No Backhoe: What Do You Do With Dead Livestock?

So they have a cow about your dead cow, right?

__________________
I'm an environmentalist, left wing, Ron Paul loving Prius driver with a farm. If you have a problem with that, kindly go take a leap.

People who don't know better worry this will happen. It makes sense to them in their minds. But it doesn't actually happen. Scavenging dead stuff is part of what they do. It isn't going to make them attack your live animals. They may at some point attack your live animals if they get a chance because this is just what they do, but it won't be because they found something dead to scavenge on your place.

A neighbor I met when I first moved out to this rural area hauled his deadstock (occasional cow or horse) across the road and dumped them at the base of a power tower. Once the land near the tower was sold, he had to be a little more discreet and buried them on his own land.

I had to laugh though, for 2-3 years after that practice stopped, all the turkey vultures within miles would line up on the crossbars of that tower at the end of the day, waiting for dinner. There must have been 40 or 50 of them. Eventually, their numbers decreased and now there are none.

__________________
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson

Got Pigs? The other omnivore?

Mine crave non-vegetable protein as much as the dogs!

When I was a kid, I went with a friend's family to a pig farm down in Oklahoma. As we walked around the place, the farmer was picking up dead piglets as he found them, throwing their tiny bodies onto a fire. I was horrified, and I have never forgotten it.

I think because I was not raised on a farm, getting used to feeding dead baby animals to pigs or dogs might not be a level I ever achieve.

I am liking the composting method more and more.

I'm sure my thoughts will seem silly to some long-time farmers.

__________________
*
*
*
*
*
Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

First nominee for Worse advise of 2013 award ... ^^^

This is how its done ....... ^^^

__________________
....piffy on a rock bun ....

http://www.gofundme.com/AngelBabyNeeds

NSA - The only government agency that actually listens to what you have to say.

So, does the county sue itself or the state when they find a dead deer or coyote laying out on the ground?!?

I know laws are meant to protect. It just seems funny though that it's illegal to let an animal lay, but yet TruGreen can come to your neighbor's house, spray chemicals and poisons on their lawn that leach into the water supply, and that's fine. But if your goat dies, you can't haul her out to the woods to let nature take it's couse.

Goats that have died get hauled back to the compost pile. Forerunner has a "Extreme composting" thread - so if you have enough material, nature will take care of it for you.

I did have a horse that died, and I called the neighbor with a backhoe. He was more than happy to come drag it to the field and bury it. Didn't charge me anything. (It's good to have good neighbors!)

It's a good thing to think about though! Find your options now and think it over rather than waiting until your horse dies in the middle of summer during a 100 degree heat wave!!!!!

__________________
Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

How much land do you have? If you have enough make a designated area where you can dump them, We drag them up ontot eh hill far away from everything and nature deals with them, We have also burned them and do burie some stuff such as horses that were more like pets.

The spot we take them know one can see or smell unless you go there and there isn't much reason to go there, teh animals eat them and there usually gone before they smell.

Not near enough, as far as I'm concerned. Only 20 acres.

But then again, if I had a thousand acres I'd still probably want to buy the land next door.

__________________
*
*
*
*
*
Watch the transformation from city mice to country mice, visit my webpage at Billy Joe's Food Farm


www.facebook.com/billyjoesfoodfarm

Good news! The puncture the stomach is for big rumen animals. I don't bother with pigs or sheep.

__________________
SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I think it was Cornell U that published a bunch of stuff on composting animals and that's where I got the advice to puncture the gut. I thought it just accelerated the composting process. But I must admit, I don't always bother because unlike with so many other things, with compost I am patient. The piles can sit there as long as they like and it makes no mind to me.

I have never had a back hoe or front end loader but I did raise some cattle. I either cremated carcasses in the pasture or hired a backhoe from neighboring farmers to bury them.

__________________
"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

We have a place out back called "llama land." Lost all but one llama in the horrible heat wave 2 years ago. They all were gone from the back forty in less than 3 days, between the feral hogs, coyotes, and buzzards. Not even a bone to be found.

Keep tripping over old cow bones all the time from the previous owner. They're very well aged.

My donkeys and horses are another story. When they pass, a friend will bring out his backhoe to bury them here. If I have any say about it, I'll go in next to them. I refuse to be put some place where the ---- lawn mowers run over the flat markers to scalp the grass.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

__________________
"Never underestimate the power of a really good horse sneeze..."

Here in eastern NE, I have used a company called Darling something or other. For a $30.00 fee (might be higher now) they will pick up dead animals. I was told that they turn it into pet food.

They do have that in their literature. Specifically in what I read they were talking about the rumen of cows because the rumen is so large it can become gas filled to the point of exploding. They advise puncturing them to avoid the mess. Exploding Cows would be a dramatic headline...

With our pigs we have had some as large as 1,700 lbs that I have composted and I have not punctured them but they've composted fine. I think this may because the pig stomach is so much smaller.

It certainly wouldn't help. In fact, to maximize composting action, one could grind the bones to make my bread, er, I mean compost...

__________________
SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

If you have a post hole drill....you can drill several holes close together and then shovel out the loosened soil. Just keep a place dug out and put a pole in it to notify folks that there is a hole.

A no. 2 true temper shovel and a grub hoe is slow work digging to bury a horse or cow....not to bad for a sheep or goat.

Deer hunting clubs around here often dig a pit and throw in hides and such, and keep covering with hydrated lime till deer season is over.

This is called a rendering service. Interestingly, when I just checked the YellowPages.com I came up with computer graphic rendering companies but no carcass or hide renderers. They do exist although many have gone out of business in recent decades with the decline of small slaughterhouses. There used to be a bunch in our state and I think we're done to one but I couldn't find it when I just checked on the web so either they're invisible or gone.

__________________
SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

Thank goodness I have a kind neighbor with a tractor that will dig a hole.....because one of my biggest goats died the week my husband was also dying so I had a major problem on my hands....he sent one of the young men who occassionally works for him up to my farm (just up the hill from him) and he took Maddie and buried her for me. He's also buried pygmy goats in the past....I don't know what I'd do without his help!

Oh---and before that we used our tiller to loosen the soil and dug it out by hand to bury one of the larger goats in the past...

We compost, or for the little things (lambs, chickens, rabbits, etc) double bag and into the trash pickup.

We also large animal pick up service that is free (or small charge) since we can't bury here. I have used that for two horses