Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Scattering Cow Chit

Started to take a picture, but I'm feeling crappy and lazy to boot today. It's finally dry here, at least enough to get over pasture ground. I made a drag out of some fencing panels and am dragging the pastures, scattering piles of manure. It works better than I thought it would. Probably not as good as a store bought would be, but it didn't cost much, and it works, so I'm happy.

That is a good policy James, we talk about that every spring but never do it.

Still snow here, but my drag is mad out of 8' chain link fence mesh with a few T-bars laced into it.I have piece of grader blade at the front to give it weight

I need to do that.. I just pulled 3 horse off a pasture to worm them and leave that pasture empty for a few weeks before I worm goats and cows to rotate them out there. Would be the perfect time to drag it. Thanks for the timely reminder!

One year we decided to take a shortcut back from an area that we had hunted and wound up wading through manure that must have been allowed to accumulate since the first cows wandered off the ark. My hunting partner coined the phrase "copious quantities of cow tschidt". (Although I thought that was the name of one of the other musicians that crashed with Patsy Cline.)

We call it Turd busting.

The thing you drag is a Turd buster.

The guy driving the tractor is called?

Harrowing in early spring is suppose to not only spread out old manure, but also wake up the grass.

Still spreading my cow chit via the all natural method!

There's a place down here that sells chicken chit and spreads it for you, but it's pretty expensive.

An old throat chain from a combine will make a good manure drag. Really busts the pile up. miles

Not to mention that an old spike harrow left lying where grass can grow up and conceal it makes an excellent device for removing air from tires.

I bought one of these in an eight section in 2002, we used it on maybe twenty acres. I'd be too big for the pastures with creeks and all.

One of those things you needed twenty years ago.

"Sticker than a harrow at midnight".

I did that last year in the front pasture and the resulting grass growth was epic. Worth the time and effort, and fencing does a decent job as a drag.

Not to mention that cows do not like to eat the grass right next to a cow patty. miles

I took 2 16 foot panels, wired them together, and nailed an oak 2X6 on the end, and use a chain to pull it with. I just thought I'd try it and if it didn't work, then I hadn't lost anything but a little time, and I have plenty of that. I've looked at some commercial ones, and I know they'd probably do a better job, but for a tool that I only use once a year, I just can't justify the cost. Part of this pasture was reseeded last fall, and I didn't want to get too aggressive on it, so my rig was probably better on that.

I'm just thankful that it's dried out, and you can get around without rutting the ground up. I've still got a mess where I fed hay, and it'll be mid summer before I can get on that and work it back down.

I don't guess any animal likes to eat where it chits, but horses are the worst. I have had mine up all winter in a small lot, because I'd reseeded the pasture they usually run in. Horses are bad about overgrazing, so I've been letting this pasture grow as much as it could before turning the horses back in. I ran the drag over the lot they've been in, and it's solid horse apples.....lol. So much fertilizer, I didn't see any need in putting anymore down.

Cows do not eat the grass right next to a cow patty but they will breathe the air they fart in.

That's very easy to resolve most of the year.

We coop our chickens in the front pasture. It takes about five minutes after a cow dumps to watch the chickens run over and scatter/comb the cow pie looking for seeds, etc. Any cow pie that may get dropped and immediately missed is typically cleaned up by the next day. The bugs are the target for the hens as well at that point.

It's a remarkable relationship and the area stays clean.

I pull the drag in early Spring to help with the thawed Winter poop buildup when the birds can't get it done practically.

My chickens and dogs have the same relationship...

I'd buy that if you'd get it out here for me.

If you want to see something funny feed your cows some whole corn or even steel cracked.

Then turn the chickens loose.

CRAZY!

Helps if you don't have television.

We try not to feed bales on any alfalfa or grass fields. It makes a helluva mess come springtime.

And if you've ever ran a swather over a field full of 2-3 month old turds, it sucks!

Always talked about getting a heavy harrow but damn they are expensive.

I can see why you'd want to harrow a high yielding pasture with lots of turds getting dropped per square acre.


Just some more random chit here now.

In the 'winter time' and depending on the snow we start feeding cows in December and feed them literally everyday until May. Around 5 months straight. As you can imagine there is a lot of poopage.

But we have an area with that gets tilled up every year(hay barley) and some of that is sandy ground. Rough guess maybe 20-30 acres. Fed a BUNCH of stuff on that spot in an ongoing effort to build up the ground and improve productivity.

Key is to not over do it and make the residue too thick. Too thick and you'll plug up the toolbar when you go to pre-work in front of the drill. Speaking of toolbars we have a 1/2 way wore out set of Degelmans on a JD toolbar.



The heavy build-up area.

Haven't fed here in a couple weeks. Not since it's thawed out anyway. When it's frozen and fresh snow it works great to use the same feed spot every day. Abandon ship when it gets muddy!

We have thinned the stand feeding on hay ground.

When I had cattle, I made a drag out of 7 semi-truck tires and a 2" pipe, for breaking up cow piles. Did it every spring. Didn't cost anything and worked really good.

You guys ever consider toilet training your cows?

Diapers.

We wait till it just a bit drier than the ground in that first photo and then run the four gang with wings over it and it breaks them up pretty well. We fed on one alfalfa field this year since we are going to plow it up when it dries out and I think it would be better to harrow it and then plow it just to get the pies broken up and spread out a bit.