# dirt floor and lime



## thomcarol (Feb 3, 2012)

Our barn is muddy right now from all the rain and pee. Can I put lime and then a layer of hay to soak up the water? If not, what else can soak up water?


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## freedomstarfarm (Mar 25, 2011)

I have never used them because I am worried my goats will eat them but there are barn stall pellets that soak up liquid. You could try throwing a bunch of those down and see how that does. 
You can put lime and straw but then you have all the wet straw to take out and it gets cumbersome and heavy. Straw is better at soaking stuff up then hay.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

We do a heavy layer of lime, and then straw. Hay will start to smell pretty bad. Can you get straw? 

What about putting a load of sand in the barn, then lime on that and then straw on that? 
any way you can trench it better for better drainage? 
It is going to be a big job to clean out in the spring. but you certainly have to get it dry for them some how.


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## thomcarol (Feb 3, 2012)

We can get straw here. I'll pick some lime and straw up and see how good I can get it. Yes it will be a pain to clean out in the spring but they can't live in this every day. It rained over 4 inches here in the last 36 hours and we have more to come today through Thursday.
In the spring I plan to put either wood floors in or put pavers down. I know they all have pros and cons and up until now dirt has worked wonderfully for us but this winter has been bad.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

We love our dirt floors, No way your can tile or work on the drainage around your barn?


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## BiGully Farm (Aug 23, 2012)

We have dirt floors as well. It's been raining here off and on but I got a break in it last Friday. I raked everything out and then spread some barn lime down. It really does a nice job of drying up the wet spots. I think that is the cheapest thing I buy for the goats  from TSC ($2.99 for 50 lb bag).


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## thomcarol (Feb 3, 2012)

I don't know how much of it is coming from poor drainage. Our land is pretty level, just a slight slope. I think most of it has to do with 5 does and 6 kids peeing, and the rain has been blowing in, and the goats get in fights and knock over 5 gallon buckets of water. It gets hot here in the summer so we leave an 18 inch gap at the top of the walls that we cover with tarps in the winter and take down to get air flow in the summer. These storm systems that have come through have high winds and have been allowing some rain to come in. We are going to rework the tarps so they will be more effective. I would like to keep dirt but this mud is nasty.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

You are nicer than I am, mine have to go outside to drink. Try a lower pan, or black rubber tub, instead of the 5 gallon Pails, that is probably a lot of the problem. I know in our kidding pen we use some 2 1/2 gallon pails and if they knock those over it is quite a sloppy mess. 

But otherwise put the buckets outside the door. The goats wont melt if they get rained on.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Does lime help with the smell of pee also? (sorry Im not trying to take over your post here) But I would also like to add, the wood shavings suck up a lot of wetness, I just hate it because its hard to clean out.


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## 20kidsonhill (Feb 28, 2011)

yes, the lime will act as a deodorizer as well. Works great. I put don't a solid covering of lime and then put new bedding on top. We deep liter, so it would be a lot of work to clean out in the spring with out a tractor, we use a tractor with a bucket. But you could do the same thing and clean out every couple weeks and then put down fresh. The thing about deep littering is it really helps your barn floor stay warmer. But no way you would want to clean it out with no equipement.


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## thomcarol (Feb 3, 2012)

We keep our buckets in there mainly overnight since we lock them in. We will probably switch the buckets if they don't stop. Oddly enough, they didn't start tipping the buckets over until the last couple of weeks.


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