Barn waste on small acreage

hmm sorry need to rectify: I check the bedding everyday but only add a little bit once a week...

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I won't clean out our stalls until spring time. I will, however, add more straw and hay each week.

I put our waste (poo and straw and hay) on our garden. I usually clean the stalls every 3 weeks. I put about a bale of straw in each pen.

So far, so good. The cats and goats kept warm when it dipped down to 10 degrees this week.

Extra waste? Time for a new compost pile!

Cover the garden deeper. Use an entire wheelbarrow load for one watermelon hill. You will have awesome watermelons.

Yea, people will come pick it up!

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We pile it in rows in our garden in the places we plan to walk leaving the rows we plan to plant open. We pull up raised rows of soil very deeply and then mulch in the ditches. Then we alternate walking and planting areas the next season. You can pile it up and it will decompose in the ditches and keep weed seeds from sprouting and keep the soil moist and warm for worms to work on it from the bottom side. It works great and we have soil to die for. My DH does squash mounds like above mentioned watermelon. Dig a deep hole like you are planting a fruit tree before the ground freezes. Empty wheelbarrow of precious pooh in there-little hay if possible. Cover with the soil and then mulch heavily with as many barrows as you need to cover it a foot deep all over. In spring - move a small circle away in the center to expose the soil- plant- cover with plastic milk jug with bottom cut out for frost protection and soil warming. You can get a good jump on spring like this and use up lots of barn goodies.
B~

I don't use anything but pine shaving for bedding here in Middle TN. When I first got goats 15.5 years ago I purchased straw and bedding them down in that and what a mess I had after a couple weeks of adding straw to wet straw. I soon learned there's gotta be a better way. I now use pine shaving and the goaties could not be happier. I clean out the barns once a year in the spring and bag up the used pine shaving along with dry goat poo and take them bagged up to the spring plant swap here in middle tn. The goats are happy, i'm happy and the goat poo is a big hit at the swap. I have a covered hay racks outside so no hay goes in the barns. Sandy

I won't clean mine out now until spring unless they really need it done. I do clean the ponies everyday though and when i dump onto the pile I take the rake and spread it around. as it compost it packs down. Keep in mind that I had a huge hole to fill and it just keeps filling. I haven't had to remove any ting of the manure pile for over a year.

go deep straw.

keeps them warmer. Then compost it all in the Spring - making a compost pile with pallets or make a DEEP potato bed with it!

good luck!

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