The Mudhole

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

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?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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

 

[wynedot55]

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

 

[m.holloway]

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?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

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.

 

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

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.

 

[wynedot55]

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.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

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.

 

[BeardedChick]

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

 

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

Nice idea, BeardedChick! Thanks!