Cleaning up barnyard and manure storage areas

[canoetrpr]

I feed my cows hay in my barnyard and riding ring in the winter as I treat these as sacrifice areas so that my fields are not ruined. I also store manure nearby.

I'm told the soil under is sandy but with years of manure deposited there, they are retaining a lot of water. They also rut up bad in early spring and late fall. At one point last year I had my tractor stuck badly.

I'd like to clean these areas up. I can scrape the top layer out but wonder if I should be replacing it with fill? What kind might be good for drainage and the least $.

I'd sure appreciate any thoughts.

 

[BeezFun]

Our neighbor let manure build up for years and then someone bought the place and wanted to clean it up. They scraped off about 2' then built it up with 1" gravel, then topped with about 4" of limestone screenings. That's worked real well. If you have enough pasture you might dig out an area of soil, then fill it with the manure mix you dig up, then use the soil to fill in the part you dug out. Grass seed will grow in that manure mix and turn it back into soil after awhile. That wouldn't cost anything but your seat time.

Once manure gets wet it's really tough to separate it from the soil. I work hard to keep mine tarped, then use a spreader to get rid of it on a crop field if it's not growing, spread it on my pasture if the field is planted. You need to keep critters off it for a few weeks and spread it in the hot weather so it gets hot enough to kill the bad stuff.

 

[magicheater]

I feed my cows hay in my barnyard and riding ring in the winter as I treat these as sacrifice areas so that my fields are not ruined. I also store manure nearby.

I'm told the soil under is sandy but with years of manure deposited there, they are retaining a lot of water. They also rut up bad in early spring and late fall. At one point last year I had my tractor stuck badly.

I'd like to clean these areas up. I can scrape the top layer out but wonder if I should be replacing it with fill? What kind might be good for drainage and the least $.

I'd sure appreciate any thoughts.

What you will be using the area for would determine what sort of fill you may want. Sounds to me like your level may have been rising. What you have would make great top dressing for a garden. Maybe you can market it that way, it may pay for the fill of your choice. Don't know how long you have had the accumulation but it sounds primo.