frozen pen manure...getting high...thoughts?

Well, as most of you have read, I kinda have outgrown what I initially built for, any way, my feeders are growing fast and eating alot, and pooping alot. Well, I spent the last couple hours feeding up, rearranging bales, and just making the cattle set for the upcoming cold snap. I had a little day light left so I thought I would try and clean some manure out of the feeder pan,maybe knock it down a foot. No go, it's like concrete, the only stuff not froze was in thier little wind/rain shelter, but I am leaving that as it is heating and gives them a spot to lay that isnt froze. Seeing how it is only jan, any suggestions what I can do? Can I salt the heck out of the manure and hope it works, I'm thinking it wont, plus I have a feeling that the salt would be bad for hoofs. Maybe put salt down and then bed up real good?Hindsight sucks. Definatly will be building a decent feeder building so I have more room. Originally figured 4-6 year, now I have 14 and more than likely will shoot for that 2 dozen number next year. So , will I need to be raising up the pen walls or do I have a way out of this, OTHER that selling them.

Give a shout to Bill on the Farm in ILL. He seems to have a handle on cattle care.Loafing sheds,Cattle and Midwest winters are hard on every one and every thing.From my past experience daily cleaning is the only answer if possible.Pile it up away from the buildings if possible. If the floor is dirt,well there is no easy answer.

We use a mini excavator with a 36” ditch bucket on it

Bill

Think the salt would give you a mud hole or may bee a shet hole.

I sure wouldn't salt the manure! If you did, it would go from being good fertilizer that you or someone else might want, to being poison to the plants anywhere you spread it.

Any chance of enlarging your containment area? It will get bad when things thaw. I hate to see cattle belly deep in "mud". And if they don't have anywhere to go, that is what happens. Cattle panels are pretty easy to handle and stay in place fairly well if tied together and to some T posts.

When I was a kid, my Dad and I built a feeder connected to our barn. It had a roof over it and allowed me to feed our cattle without going outside. I just dragged bales down the feeder and opened them and split them a bit. With that feeder, the wasted hay went to almost nothing. The area where the cattle stood while eating was sloped a bit, so manure and any liquid flowed off of the ramp, away from the feeder. It was sure a lot easier than feeding outside on the ground, where there was also a lot of wastage. We had about 15 acres that was well fenced to keep our cattle wintered in. They did fine with no real shelter except a lot of pine trees. In the late Spring, we would move manure from the barnyard, trying to spread it on our cultivated fields where it was needed most. I remember how thrilled I was when we got our first loader tractor, since we loaded manure by hand before that. I hate to think how many loads I did that way...but it had to be done.

If I was going to winter cattle again, I would build a similar feeder, only I would use more concrete and less wood. Our old feeder worked fine, but after about 10 years, there was significant rot that needed to be repaired. But my Dad went out of the cattle business and quit keeping any animals through the Winter when he retired.

Maybe a little late for this season, but it might be something to consider if you intend to keep raising cattle in future years. Good luck!

Either get heavier gear that will break the frost... or scab another rail on the fence....

Rod

NO SALT that will make the manure just a bigger problem because you can not in turn put it in the field this spring. You could add fertilizer to it and then you would have double fertilizer from it but the salt would make it worth nothing and you would then have a pile of worthless bad smelling S

Sounds like you need a big compressor and or a 90lb hammer, or a hydraulic one on the end of a backhoe, that would make short work of breaking it up if you can get it to fracture, might just punch holes too. Hope you figure something out, nothing as urgent as something like that.

About the only thing to do is wait for a January thaw. I have the same problem, going to have to add a rail to the corral pretty soon!

what have you got for a tractor? if its a smaller unit, [ford, ferguson ect]with chains, try a box blade with weights on it and 1 ripper tooth to concentrate all the weight on 1 small point to punch thru, or borrow or rent a mini excavater, i dont suppose you have a friend with a small dozer with rippers on it do you?

Surely a FEL would break it,but then if you don't have one.. sugar works in the freezer.

Wait for a thaw like we had 2 weeks ago - missed our oppertunity.

No salt, kill your field when you spread, won't really work anyhow, just make slime.

Many don't understand Minnesota cold, when we hit weeks like last & coming week, it's just froze solid, heavier equipment only means more welding to fix it. The stuff is solid, nothing to do but wait.

--->Paul

Maybe you can glean some info from this.Jh
Poke here.