# The Mudhole



## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 17, 2009)

My feeding area has become a MUDHOLE!!!!!!!

I'd like to put down some wood chips to balance the nutrients, but I don't have any.

Any ideas as to where I could get lots of woodchips at a low cost?


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 17, 2009)

Do you have a lumber mill nearby? We used to have one here and they sold the chips and sawdust real reasonable.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 17, 2009)

if its a deep mudhole youd be better off putting rock in the hole.an it would last longer than wood chips.


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## m.holloway (Feb 17, 2009)

i get our shaving, from a sawmill here. i use it for our coral. it has a dirt floor, and the shaving have help with the odor and keeping the corral somewhat dry for them at night i was thinking about sprinkle it with baking soda from time to time would that hurt the cows?


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## Farmer Kitty (Feb 17, 2009)

Baking soda won't hurt them. Not really sure it's necessary though but, if you want to do it check with your feed place for sodium bicarbinate. That is baking soda and should be cheaper in bulk.


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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 17, 2009)

The nearest lumber mill is 30 minutes away.  I'm thinking about the following:

Asking the road maintainence crews to dump their chips at my place

Growing straw

(maybe) Shredding paper

Asking the local Texas Roadhouse to give me their peanut hulls (If you live near one of those places, you know what I'm talking about!)

Asking local corn growers about what they do with their stalks and if they'd mind me taking some

ETC.  I'm basically looking for any carbon to keep my beauties happy.


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## wynedot55 (Feb 17, 2009)

most corn farmers plow their stalks an stubble back into the grouhd.an some bale their corn stalks for feed or bedding.so yopu might get some straw or corn stalk rolls to put in your hole.


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 24, 2009)

The back corral at home becomes a real mudhole in the spring...mostly because it was a slough before it was fenced off and put into being used as a corral.  There's nothing we can do about it, because those low spots are quite wide, and long, going from a creek-like depression in the neighboring field to a slough (or wet meadow, whichever you call it) that goes into the neighbor's field.  It's a constant wet spot all through the year, freezing up in the winter, and a mudhole that the cattle avoid from spring to freeze up.  So you can say it's a bit of a waste area in terms of a dry lot, because it separates the corral into two high areas: the one immediately behind the barn and the one with the manure pile and straw beds where the cattle are mostly fed hay.  One time a steer got stuck up to its neck in the slough and daddy had to get it out with the tractor.  It proves to be duck haven and a "healthy" wetland when the cattle aren't in there tearing things up.  The only "healthy" part of this slough is on the neighbor's side.

The only thing I can do to aleviate this slough is to try to fence it off and let nature take its course to convert it back into a healthy wetland, letting no cattle back on it again until grasses native to wetlands around here have fully established themselves.


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## BeardedChick (Feb 25, 2009)

Call an arborist.  You can sometimes get loads of woodchips free or cheap.


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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 25, 2009)

Nice idea, BeardedChick!  Thanks!


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## BeardedChick (Feb 25, 2009)

I need to call the local guys - I need woodchips for my garden walkways. 

Woodchips WILL break down over time and may make things more mushy.  I don't know if that will give you trouble.  We put gravel down in one of our corrals and that has stayed pretty nice...

If you can get hardwood chips, it would last longer than softwoods.


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 25, 2009)

I thought I read somewhere (not here, mind you) that wood chips in a consistently muddy spot that has no where to drain off is just going to turn into a nasty soupy mudhole, making things worse.  Like what BeardedChicks mentioned.  

I guess I'll go off on a tangent to say that if I were you I'd use gravel instead of woodchips.  Not the stuff they put on roads, but the more coarser stuff (dang, wish I remembered the name of it!).

edit: i think it's called pit rock...we used it to lay down a foundation for installing hopper bottoms for our grain bins, and putting in a bit of a roadway for the B-trains that come in to haul out the barley.


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## GrassFarmerGalloway (Feb 27, 2009)

WRB, I was kinda hoping to be able to use the manure/carbon mix to compost me garden.  Me garden already has too many rocks.  

You can use wood chips, sawdust, etc, but it's a 30-1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen.  Lots and lots of chips.  Where to find them.


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## CowCop (Mar 1, 2009)

Several ideas:

We have the local tree man dump chips here, since they are STILL cleaning up after the Dec 11th Ice Storm from Hell.

Have been using it for bedding along with 400 bags of leaves from the entire neighborhood.

You town may still be chipping trees as well from the storms.

Make a few phone calls.

If anyone in your town is doing some logging, they chip alot and sell the chips by the tractor trailer load to the power companies and might be able to get a deal on a truckload since they wont have to drive it far.

For really muddy areas, I use a combo of chips and Canadian Straw.
the straw lets the sun heat it up and dry it out faster than hay or other materials.

Take some photos of your mud pit.


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## nightshade (May 29, 2009)

try your local tree trimming service usually they will give them to you by the truck load that way they do not have to pay to bump them else wheres.


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## 2468herdsrgr8 (Jun 20, 2009)

For our horse shelter we put rocks down and packed it down with a packer and then we put alot of sand /gravel down and packed it .....now I wish we did it right outside of the horse shelter because its dry as can be in the shelter but right outside its muddy....I was told by the gravel company that rocks and gravel/sand would fix the problem...


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