Cleaning out a deep litter barn.

[NachoFarm]

We've been tossing straw on the barn floor for the past year trying to use the "deep litter" method.

Well kill me now because I attempted to start cleaning it out today because I'm sick and tired of not being able to get our doors open and not only does the pitchfork practically bend when I try to dig it out but the smell underneath the surface is enough to knock me out.

So now I've started, I have to finish but if I do it by hand it will take me six months. We don't have any equipment or machinery here that could help, if I was going to rent something to dig out the barn what would I look into? Would a skid steer loader be what I'm after?

 

[DonnaBelle]

Funny you should post about what we done this spring. We cleaned all the wet straw and muck down to bare earth. We now have a hard surface packed down earth floor in the barn.

We also have one side of the barn with packed earth, and we have put 6 inches of sand on that side. We are going to see which side we like best.

DH was picking up the berries and with them some straw and cleaning out the barn every day last winter. It's a mighty chore.
When it's cold here in Oklahoma, no big deal, but it's 100 degrees here today, sooo the new method we are trying.

Since the floor on one side is hard, we just sweep up the berrries in the am, and put a little Stall Dry on the wet spots.

The goats are outside most of the day, 7:00 am till 8:00 pm this time of year.

We hired a couple of guys to help DH completely clean out the barn this spring. He would never have got it all out by himself. They loaded it on our flat bed trailer and hauled it over to the big compost pile he turns with our tractor.

DonnaBelle

 

[NachoFarm]

So you're saying I should hire a bunch of guys to do it while I nap and/or sip lemonade and then claim exhaustion when my husband gets home because I did it all myself?
It's packed down so hard at this point I'm not sure it can be done by hand...

 

[bj taylor]

"turn the compost with the tractor" - now that's some compost. lol

 

[DonnaBelle]

Yeah, something like that. LOL....

We have such a problem here with flies, especially when it rains through summer, which is what's happening this year.

I know what you mean about the stuff getting smelly and molding underneath. Thats why we cleaned it out down to bare dirt and are trying this method.

We'll probably put a light layer of straw down in November when it starts to cool off. Perhaps just on one side of the barn.

If you don't want to have to hire some extra help, work on it for an hour or so each day. It's so hot here, we'd have to do it at
6:00 am every day.

Do you know someone with a small tractor with a loader on the front end? Or a bobcat with a small shovel on the front?? It will have to be small enough to maneuver inside the barn. It wouldn't take long with a piece of equipment.

DonnaBelle

 

[Beekissed]

Take a tamping pole in there, make some holes in several places and put whole corn down the holes, then cover it. Get a couple of young feeder pigs and turn them into that space and let them get to work. They will shovel through that manure pack better than you ever could, loosening it, drying it and moving it until they find all that corn. Keep throwing corn into that mess until they have completely till it up and rooted it around to make it dry and easy to move.

Salatin uses pigs to work up his manure pack each spring and I've seen it when they are done..even picked some of it up in my hand. No smell, light as a feather and dry.

Old timers who needed stumps dug out of the ground would often drill several holes around it, pour corn in the holes and then pen pigs in that area. They soon have the stumps rooted out of the ground.

 

[Andrei]

Well, the legendary Hercules had one of his works dealing with some very dirty stable and his method is still working today.
Of course in the winter should not be attempted but warm time coming with some modifications no job can be too challenging.
One can even design animal enclosures with water cleaning in mind.

 

[koop]

IMHO straw is like laying rebar in the manure, you get one monolithic slab.
I keep telling my wife no straw in the chicken coop. Shavings can be shovelled and turned periodically.

 

[Onyx]

Two components of rock-hard cob are straw and manure so... I can imagine what kind of chore you have on hand! I agree with beekissed. If you google "Salatin pigaerator" you will find a number of youtube videos on using this method.

I am going to try the bare ground with stall dry method myself, I think...

 

[Pamela]

Go hire some teenagers that know how to put in a hard day's work.