# manure in field



## Chevaux (Jun 27, 2012)

How small is the field? Are the horses grazing at all?


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## JCnGrace (Apr 28, 2013)

Ours gets scattered a couple of times a year when it gets mowed but we have large pastures.


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## stevenson (Sep 12, 2011)

you can drag it to break it up , harrowing does the same, disc it in, pick it up and cart it off.


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## canterbury (Jun 29, 2014)

IME, you will have to clean this up at least weekly to have a nice area and to keep your horses happy/healthy. I have discovered that having horses on small acreage requires sometimes more work than having ten or so acres where you can just leave the droppings and harrow the manure at fall time. My husband and I have no large equipment and clean up the manure out of our 2 acre pasture (one horse) weekly at least. We do it by hand and wheelbarrow (wheelbarrow in the middle) and then right into manure dumpster! I will take my thatcher and attach it to my lawn tractor in the fall and mow and then thatch droppings. IMO, cleaning weekly helps tremendously with fly / parasite control too.


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## SlideStop (Dec 28, 2011)

Maybe invest in something to make your life a little easier, like a quad with a little trailer? One person drives, one or two people scoop.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Horseychick87 (Feb 5, 2014)

I used to do twice weekly manure pick up. (horseless at the moment, so no mucking for me.) I'd go out with a muck tub strapped to a dolly as the inflated rubber tires were easier to maneuver on the somewhat squishy ground. The field was fairly large and people took turns doing it as it was a communal turnout field. (The horses also had stalls with runs)

I do not like harrowing or dragging manure as it lets parasites get back into the soil, the heat in summer is not always sufficient to kill the parasites or their larva, the only truly effective means is to pick it all up and quickly.


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## Koolio (Apr 7, 2010)

In the summer, I harrow my paddocks with a diamond harrow and a chain link gate pulled behind the quad at least once a week. This effectively spreads the manure and gives am a chance to survey my fields thoroughly. In winter, I can't do much, so the manure accumulates in my winter paddock. I do a big clean-up in the spring, picking up and removing the manure with a fork or the tractor bucket. 

I do try to watch the plants and the soil carefully to make sure I'm not overloading the field with manure. If lots of weeds start to appear, this tells me I need to pick up the manure for a while and lime the fields.


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## Light (Mar 4, 2012)

My horse is in a pasture. I kind of made a deal with her that before I do anything other than feed, I grab the muck bucket with wheels and pick up the manure. I do this at least once daily. Twice if I have time before I leave. I find that if done daily it doesn't get out of hand and stays easy to do. I am fairly OCD about things though, but what is good is it also gives me a chance to check the pasture daily for any maintenance, or fill in any holes before they get bad.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

We have our property split into small paddocks because it makes diet control a lot easier - they can either be on one acre or the gates opened and they can have more space depending on the rate the grass is growing and the individual horse
We pick the muck up daily when the season allows for it, we use a wheelbarrow and a pooper scooper. At the end of the winter we rake and drag off as much as we can and then chain harrow
Removing manure regularly significantly increases the amount of grazing - horses avoid eating in 'toilet areas' and helps in a worm control program so worth the effort if you don't keep them on a large acreage


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## backyardhorse (Feb 22, 2013)

I split my field into thirds with fencing, the horse had 2 thirds, and the third had no horses on it, was cleaned, and mowed every week for 6 weeks. Then I allowed access back to the newly refreshed field, and started on another. With the rotation, the cleaning up job wasn't so huge, and it certainly kept down the weeds!


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## Fort fireman (Mar 5, 2011)

I have my pasture in three sections as well. Each section about 3 acres. I have a chain harrow I drag behind my tractor and bust up the piles. Natural fertilizer! I just did mine this past weekend. It also gets all the dead grass out and gives room for the new stuff in tge spring. Under the run in I have to go with the old wheel barrow and fork but I usually just take out and spread it with tge chain drag to so no biggie. I keep up with it fairly often so it doesn't really take me all tgat long.


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