Cutting down mucking out time..suggestions!

charlie76

charlie76

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We have 24 boxes , mainly straw but some shavings. We have five staff on every morning but mucking out seems to take an age!
I have spoken to them about going a bit quicker but it still takes up a large part of the morning.

The beds currently have a full muck out and are left up to dry every other day.

I have considered a deep litter system and bringing in extra staff once a week to do a full muck out where we would take out the wet and leave beds up for the day. They all have fresh bedding daily anyway so this would stay the same.

Any other suggestions would be great as we would like to do other stuff than just mucking out!
 
When I worked on a full livery yard shavings beds were mucked out twice a week and skipped on the other days, and each of the shavings beds were mucked out on different days so the workers that had skip out beds would finish first to do other jobs like muck heap or hay nets so it does save time, we also had 5 boxes each and it would take about 1 hour 45 minutes to do the 5 but they were all very big beds as we had no rubber mats and had to be mucked out to a high standard with bedding added everyday.

having worked on yards for years I much prefer shavings and mucking out 2 to 3 days a week does save time but still keeps them nice, than doing straw beds which I find the most time consuming, can you not put everything on shavings.
 
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charlie76 said:
Unfortunately we can't use pellets as the muck is spread on the land .
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I'm not sure I understand why you can use shavings but not wood pellets?
Either way I'm struggling to understand how 5 boxes/head is taking so long.
Even being ultra picky surely a straw box is 20 mins max?
 
Get 1 to just do 2 boxes, then they start on sweeping down yard, squaring muck heap, filling waters etc (if this is all part of the time taken?) whilst the others carry on. Change round this job to each member weekly?

Or do a demo yourself to them, to show how time can be saved?

I'm in 50s, gammy ankle etc and still managed a full muck out of 6 boxes( 2 x shavings and 4 x straw, yuk!), sweep down, waters scrubbed and filled, nets tied in - all in just under 2 hours - in a yard I've not worked in before, last week. Favour to a friend who had to be away at a funeral and her usual girl was off that day, haven't done yard cover in quite a few years!
 
charlie76 said:
We have 24 boxes , mainly straw but some shavings. We have five staff on every morning but mucking out seems to take an age!
I have spoken to them about going a bit quicker but it still takes up a large part of the morning.

The beds currently have a full muck out and are left up to dry every other day.

I have considered a deep litter system and bringing in extra staff once a week to do a full muck out where we would take out the wet and leave beds up for the day. They all have fresh bedding daily anyway so this would stay the same.

Any other suggestions would be great as we would like to do other stuff than just mucking out!
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Change to shavings and take pellets out then find pee shovel it out without moving the clean about, then fill in the area that you shovelled out with clean shavings. That way when you rake lightly with shavings fork if it is not wet under you leave it.

Don't know why you find it takes an age, I muck out 9 boxes on my own every day from 6.45am - 9.45am in that time I fed turned out - mucked out- put evening feeds in and remade up again for the next day and filled haynets. Done a few waters as some have drinkers, and some live in turnouts, but that is my times so for me mucking out 5 boxes which your staff are seems long unless high standards like squaring banks levelling bed to perfection.
That works for me as normally when a horse pees you can see the yellow entrance of it, well you can in mine or i rake across the top and when I come across the wet patch I just scoop it out. I rarely leave the hole bed up, though in the summer when I have shovelled out a wet patch i leave that patch open to dry then fill in later.
 
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Can you try it yourself one day to see where the time is being spent? E.g. walk from where straw is stored to stables (answer, change yard around or provide bigger wheel barrows); fiddly gates that are tricky to push barrows through (answer, fix gates) etc and so forth

Other thought: what else do you need done/do the staff do after? If I had an hour to muck out a box then I may find that it took me an hour. Same as if I had two to do they would take 30minutes each. Or if I was at the yard for an hour on DIY I'd muck out (realistically do a glorified skip out) in 15min, ride for 40min, brush off and go... Work tends to expand to fill the time available.
 
Rotten down wood pellets go on the land at our yard. Once they are mixed with the barrows of poo that come off the field it looks like pretty good compost!

Watching the yard staff when I was DIY on a large yard it was obvious that the enthusiasm for working at speed didn't last long unless there was someone chivvying them along! I could muck out my 2, ride 1, turnout etc and be heading off to work while they were still faffing around. I had a deadline - they didn't....
 
I think straw and shavings are the most time-consuming to muck out, and would go for straw pellets if you're not allowed to spread wood pellets on the land.

I used to incentivise my lot to muck out quicker by having a half hour breakfast/coffee break at 10am. The yard had to be finished by then, or they missed a chunk of that break.
 
SEL said:
Rotten down wood pellets go on the land at our yard. Once they are mixed with the barrows of poo that come off the field it looks like pretty good compost!
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May be good compost but as softwood it is acid, so lowers the Ph of the land.

OP might an investment in rubber mats be worthwhile, then a thin layer of bedding which can be easily sorted through or even swept out every day?
 
I agree that if there is a time constraint people work quicker but also do find they can still do a decent standard.
I muck out 2 horses on shavings- but they are both very wet and quite small stables, so can't deep litter.But I can do rugs, boots, turn out, muck out, hay, feeds for the evening all in 40 mins tops. luckily they do have automatic waters.
my come into a barn on straw. I actually quite like straw.its cheap so I'm not so fussy if a bit extra ends up in my barrow, and it creates a nice cosey bed.

I find it is all the little jobs that add up- I have to push water containers to a tap and then back to fill up water. if you have a hose it can fill while you muck out.

how long are they taking?and how long should they take?

5 staff for 24 beds should be plenty. I used to do a saturday with 1 other staff member and 16 stables. all to have rug change and turn out. took 10 minutes per stable, even the messy ones. water then topped up. we then stuffed all the hay nets and had 2 massive barrows and went around hole yard in one go, before a sweep up of the yard and then tea break!
 
They'd all be sacked if they worked at either yard I work for!
I'd swap to shavings maybe. Although I muck out fast straw does take me a time with a dirty horse (mine currently 😫)
I used pellets all last year and it got spread as would anything else I use, I'm not allowed paper (because they thing it will blow and look messy) but any wood product will rot and be ok to spread
 
I currently have 10 in and normally two girls every morning. The straw beds are mucked out to the floor daily but the banks are deep littered. Big water tubs are emptied and cleaned before refilling with a hose. Some horses are turned out so rug change, others go on walker. All stables are hayed and yard is swept. Horses off walker and back into stables. All done before coffee - this morning it took one permanent member of staff and a Saturday girl about 1hour 45 mins.
Discuss with the staff and ask them how they could get it done more quickly so they can move on to nicer jobs? Allocate same number of stables to each member of staff - that will show up the slow ones!
Good luck - constant problem with some staff but I have really found that discussing and pointing out they are not riding etc and involving them in any change of routine to benefit everyone is best way forward.
 
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I have 7 stables, turning out takes the most time as it's quite a way to the fields at least 45 mins, but I can get everything done by 10 at the latest and I start at 7.
 
Wood pellets! Always used to have straw or shavings the shavings were the worst as he would create a whirlwind of poo and wee in with all the good shavings.

New yo took over the rs yard he's kept at and swears by them so thought I'd try them as the shavings were costing so much. Once you've got the initial balance right it's so much easier I'd never go back. I don't deep litter as have tried to muck out a deep litter bed (loan horse funnily enough my day was the day it had to be mucked out) and I ended up removing multiple wheelbarrows

Wouldn't go back from pellets
 
I assume the boxes are empty.
I would get two clearing the boxes, two barrowing and stacking and one to be the gofar following on with the fresh bed and laying it. When they finish mucking out the last box they help the one laying the beds and start hay nets, water etc.
At the moment if they are doing their own boxes, there is no incentive to work quicker. No one likes stacking the heap, although if you OCD you might, so swop roles.
They have to work as a whole team and be responsible as a whole. I would let them have coffee the end as an incentive. Having had builders on site for a year, making sure the materials are there so they have no excuse to wander off saves a lot of time, so get a big wheel barrow and stack all the straw on it at the start.

I have had all sorts of bedding, and shaving are terrible for rotting down and take up nitrogen while not rotting. I would go for miscanthus pellets or chipped, it works like wood pellets. Its not that expensive and rots quickly and if you want not to tell the farmer mixed with a bit of straw he will never know if the heap is stacked. He may know someone that grows it and get a good deal.
 
I like the coffee break incentive. I might be self - incentivising with that next week. Our yard is all in at night now and one of mine had a meltdown last night, they both trashed their beds and the other decided to have a meltdown this morning.

I don't like winter....
 
It does all come down to their incentive. Yes you can go quicker , I do 7 each day, all on shredded cardboard, all wet taken out daily. Muck heap is approx 300m away uphill. Takes me just over an hour from arriving to turnout to being ready either to ride or go to work. Water is filled via hosepipe, so its going whilst I muck out. Haynets take another 15 mins or so (14 nets). I like my beds up all day, so another 15 mins at night to re-lay and add new bedding if needed.

I have to work fast in order to fit everything else in. My neighbour has 3 on shavings and one on straw. She has all day to do them and it takes her up to 2 hours to do them all. She doesn't have time constraints.

As you employ them, they have no need to rush (in their minds). Give them incentive - finish by x time and there is cake and coffee/tea and a good break before they move onto the next job.
 
Rubber mats and hemp or miscanthus bedding in a thin layer, or a thicker layer if no rubber mats. Bed stays put, stays dry (wee sinks to the bottom, poo stays on top and is easy to lift. You just lift out the wet patches every day or two.
 
I usually muck out with them and do double the amount in the same time.
I have showed them how to do it quicker and about getting done so they can ride and have a break but still takes forever. They do put in hay, water, bedding and fill the night nets at the same time.

The beds are skipped out at four and six so shouldn't be too bad. The liveries won't let me have mats and thin beds , they like a big deep bed!
 
charlie76 said:
I usually muck out with them and do double the amount in the same time.

That's your problem ,why would they work quickly when you do it for them .
I would give them each a number of stables to do. When they see those that have finished first riding and having a break they will soon speed up.
This is what worked for me when running yards.
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Distance to muck heap, size of wheelbarrows, ease of tipping muck onto muck heap, automatic waterers, haybars rather than nets, enough tools for everyone....
Change to pellets (much quicker, much smaller amount to take out = more stables per wheelbarrow, smaller muck heap), and a target time to be done by!
We have 18 boxes between 3 staff (1 of those does no mucking out, he does wheelbarrows/ fetches new bedding, collects and washes feed buckets, gets hay soaking etc) Turn out takes 1 hour, finishing the yard is possible by 10.30 if everyone works efficiently but some combinations of stadf take until 11 or 11.30 on a bad day if there have been lots of other bits going on
 
I have had staff take the pee.... 20 mins to turn out a hprse thats stable was less than 100m from field gate... 5 haynets filled in half an hour.
I am not good with having a word... i just said there would be no riding until the yard was done. The one who spent an hour texting etc in the tack room got a shock when their wages reflected this! Never came back.
Firstly... horrible I know... but staff are all too easy to replace (well useless ones area).
If you are the rider I would ride, and expect them to do the yard.
 
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