# What do you do with all of this dirty straw??



## Udder Folks (May 24, 2013)

Since we bought our six goats this winter, I have been scooping the poopy and/or obviously wet straw out of their shed each morning, and dumping it into piles on a corner of our property. My father-in-law (expert compost maker at his own home) just looked over what I was doing, and said this really wasn't going to compost well - way too much straw compared to the poop. Anyway, he also did the math for me, of what this is going to look like in a year, after 365 muck tubs' of stuff have made their way down there. Hmmmm.

What do you do with all of the stuff you clean out of your barn? I know all of you with more animals must be making even bigger piles, somewhere!


----------



## goatiegirl (Jan 7, 2013)

Good question. I was wondering this myself. Got my girls in March and so far I have been just doing the same as you and scooping up the poo and wet straw. I know I need to do a total clean out soon, but don't know where I am going to put that much straw...


----------



## keeponfarming (Jun 12, 2013)

lol, well not only do i have dairy goats...but i got around 80 chickens,20 geese,2 hogs, a few ducks, rabbits, and .....who knows what by next week!! so when i clean out a stall it goes right to the Garden, it makes a great path way...and when i mix it all up with the chicken,hog,rabbit,goose...bedding...it does compost!...give it time...ANYTHING will rot...(Add your vegetable scraps and anything Natural that will rot it helps!)..you can buy a natural "compost starter" you pour it over the compost, it will help it break down. trust me if you have the space and time (year or better) ..pile it up as high as you can the bigger it is...it will "cook" in the middle..., let that stuff break down. people will PAY FOR YOUR POO COMPOST!.lol....and they think goat owners are weird.....:laugh:​


----------



## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I burn what I can. Usually I'm cleaning out the whole thing so there is plenty of dry hay/straw to get going and then the wet stuff dries as it is burning and then it burns. Then I have ashes that easily spread somewhere.


----------



## keeponfarming (Jun 12, 2013)

we use to burn bedding...until we had a fire...most terrifying moment of my life! and almost lost are WHOLE property!....Never again! not saying don't burn. but be SUPER careful. i know just how scary it can be to watch your place become black ash and you cant do enough to stop it.. ):


----------



## WillowGem (Aug 3, 2011)

Ingrid, I was having the same problem...there are piles of straw everywhere on our property that aren't composting well.

This spring I've started burning what I can, but some of the really wet stuff still gets dumped.


----------



## ciwheeles (Apr 5, 2013)

I was piling it up along with our horses waste in a pile, but after a while it was starting to become too much. So, we broke down and got a small used manure spreader. I love having it now, it's reduced our pile to nothing and we can put everything in our garden or pastures where it'll decompose quickly.


----------



## hallsthirdacrefarm (Mar 30, 2011)

When we mix in chicken poo and grass clippings (green) its breaks down really fast. I live on a city lot and can't create a stink problem, so we rely on composting to work for us. You just need to add more greens to your browns (straw)...and if you have chickens, that poo REALLY helps.


----------



## OutdoorDreamer (Mar 29, 2012)

Ingrid said:


> Since we bought our six goats this winter, I have been scooping the poopy and/or obviously wet straw out of their shed each morning, and dumping it into piles on a corner of our property. My father-in-law (expert compost maker at his own home) just looked over what I was doing, and said this really wasn't going to compost well - way too much straw compared to the poop. Anyway, he also did the math for me, of what this is going to look like in a year, after 365 muck tubs' of stuff have made their way down there. Hmmmm.
> 
> What do you do with all of the stuff you clean out of your barn? I know all of you with more animals must be making even bigger piles, somewhere!


We use dirty bedding as mulch for our garden. (Vegetable garden) as walking space between the rows


----------



## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

Mine gets spread on the hay fields every fall.


----------



## Frosty1 (Jul 12, 2011)

Mine goes in the chicken field and the chickens scratch it around in no time.


----------



## lottsagoats (Dec 10, 2012)

I have a manure pile that I dump all the stall waste from my goats, horses and chickens in. I use straw right now and the goats add all the hay that they waste to the pile also. Mine composts just fine. I use it all over my property and give it to my neighbors and friends.

I also just dump squash and pumpkin seeds in the manure pile and let them grow wild. Come fall I have a really good crop.


----------



## jddolan (Mar 31, 2013)

We have a few small pastures so we spread the manure usually on the one we r not using at the time


----------



## WarPony (Jan 31, 2010)

I deep litter bed my stalls all winter so when i strip out in spring the bottom layers are already composting down and are used for what i call "terraforming" to fill in low spots, build raised beds, etc. They are already composting but usually too acidic to plant into so they sit for a year and then are mostly broken down into rich black compost. In the summer it is a different story, I use grass hay in the stalls rather than straw so they eat what they want and sleep on the rest and any waste hay goes into the horse paddock for him to pick through the next day, anything not suitable for the horse goes into a waste pile and kitchen compost and such is added. i also water it now and then so it has enough moisture to break down. I find that a few layers of straw with a layer of already composted material over it watered now and then breaks down pretty well.


----------

