1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 March Voice RS

MODERN' WAYS OF HANDLING HORSE MANURE Modern handling of manure in beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, swine and poultry establishments involves max imum automation and minimum loss of nutrients Among the methods being used are slotted floors with the manure either (1) stored underneath for varying lengths of time - up to eight months, or (2) emptied, directly or indirectly, into storage vats, irrigation systems, lagoons, or spreaders (including spreaders designed to handle liquids alone or liquids and solids together). Other stockmen are using scrapers, power loaders, and/or dehydration (drying, bagging, and selling manure for garden use). However, no such modernization has occurred in the handling of equine manure. Horses are still being fed the same old oats and the same old timothy hay, with the same old manure forked out of the stall in the same old way. Cost precludes the possibility of automating manure handling in most small horse barns. Thus, it would appear that there is little hope of eliminating hand- mucking of stalls where one horse is involved, or only a few head. Unfortunately, horses do not appear to be adapted to confinement on slotted floors, due to the injury hazard and the problem of shoes catching in the slots. Clay floors are not suited to cleaning by flushing with water; and hard stable floors of concrete, asphalt, wood, etc. require considerable bedding to make for softness and comfort These conditions mitigate against handling horse manure as a liquid. One possibility of eliminating, or lessening, bedding and permitting flushing remains; namely, the develop ment of a hard-wearing, cushion-like, resilient, acid- resistant flooring material for stalls that will make for animal comfort, without becoming slick or absorbing water. This possibility merits exploring, but, to date, little experimental work has been done along these lines. Because of the relatively dry feces (urine makes up only 20% of the weight of horse excrement, versus 40% of that of hogs), horse manure is well adapted to handling as a solid. This poses the following ques tion: What is the most practical way in which to han dle horse manure as a solid? With large horse establishments, automatic gutter cleaners offer a way of eliminating much of the hand labor and lifting in handling manure as a solid. They 72 may be (1) located either in the alleyway or immed iately outside the barn, (2) covered except for trap doors, and (3) designed to convey the manure from the gutter directly into a spreader. Some large establishments fork the manure from the stalls into the alley, then load it by means of a scraper and/or power loader; but this method is more messy and not as convenient as an automatic gutter cleaner. Another method of stall cleaning that merits explor ing is the use of an industrial-type vacuum system to suck up the feces and soiled bedding and convey them where desired. If necessary from a handling standpoint, a slurry could be created by mixing the manure with water, then pumping the resultant liquid. The manure could then be disposed of in a manner similar to any other liquid manure. Both small and large horse establishments face the problem of what to do with horse manure, once it is removed from the stable. Because the feces of the horse are the primary so

1968-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1968 March Voice RS | Page 72