# What to do with all the straw?



## Red_Stiles (Nov 1, 2016)

I am new goat owner. I was completely unaware of how quickly the soiled straw adds up. 

What do you do with your soiled straw? 

We only have an acre and there's only so many places we can "hide it".


Super Rookie right here. 

Thanks for your help guys!


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

You can compost it.


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## goatblessings (Jan 6, 2015)

Gardens are a good place too. Some friends of mine pick it up for their gardens, so it helps a lot.


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## Lisalisa89 (Oct 18, 2016)

I have a pile tucked away right now, but am considering starting to compost for sure. Are ground is super hard so for gardening I will be doing raised garden beds stupid red dirt.


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

We burn it daily after cleaning the barn in our burn pile. Morning and nite. Most days are burn days. 

We switched over to mostly just sand/dirt floors in our barn. Flies are almost completely gone now in summer! It's amazing! The straw contributes to flies. No straw. Clean barn. Very few if any flies. Even in the heat of summer! I was shocked!

In the bad cold we use a little straw but I we don't have much so easy clean up. When weather is not freezing we try not to have any straw on ground. My hubby built short platforms and they like to sleep on them as well as solid bales. They sleep on top of the bales too. Then we rake off any poop in the am and before bed. The bales last quite awhile especially if you buy the wide kind. Wks well. Flies don't like bales like straw on floor.


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## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

You can use it directly on your garden or landscaping. You don't have to age it like chicken manure & the straw makes a good mulch.

I also put up "Free goat manure" signs at our community garden, or offer to drop off a load myself.

If you want it to compost it, it will rot faster you can add kitchen scraps & a little soil & fluff it up every once in a while. It will shrink down pretty fast.

If I run out of places to put it, sometimes I bury it.


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## Harriet_and_Hens (Apr 26, 2015)

Buck Naked Boers said:


> We switched over to mostly just sand/dirt floors in our barn. Flies are almost completely gone now in summer! It's amazing! The straw contributes to flies. No straw. Clean barn. Very few if any flies. Even in the heat of summer! I was shocked!


I have wanted to do just sand for a while, but when I tried it for our chicken coop, it started to smell really fast.. does your barn ever get that ammonia/pee smell going on with the sand? Does the pee clump like kitty litter? Where do you get it?

Sorry so many questions, I just love the thought of no straw or shavings!!


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## Buck Naked Boers (Oct 15, 2012)

Hi Harriet. I use Diatomaceous earth on the really wet areas in my barn. So if they pee tons overnight somewhere I just sprinkle a little on it. Works like a natural deodorizer. We don't seem to have problems with wet tho. We clean the barn morning and early evening. There isn't any bad ammonia or pee smell. I've also learned not to have it too thick. No need for that. But enough to give them some on the floor. It works great!

I buy a dump truck load and put it by the barn to use when needed. I think it's prob cheaper to buy it that way. I get it from the rock and gravel place. Any gravel yard will have sand too. I get just plain course sand not the "golf course sand". That's more expensive.

I made a dry lot area outside my barn as well when it's raining so they can be outside without getting worms from the pasture.








Here is a photo outside of the dry lot. We have snow right now but gives you an idea how we use sand outside. Helps with worm loads I believe.

Tami


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

Hmmm, that explains why our new bedding works so well. I have access to free pine saw dust from a neighbor's mill. It's not fancy kiln dried stuff, but it is AWESOME. Especially in summer. The consistancy is like sand. It absorbs urine beautifully and always smells nice. It is not dusty and does not fly in the air - so no lung problems. No problems with udders or milk and the goats love chewing on the occasional bonus wood chunk. ;-)

Sadly I can't get it in wnter because his piles are buried in snow....


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## lottsagoats1 (Apr 12, 2014)

I use pine shavings with straw on top. Underneath those is a rubber mat. I clean the stall out daily. I have a large manure pile (think Mount Everest) behind the barn that I would toss the soiled bedding on every day. It's too high now. I also have a horse manure pile in the horse pasture I am using now that there is packed snow limiting my ability to move the wheelbarrow and dump it. Neighbors come and take the manure from the horse pasture during the spring and fall for their gardens.

When there is no snow on the ground, I wheel the stuff from the goat pens and spread it in the gardens along my foundation and in front of the barn. I put it around the base of all my trees, Lilac and Forsythia bushes, and shovel it into large barrels that will compost and hold strawberry plants this summer, once I drill holes around it. 

I, too, only have 1 acre.


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## jdjuergensen (Aug 2, 2016)

Wow I didn't know you could put pine shavings on your garden with no breakdown period. I use pine shavings as well and have mounds of it here and there...


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## lilaalil (Sep 5, 2014)

I use every bit of it to fertilize my fruit trees (I just mulch around each fruit tree with it, close to the drip-line). It composts in place, and the trees are very happy with it! Landscape trees and bushes would love it too. Or, if I didn't have fruit trees, I would compost it for the garden. 

But, if you don't have any use for it, put an ad on Craigslist. Depending on demand in your area, you could get actual money for it, or maybe just give it away for free. If you don't want strangers on your property, you can haul it out close to the road for people to pick up there.


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## Harriet_and_Hens (Apr 26, 2015)

Buck Naked Boers said:


> Hi Harriet. I use Diatomaceous earth on the really wet areas in my barn. So if they pee tons overnight somewhere I just sprinkle a little on it. Works like a natural deodorizer. We don't seem to have problems with wet tho. We clean the barn morning and early evening. There isn't any bad ammonia or pee smell. I've also learned not to have it too thick. No need for that. But enough to give them some on the floor. It works great


Thanks so much for the info!! I am really going to try to talk my husband into it in the spring - I feel like it would be so much cleaner, and I LOVE the idea of the dry lot outside.

With all the rain and snow we're getting, the phrase 'dry lot' is foreign to me :?


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