This is the issue.. you see when you have sheep or goats, they do little droppings, that just spread the manure love and after they dry and have a good rain, they just melt into the pastures..
Horse an cow Paddies.. that is whole different matter, they land like a bomb and they are thick and piled up but good. My big boys leave big piles.. I know that some folks go out every single day and pick up their pastures and add them to the compost pile and to them I say.. good for you and to be truth, I have many times take the wheel Barrel and gone to the favorite standing places and I will do a pick up, and sometimes I will just wonder around the pasture cleaning it up..
But time gets away from you and other things need to be done and before you know it.. your pasture looks like this! Piles, old piles, and new ones.. and suddenly you are having a major issue, because each of those piles is point in fact, a) missing from the compost pile b) taking away approx. a foot of pasture that is not growing pasture
With spring, planting and so much more on the go, I called in help.. and I will admit it, I might just hire him once a month to come and drag the pasture, not just to spread the piles but to keep working on helping level the pasture out as well.
One of the good things about this was the hubby an I walked the pasture and did a full pasture pick up ahead of him going over it, so the pastures got a nice spring clean up and it got a drag over as well. As luck would have it, we are to have a couple days of rain coming, which will really help feed the soil from those older and newer piles that are spread thinly over the land itself. *
*I did some fecal testing before doing this to see if I needed or wanted to do some worming, as I am always aware of worm loads, the sheep needed worming, the goat and horse’s and cows did not.
I had truly hoped to turn the pasture and do a heavy re-seeding but this spring has not worked with me.. first to wet and now to far along and to hot.. so we will work to keep it dragged, we will work to add finished compost thinly covering it and I will do a late fall -winter seeding and second early snow seeding out and will see where it gets me.
Just another Day on the Farm 
J > That’s interesting. Adapting when things don’t go to plan. Which in agriculture is not uncommon!
Allowing yourself to ask and or get help is something far to many will not due. While I normally can manage this task, it got ahead of me, I would have needed to give up to many man hours to get it done and something else would have had to wait. so I got a helping hand. So worth it
The poop patrol! 🙂
yup, yup,, what goes in.. must come out lol
Poop was actually one of the deciding factors for whether we would go with another milk cow or get a milk goat. Wool sheep laying in cow patties is not helpful to the fleece at all…we decided to go ahead with the milk goat – for several reasons…one of which was because the poop is the same as the sheep.
Very true, I keep the sheep in the front of the barn and the horse’s an cow in the back of the barn.. out on the pasture’s, not much of a issue.
I wander about when I have time and pick up the cow splats – when they’re super dry. We burn them in the wood stove in the barn in the winter. Free heat 😊And saves on firewood. And no – it doesn’t smell 😄
I have burned many a dry pie from my young years in alberta, in some areas in the badlands an southern, easier to find then wood 🙂 great way to reuse what you got.. you go girl
Lol, I think I might’ve asked you about that, once upon a time; )
Entirely possible. 😊
Another good reason to ride the quad; )
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