# What do you do with your bedding?



## Korita (Jan 11, 2018)

Wasn’t sure where to post this. What does everyone do with the soiled bedding when you scoop out pens? I scoop out pens about once a week during the winter when they’re inside more and that adds up to a lot of bedding. Just curious how everyone else disposed of it.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Well, at our smallest we've had 2 goats and our largest will be this year post kidding. This year, with kids, I'm guessing we'll have 10-12, at least for a few months!

Our stall space is small, so we muck almost daily. We live on about 3.5 acres. Most of it is open, but the perimeter is fairly wooded. My hubby mowed a looping path through the woods. We just push the wheel barrow down the path and fill in the low spots in the warmer months. In winter we use sleds to haul the much to the back of the property and dump it. Then we rake it in Spring so it doesn't look gross.

Last year I got some surprise pumpkin plants that grew in the muck!


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## Sfgwife (Feb 18, 2018)

It goes in the composte pile to cook. I was at it today dumpin chicken poop and i have some volunteer plants that i am not really sure what they are. So time will tell i spose.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

I use it to fill in low spots and some tire ruts I made last year. There is like an old creek channel through one of my pastures. It appears that this was re-routed to the modern location a long time before I got the place so there is a low area where the suggestion of the channel remains. It tends to fill with water which I don't want because of parasites. I am just filling this area in with all the waste and old hay and have made quite a difference. I don't know how much more filling I will need but this works quite well and the grass is always greener here.

Conor


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I fill in low spots in the yard too.


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## cwatkin (Jul 9, 2012)

That seems to be a common use for it. I also get the no scent/chemicals added cat litter and mix that with fireplace ash and the goat bedding to fill in holes. I sometimes fill the low parts with the ash/cat litter mix and then put the old hay and such on top of that mess to cap it.

Conor


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## yankeedoodle (Apr 13, 2018)

I pile it all up in the back and then ,in 2 years it is nice black dirt that goes on the garden!


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

I just put it out in the field. The grass grows like crazy where it’s put out. Last year though I used the skid steer and just piled it in a huge pile along with the crud around the feeders and that went over really well! It was a mountain for the kids to play on and it baked and did it’s thing and now it’s a tiny little hill of good looking mulch or whatever it’s called. This year I’ve been cleaning bedding out by hand and they are spreading it out as fast as I’m liking it up :/ not sure how that is going to turn out


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## TooManyBoers (Oct 19, 2017)

Korita said:


> Wasn't sure where to post this. What does everyone do with the soiled bedding when you scoop out pens? I scoop out pens about once a week during the winter when they're inside more and that adds up to a lot of bedding. Just curious how everyone else disposed of it.


We give it to our friend who sells it on as fertiliser.


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## Steampunked (Mar 23, 2015)

I hot compost everything, but I also add a few compost activators in - I add in a pile of seaweed every so often, and there is chicken bedding as well. I'd much rather handle the goat bedding, ugh. The chicken and goat bedding composts very quickly, and without any smell at all. Then everything goes onto the garden to help the no dig beds.

I can't put it elsewhere as the native plants local to my area like to basically exist on the smell of an oily rag, and if I added good quality manure there they would sicken.


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## Korita (Jan 11, 2018)

I really need to read up on composting. I have a big garden and that would make so much sense. Yet another “lets become an old-fashioned living off the farm gal” goal of mine ha ha


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## Somechicksgoats (Aug 14, 2017)

Compost pile, then spread on my 1/4 acre garden


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## Jubillee (Dec 22, 2017)

We put it in a compost pile. But I don't let it compost to dirt because I use it before then. It usually sits undisturbed for about a month. It ends up breaking down into smallish hay pieces. (we don't do bedding, but it's all the spoiled hay they drop and manure) I use that as mulch around my plants. Poop and all. It works amazingly. So I add maybe monthly or every couple months. Free mulch and manure.


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## Kaigypsygoats (Jan 10, 2018)

We just got our two goats so we do not have much even in a 32x32 space with a 8x10 shed. However, I was thinking that when we build our beds, to put soiled stuff at the bottom so we can start out with good stuff as we add in fresh dirt. 
We live in the desert so everything dries out fast so composting/mulching will be a big thing with us. I also add lime at the bother of their shed just to keep things parasite issues at a minimum. No idea what was here before but chickens maybe dogs. Now its rabbits and ravens.


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Mine gets put onto a large pile and maybe every year or other year it gets put onto a manure spreader and is spread onto some of the fields in the area.


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## ISmellLikeGoats (Oct 4, 2017)

composted and spread in our garden, I also dumped it fresh into the garden and spread it out as we haven't planted yet this year. 
Other than that, dump it in the field to improve drainage, since we have red clay and a lot of flooding when it rains.


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I have a tiny(1 acre) farm. Most of my bedding gets piled behind the barn to compost. When I can't get out there, I mix it with the horse manure pile in the horse pasture. My neighbor has a tractor and scrapes the horse pasture every spring. He takes as much of the composted manure as he wants, and even brings it to the other neighbors. 

In the goat manure pile, I will throw pumpkin and squash seeds in the "manure mountain" and let them grow like crazy.

When it's not snowy or muddy, I wheel the fresh goat bedding (I use shavings and straw) out to various areas to fill in holes or cover nasty areas. I have 7 dogs, so I dump their poop along the edge of my property. I layer goat and horse manure/bedding with the dog poop after sprinkling the dog poop with lime. It cuts down on the smell and helps it compost faster.

I also will wheel the goat bedding (minus the straw) out to my front lawn and pretend I am a manure spreader. I throw the manure/bedding all over the lawn in a very thin layer to feed the grass and weeds. I also throw it on the base of the raspberry canes every fall, same with my flower beds. Seems to insulate the roots. I dump loads of the bedding around the base of the trees and bushes on my lawn. This fertilizes them and keeps weeds from growing.

I have a couple of places where I am building a garden. 2 years ago I dumped a winters worth of goat bedding in the areas and let it sit for a year. I leveled it out and was going to use it the second year but I got hurt and couldn't put in the garden. It should be perfect this year.

I know some people will put the goat bedding (fresh or already composted) in 5 gallon buckets or grain bags and sell them to people who want to add it to their gardens or compost pile. Others make goat poop tea and sell it for people to use in their gardens.


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## LuvmyNubians (Jan 20, 2018)

It makes excellent garden fertilizer. Doesn’t burn plants like some other manure does. I made mounds of it and added to garden. I do straw bale beds and garden boxes. I just fill it up with the manure and straw from the previous years straw bale beds. Make my own soil with it and expand my garden a little more every year.


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## Korita (Jan 11, 2018)

What is goat poop tea and how is it made?


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

I compost it.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Korita said:


> What is goat poop tea and how is it made?


Basically you put poop in a container (a 5 gal bucket work great), add water, cover (or not, depending on your climate), and let it steep a while. The resulting liquid is WONDERFUL for watering plants!


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I grow amazing tomatoes right in it! Or I put it in the bottom of my pots (I grow everything pretty much in containers) and then the top half with dirt and plant it. It breaks down as the plant grows, like a time release fert.  I grow a LOT of food and am working on upping it to market scale. All with coastal top soil and livestock poo.


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## LuvmyNubians (Jan 20, 2018)

Dayna said:


> I grow amazing tomatoes right in it! Or I put it in the bottom of my pots (I grow everything pretty much in containers) and then the top half with dirt and plant it. It breaks down as the plant grows, like a time release fert.  I grow a LOT of food and am working on upping it to market scale. All with coastal top soil and livestock poo.


Same here! Last year from my horse and goat manure I grew over 200 tomatoes from 6 tomato pants!


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## Good nieghbor (May 5, 2021)

My neighbor, which has up to thirty in his heard pulls it out and put in a pile and lights on fire. Is this about the dumbest thing you have heard of?


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)




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