Moving horse manure ... best tool for the job?

[McMXi]

I run an add on Craigslist for 8 months of the year offering various types of tractor work. I do this mostly because I enjoy using tractors, but also to have a little inflow to help some part of my brain justify the massive outflow that comes from buying tractors and implements.

I received a call yesterday asking me if I could drag a large horse pasture and load a huge pile of manure into a dump truck, probably multiple loads. I don't have anything to do the former, and the bucket on the M6060 will have to do for the latter. I did ask the local dealer if they had anything suitable for such a task and they have a Land Pride LM25108 on the lot, but at 1,000 lb with the bolt on cutting edge it'd make little sense for me even if it were affordable.

So anyone moving manure on a regular basis, and if so, what are you using? I've seen muck grabs in action and they seem to work well, but I suppose the best tool might depend on the type of manure and how well it holds together.

The person who called me has 30 or so horses and from what I can gather they have a massive pile of manure. I'm not sure what they have in the way of equipment but if I had horses I'd sure have a way to deal with every aspect of owning them. One of the reasons why I get a fair amount of cutting work each year is that people move here, buy 20 to 50 acres and have zero thoughts re maintaining the property until the local Agriculture Department gives them a ticket for weed issues and such.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Horse manure can be tricky.
It could be hard packed or it could be soft and fluffy.
One of the biggest tricks is to not get too much dirt.

Hard and packed :



Soft and fluffy

 

[McMXi]

Horse manure can be tricky.
It could be hard packed or it could be soft and fluffy.
One of the biggest tricks is to not get too much dirt.

Hard and packed :



Soft and fluffy

Hmmm ... I have a 72" rock bucket so perhaps I need to load that on the trailer too. The M6060 bucket is 72" as well.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

That would do it!

 

[GreensvilleJay]

one trick is to go slow and let the bucket float,to follow the land.

 

[dirtydeed]

I typically use the landscape rake (when dry). The paddock area is another story. Box blade and loader for that.

It's horse shyt, no need to make it complicated.

 

[Russell King]

You need to figure out if they want it raked or truly “dragged”. Drag generally means that they want the horse apples left but broken down into smaller chunks. You would generally use a chain harrow to break up horse poop but you Gould use chain link fence with some weights on top of it to do a similar job. I guess you could use a disk harrow but that would probably take too many passes to make it worthwhile.

They already seem to have enough in the pile that they don’t need it raked, but maybe they do???

 

[JonM]

i deal with horse poo on the regular. manure pile adds up fast so we routinely put out facebook market adds for free manure will load your trailer or truck bed. so ive loaded all sorts and the biggest i can go easily with the 6060 is a large dump trailer.

i dont think ive got the reach to load an dump truck

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

Good day.

I don’t have horses but I have moved a lot of manure on farms / ranches.

This seems strange to me…IMO before accepting a job site unseen like this I’d want to know how it got into a pile if they don’t have equipment to move it…how large is the pile.(how have that many horse without equipment…even some Amish use equipment now)

Next I’d prefer a front loader with manure forks to a pitch fork any day…manure forks are great. jMHO.

I’m sure others will chime in but this smells funny (pun intended). (get the money up front)

 

[McMXi]

i deal with horse poo on the regular. manure pile adds up fast so we routinely put out facebook market adds for free manure will load your trailer or truck bed. so ive loaded all sorts and the biggest i can go easily with the 6060 is a large dump trailer.

i dont think ive got the reach to load an dump truck

The M6060 has a lot more loader height than the MX6000/L6060 and it has two pin settings on the loader, one for height and one for power.

The horse owner is going to text me the rail height of the dump truck once he hears back from whoever is going to do the hauling. Perhaps he's sold the manure to someone with a dump truck but these are things that I'll discover no doubt.

 

[McMXi]

I typically use the landscape rake (when dry). The paddock area is another story. Box blade and loader for that.

It's horse shyt, no need to make it complicated.

For sure. I'm not going to be doing anything to the paddock/pasture, simply moving a large pile of poop into a dump truck. I'll ask the owner to send me a photo or two so that I might get some idea of how long it will take. I told him my hourly rate and my hauling fee and he's ok with both.

 

[JonM]

The M6060 has a lot more loader height than the MX6000/L6060 and it has two pin settings on the loader, one for height and one for power.

The horse owner is going to text me the rail height of the dump truck once he hears back from whoever is going to do the hauling. Perhaps he's sold the manure to someone with a dump truck but these are things that I'll discover no doubt.

make sure you got the horizontal clearence for when you go to dump thats the other thing i just thought of. so at max height how much room do you habe from the front if the tractor to your dump angle. the higher you go the shorter that distance becomes

 

[Lil Foot]

We once dug a pit to back the dump truck down into so it was low enough to dump tractor buckets in to it.

 

[Spam Bot]

Don't forget to add something for cleaning the tractor after the job.