# Stall cleaning question



## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

How often do you guys clean out your goats stalls? We are moving and getting a barn built for our goaties so trying to get our ducks in a row. Once a week? Twice a week? Touch ups every day? 

Also do you guys lay down those rubber mats in your stalls or? Pine shavings or straw for bedding? I feel like pine shavings would last longer? Which do you think would be cheaper? 

Thanks!


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## 4seasonsfarm (Jan 22, 2014)

I clean mine once a week. But I clean the kidding stalls twice a week if there is does due soon.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

You are going to find out what works for you. But Id say daily touch ups.
If a doe has just kidded she is on straw. I pick up berries with a dustpan & will even scoop out the wet stuff & top dress for a few days then they're out of there.
The general population spends most of their time under a 10x20 canopy with a three sided shelter butted up against it.
This one gets tricky especially during the winter. I still scoop up berries & top dress.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Kidding stalls I usually give mom and new kids at least 24 hours before I bug them with cleaning stalls. That's really the only stalls I have lol. I have a bunch of 4x8 little buildings that are three sided and I only clean those when its needed....unless its raining that don't go in them so I dkbt even bother with straw till then or the chickens scratch it all out. 
As to what to use straw is soooll much easier to clean out. The shavings get kinda packed down and is such a pain for me to try and scrape it off the ground. Also when I out it out in the field nothing grows there for a long while so I stick with straw


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## Terra Mia (Dec 21, 2011)

I clean once a week and spot clean daily especially when the weather is bad and they stay in their stalls. They drag a lot of moisture in the stalls as well. Rubber mats, I use DE then sprinkle shavings then put down 1/2 flak of hay then add one flake daily. I try to keep the bedding down to a minimum of what can fit in one wheelbarrow per stall. I started out filling the whole thing with deep shavings and realized I was just making more work for myself as I was still cleaning once a week. 



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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

TheGoatWhisperer said:


> Pine shavings or straw for bedding?
> 
> Thanks!


Don't kid on pine shavings - use straw or old hay. The shavings stick to the kids and can suffocate them. They are also a nightmare for Mom as far as cleaning the kids is concerned.


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## groovyoldlady (Jul 21, 2011)

For us, hay is cheaper than shavings or straw, so that's what we use. I only have 1 stall and the goats always have access to it, so We muck it anywhere from once a day to once a week, depending on the weather and on how wet the bedding is.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Wow - I'm feeling really guilty reading this thread!

We practice the deep compost bedding system (I forget the exact name) as that was recommended to us when we purchased our first buck. In the autumn we clean out to the compacted gravel floor of our 12x12 shed, let it air/dry for a few days, then put a good thick layer of pine shavings down. Then the does begin filling it with a layer of hay from the racks as they eat and it builds up allllll winter until usually end of March. It's about 3 feet of compost when we take it out. I throw a layer of pine shavings in about half way through winter just in case there is any moisture build up from tracked snow etc., the shavings suck it up. I was told this deep bedding method help keeps them warm in winter because it gives off heat as it composts. Our shed is fairly open though, it's not like a closed in horse stall or barn that they are locked in.

During the summer they spend most of their time outside in their pen or pasture so I just keep a nice layer of pine shavings in the shed and completely replace it every month or so. They go in there for shade at the hottest part of the day.

Kidding pens get cleaned every other day, but they only use them for a day or two and put first cut hay in there since straw is pricey here!


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

Thanks everyone for your input so far!! It's really helping me decide what to do even though we will have to figure out what works best for us. I like hearing what everyone else does. Thanks MsScamp for that info on pine shavings, we won't be using those I doubt, don't want to take the chance...straw sounds cleaner anyways and since we want to use our goats droppings for compost/fertilizer in our garden and orchard it seems like straw would work better for the garden. Does anybody have input on goat poo compost for your garden? Anyone do it? Find it works well?


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Salteylove your system is similar to ours what with the fairly open shelter & it does build up over winter. Two & three feet.
Yes all that bedding keeps them warm when it's cold out.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

GoatWhisperer: the compost from our goat shed (dropped hay, shavings, goat waste) has done really great in our veggie garden! When we take it out of the shed we put it in a pile and throw a dark colored tarp over it. We turn it every so often. It composts quite quickly! People say there is a big problem with seeds from the hay causing weeds but I get weeds no matter what!

Nancy d: I'm very glad to hear someone else uses a similar method!


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

That's great Saltey Love!  So can you not just throw it on the garden? Does it have to sit first? Obviously it would probably be better letting it sit but I thought you could just throw the droppings on and they would disintegrate into the dirt? Is it better to let it compost for a while?


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Ours has a LOT of hay in it so it would act more as a mulch if we put it straight on the garden, providing a solid cover. After it sits for a few months under the tarp it turns to actual soil/compost and then we use it for gardening. Sounds like you will have more enclosed stalls and be mucking out just goat waste & wet bedding more frequently and that may be able to go directly to the garden. I'm not sure if goat waste has high enough nutrient to cause "burns" to plants or not.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

Also I think you are supposed to avoid fresh animal waste near food producing plants because of the slight risk of salmonella or other bacteria or I guess even tapeworm contamination. Better to let it compost & "cook" those things away for a while.


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## Udder Folks (May 24, 2013)

I'm so glad to see this thread! I've been in the process of cleaning out the barn, which has been accumulating straw since the rain set in last fall. The deep bedding has been convenient, but is now a huge mess to deal with. I've got quite a pile going out in the (currently) unused pasture. My pile from last year was not composting quickly at all (maybe I need to add more of something to it?), so we burned it. That was a terribly smelly and long process - turns out straw doesn't burn up that well.

The guy at the feed store just suggested to me that I try Nature's Bedding pine pellets. That's what his family uses for their horses, and he said it composts quickly. Does anyone have experience using this, or something like it?


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## TheGoatWhisperer (Jan 18, 2014)

SalteyLove: Thank you, I think it is probably best then to let it sit. It will be a while till we start our garden once we move. So if we start a compost pile soon after we move in, by the time the garden is growing I would think we would have some awesome compost. And yes we will have stalls and be mucking or at least touching up daily. Thank you so much for the info!


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## MsScamp (Feb 1, 2010)

SalteyLove said:


> Wow - I'm feeling really guilty reading this thread!
> 
> We practice the deep compost bedding system (I forget the exact name) as that was recommended to us when we purchased our first buck. In the autumn we clean out to the compacted gravel floor of our 12x12 shed, let it air/dry for a few days, then put a good thick layer of pine shavings down. Then the does begin filling it with a layer of hay from the racks as they eat and it builds up allllll winter until usually end of March. It's about 3 feet of compost when we take it out. I throw a layer of pine shavings in about half way through winter just in case there is any moisture build up from tracked snow etc., the shavings suck it up. I was told this deep bedding method help keeps them warm in winter because it gives off heat as it composts. Our shed is fairly open though, it's not like a closed in horse stall or barn that they are locked in.


Don't feel guilty, Salty. That's how I do mine, too, except I don't feed under the sheds.


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## eqstrnathlete (Mar 16, 2013)

I do a pick thru daily. But those goat berries just fall through the fork. I totally strip every 4 weeks.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

I too do the deep bedding, it does keep them warmer, until it gets too high- then I have an unreliable guy :GAAH: come in and clean. He is a great
shoveler- but trying to get him to commit to a time is a challenge! (He is one of those that only works when the rent is
due at the end of the month, lots of those around here!). But, he does a great job, and during the warmer months, the 
pens get stripped and cleaned every couple of weeks, during the winter, we actually go from Dec. to Mar., then deep clean and 
start the cycle over.

The kidding pens get cleaned before and after each kidding- they don't get built up. (10 x 10 pens).


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## NyGoatMom (Jan 26, 2013)

In the late spring to late fall, I clean once a week...in the winter I keep adding bedding on top...I hate the winter though, as I feel my animals are "dirty" and I hate that feeling!
As for kidding pens, I use a layer of shavings covered with hay deep enough to keep the shavings underneath.They are cleaned after kidding.


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## anawhitfield (Jun 9, 2013)

We don't have a big barn but we have eight 5'x7' open sheds and our animals hardly ever go in (only when it is really cold or raining). Because they don't use them a whole lot, every other month I rake everything out of the sheds and put in new hay, usually hay that fell from the round bale so it doesn't get wasted. But now that we're about to start kidding/lambing I will clean everything out, sprinkle DE and put clean (new) straw for the kidding/lambing duration. Once the babies are a few weeks old, they usually spend 99.9% of the time outside with their mommas so we go back to once every couple of months cleaning schedule. 

I don't compost (because I'm lazy) but I have a friend who does and her garden is wonderful !!!! She just spreads out the berries in the garden but she also makes "manure tea". In a bucket she puts about 1/3 manure and fills it up with water. Puts a lid on it and let it sit for about 2 weeks, then uses this tea to water her garden. This is especially important with chicken manure which is very high in acids and will burn your plants. Goat/sheep manure not so dangerous to your plants. Be careful with horse manure. I was told by an old farmer that horses' stomachs don't process as well as cows' or goats' so you will have a lot of seeds in their manure and if you put horse manure in the garden you will end up with a bunch of weeds from the seeds in the manure.


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## Bertnut2 (Feb 9, 2014)

MsScamp said:


> Don't feel guilty, Salty. That's how I do mine, too, except I don't feed under the sheds.


I also put down straw at the start of cold and have only been slight cleaning and relayering until today. ( started another thread in my day of mucking out) I read a thread once on doing that to build layers to help keep them warm and that's why I started it. Today I cleaned it out and I laid a new fresh straw bed to start layers again. I will not clean it again till warm spring. We also use this as compost but it's my first yr doing so, and I'm not sure how it will be.

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## dchemphill1 (Jul 25, 2013)

During the winter we just add layers on the floor to help keep heat. Our shed is moveable so we can pull it into the pasture. During summer it is just the ground because they are not in it much unless it rains. In summer we move it every 30 days to a new area in the pasture. 


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## milk and honey (Oct 31, 2010)

Deep bedding here too... When I hD a concrete floor I used to use pellets under straw to soak up urine... What a mess to clean but it broke down well. Now they are on the ground.


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## bakosboers (Jan 6, 2014)

I use deep beading but I start with a thick layet or cornstalks. Goats love it they can hunker down in it to stay warm and its cheap

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## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I just toss it in the garden... My moms grapes did wonderful this last year;-)


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