California Barn Life: Poop Patrol

Yep.  I got poop patrol again for the weekend.  Three days of cleaning stalls, filling waters, turning out, blanketing, and feeding.  I don't mind.  With weather as nice as this, there's nothing I'd rather be doing.

You may or may not know this, but many Californians are pretty green.  Many communities even have recycling cans at the curb (they're blue), and many locations around town have large recycling bins for drop offs (newspapers, cardboard, etc.)  We even have designated lots for dumping our dead Christmas trees.

RM is very green.  She even has a special container for toxic trash: fly spray bottles, wormer tubes, cleaning products, etc.  In the barn, we have two containers for trash, one for recyclable materials, and one that is for plain trash.  RM's green barn-management style extends to manure disposal as well. 

There are many ways we deal with manure in Bakersfield.  Silverado, the last place I boarded, kept a large manure pile that was frequently hauled off to the green waste facility, which is a typical strategy.  Other barns have a field for spreading.  Others simply spread the manure in their arenas.

RM decided to recycle the manure for use around the barn.  She built a pretty cool composting bin that does the job quite well.  The slats of the walls are easily removed for tractor access.  Periodically, the tractor is used to rotate the manure to aide in composting.  Special tubes are inserted into the manure to allow oxygen to do it's job, and the temperature of the compost heap is taken regularly.  The thermometer looks like like a giant meat thermometer.  Once the temperature of the pile reaches a certain degree, the  manure is officially called dirt and is then spread around the property to fill in holes.  It's an amazingly efficient system that converts lots of poop into recycled dirt.  Here are some photos of the compost area.

One side is for incoming manure, and the other side is for manure that's "cooking."

This side is "cooking." The white tubes are open at the ends and have holes drilled in them to allow oxygen to enter the mound.