Livestock buial...

[flusher]

Lately I have been getting quite a few calls to bury horses. I dont know if its from the heat or what is causing this. I usually I arrive with in 12hrs of the animal going down.

A lady called me yesterday asking if I could bury a horse the was old and died, I told her I would be there as soon as I got off work and loaded the tractor. I arrived right on time at 1830hrs.... Now what she did not tell me is the animal went down Sunday. I almost turned the job down luckly for me I was able to make a large hole upwind and carefully push the animal in and back fill it with out it popping.... Any advice on how to handle bloated animals about to pop?? I may simply start turning these down it was disgusting.. I cant figure out why someone would wait so long especially in this heat..

My neighbor had to put down three geriatric horses this past Spring. One of his friends dug the pit with a construction size JD 410 backhoe.



He moved the carcasses to the hole with his AC wheel loader.

 

[Soundguy]

We have had Free farm animal pickup here until recently (subsidized by the county at $25 per cow). We would need to bring the animal to the edge of the road for pickup the next day. Now the company that has been picking us up has stopped and we are now back to square one. Ken Sweet

rendering outfit?

soundguy

 

[jimmyj]

We have a dead stock removal outfit here but it's not long for this world (save the expression). There is no money in it any more and I can't blame the guy. It's a nasty job he he has, hauling dead stock away in a bin for $25 or $35 per head. We had to put down some stock a while back and it was a bit macabre, the bin had 3 pigs, a Llama, a horse and a sheep all stacked up in a tangles mess (funny in a black humor kind of way). He took them for rendering.

Anyhow, to your issue, I'm with the guys, shoot it and get the gas out, dig and bury. You are a nice person to help other folks who can't deal with the issue themselves.

 

[sweettractors]

rendering outfit?

soundguy

Yes, Rendering business. Ken Sweet

 

[Soundguy]

I figured it was.

dump here stopped taking them about 20ys ago.

soundguy

 

[rtimgray]

In our county in Western Kentucky, the local road deparment (county, not state) will come bury the animals (cows and horses only, as far as I know) on your site for free. They will also dump in a bag of lime before covering the carcass. However, they will bury it only where the animal lays (no moving by them, but you can move it all you want before they get there). I've used this service, and it is handy.

 

[big e]

I put coons and cats sized animals in the back field and the buzzards and flesh eating beetles strip them bare in days. Of course, the beetles don't clock in for work in the winter.

On a side note... I think coons smell the worst of all dead animals... maybe the fat?

 

[Soundguy]

As a rule I usually burry small animals I find dead in case of disease.

soundguy

 

[jimmyj]

On a side note... I think coons smell the worst of all dead animals... maybe the fat?

I donno, dead skunks are pretty nasty! A big ole dead moose we came across once stank pretty bad too. Puweee...

 

[Soundguy]

i've hit dead animals while bush hogging. wonderfull aroma...

soundguy

 

[Duffster]

The dead cow that had been dead for a week or better out in 90* heat and floated in to our pasture with the flood smelled pretty bad.

 

[Soundguy]

that doesn't paint a good mental image no matter how you think about it.

ewwwwww

soundguy

 

[big e]

As a rule I usually burry small animals I find dead in case of disease.

soundguy

Good point.

The one's I deal with were all quite healthy but have died of lead poisoning.

 

[Duffster]

Good point.

The one's I deal with were all quite healthy but have died of lead poisoning.

I think it has more to do with the velocity of the lead than the poisoning. :laughing:

 

[Mike Costello]

I grew up in a small agricultural town with a typical main street layout. One day, a rendering truck had to hit its brakes hard, and a hogs head fell out on to the street. The smell was terrible--the street cleared in seconds! The fire dept had to come out and hose the street down.

Years later, in So. Cal. dairy country, a rendering truck pulled into my auto repair business looking to get a rear dual tire repaired. The stench was overpowering with customers fleeing and gagging. I told the driver I couldn't help him because my shop was not set up for large truck tire service (split rims etc) which was true. I sent him down the road to a truck stop. It was all I could do to stand near that truck and talk to the driver. Amazingly, he wasn't fazed at all! It took a good hour for the air to clear. Mike.

 

[Soundguy]

buddy of mine drive a sewer truck. on the way back from a call something went wrong with engine idle and truck would die at low rpm.. so at stops he'd kick on the governor to keep rpms up.. this also made the vent fan blow ( as if he was at a call pumping out a tank ).. anyway.. he got pulled over by dot for something on the way back to his shop.. probbaly going a lil fast trying to limp the truck back to get it fixed.. anyway.. dot guy couldn't stand the smell and let him go with a warning to slow down, shouted from the roadside about 10' from the truck.

soundguy

 

[nwngunner]

Around here there is no one who does this type of service. The rendering trucks wanted almost 300 dollars to come get a horse we lost. With in 16hours he was massivly bloated and split open. While the smell was bad you can deal with it.

Unfortunatly i dont have the equipment to be digging holes the size of a horse espcially that deep. So i had to do the only option i had. I built a big logpile and a bunch of gas and set the horse in with the loader.

While it may not be the best thing to do, the smell stoped extreamly fast, there were no buggs no scavangers nothing. Just make sure you have a fire that will burn for 2 or 3 days as the fat can and will sit there and smolder like a candle.

 

[Soundguy]

every time I read this I wonder when my 27yr old quarter horse is going to go down.. and where....

soundguy

 

[merrickvilleguy]

laws out my way:

DEAD ANIMAL DISPOSAL ACT - O. Reg. 302/06

 

[pat32rf]

Just before big brother changed the farming laws my BIL and I bought a cow from a farmer about 20 miles away. Farmer shot and loaded the cow onto (NOT into) our trailer and gave us directions on a "shorter way" to get from his farm to our part-time butcher, who knew we were coming.
My BIL is one of these know-it-all wheeler dealers and promptly got us lost, resulting heading down the main street of town with a dead cow on a small flatbed trailer.
As a result of the new laws we would now have to hire a cow hauler to take the live cow 60 miles to the slaughterhouse, pay to have it killed, then transport it (in approved vehicle) to the local licensed butcher.
Makes our venison seem simple.....at least we can still do that ourselves..