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

Posted by WA-Hal on January 08, 2011 at 17:31:43 from (208.81.157.90):

In Reply to: frozen pen manure...getting high...thoughts? posted by Dave from MN on January 08, 2011 at 15:27:35:

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!

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