The Central Plains had more than their fair share of rain earlier this spring, which led to the first several tasks of field work getting all bunched up together. While last year the summertime felt insane because of no rain and everything needing cut or harvested in a short period of time, this year is just as crazy, but for the opposite reason.
So, the guys on the farm jumped right from wheat harvest, to swathing, baling, and hauling said bales, and now into spreading manure.
With three to four tractors running a majority of the time, things can move quickly! You might think they should have the pens scratched clean in a couple of days… Not quite. They’ve been at it for several days now (in between rain showers) and hopefully, they’ll be able to wrap it up in about another few days.
So, why do they haul manure? What’s the point?
Is it just to clean out the cattle pens or is there a different purpose?
Yes, and yes!
Using the wheel loader to scrape/load the excess manure out of the pens and into the spreaders cleans them up and helps to keep them free of disease, flies, and maggots. This helps to keep the cattle strong and healthy.
While in the pens, the manure also acts like a giant soaker-upper for the summer heat and sun. It’d be about like laying in the sun on a 100-degree day with a heater focused on your belly! (No, thank you!) Getting those pens scraped out makes it cooler for the cattle.
On the flip side, during the winter, manure piles act like a heater again and you might walk outside and find the cattle curled up all over them, soaking in the warmth.
Now what about the fields? Are they just a good place to dump it or is there actually a benefit for them in the deal?
You betcha! Rather than spending more money on fertilizer, manure is an all-natural version that will bring up the organic matter and is almost free. (If you’re not counting machinery wear-and-tear, labor, fuel, etc.)
Let’s talk details here for a minute: Is there a lot of manure? Is the stuff messy? Gross?
If a feedlot steer can produce around 65 pounds of manure a day (with 90% being water), than you can imagine that if there were 20 steers in a pen you’d have 1,300 pounds of manure a day. 50 steers would have 3,250 pounds daily, 100 would be 6,500 pounds, and so on.
So, by the time the summer clean-up rolls around, there is a nice amount of manure ready to be hauled out of there.
As for gross, not at all! It’s not like a fresh cow-pie. In fact, if you didn’t know better you’d think it was just really rich dirt… And I’m speaking from experience here! Awhile back I had gotten some really good “dirt” from the farm for some plants at home. Eventually, I was even planting starts of houseplants in the stuff. And guess what? I started to go nuts because my PLANTS were going nuts! There had to be something awful special about that soil with how many leaves those little starts were kicking out.
And then I found out… It was basically just poop. Maybe some dirt and such mixed in, but mostly poop. *Insert shrugging shoulders emoji* But hey, if my plants are happy, I’m happy! In fact, as I type this there are two little Silvery Ann Philodendrens looking at me, just waiting to get plopped into their hot, new soil. In conclusion, a lot of it’s dry and falls right through your fingers.
So we know that they scrape the pen with the wheel loader and then load up the manure spreaders, but then what? Those spreaders get pulled through the field, kicking out manure as they go. It’s a simple job compared to some of the tasks these guys face throughout the farming season, but one that can tend to drag on for awhile.
So, what are your thoughts? Looking for some good dirt? I’m considering an ad in the classifieds soon…
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