someone in with a spreader and move it out.  We are only a 12-15" precipitation zone here though and nearest neighbor is 3 miles away.
 
Top