Muck heap 'design'

[tobiano1984]

Only on a horse forum can we discuss poo sculpting...

So the time of year has come and the farmer has removed our muck heap - so before it gets out of control I want to establish how it'll 'grow'.
Background - it's out the back of the barn, on earth not concrete, backs into a field/hedge, no sides. So it's a bit freestyle. Gets taken away once a year, used by about 15 stables with a mix of straw, pellet and shaving beds. The main issue is it just spreads a bit too much!
Last year OH tried to establish a quarry system (pushing barrows up and round to the top) but wasn't very successful as a) impossible when wet to push barrows up, and b) looked messy around the edges and still spread outwards.

Any suggestions for neatness? Just in arrangement - I'm not going to start building walls, concrete etc.

space wise it has a footprint of up to about 2/3 stables wide ( so 36 feet?) and probably 20ft deep.

Pictures would be very welcome! Or just sculpting ideas. Need to get liveries doing it properly straight away before it gets out of control...

 

[9tails]

Our muck heap is used by 50 stables, the yard hand uses the tractor bucket to lift and plonk the new stuff on top. Ours is on concrete and enclosed on 3 sides. So nothing like yours but still only 3 stables wide, but can extend forward another 20 feet and 20 feet high before it is removed. It's a monster at times.

 

[Equi]

My yard has two levels, so the muck heap is piled into what would be a silage type area, high concrete wall thing, so you walk to the edge and tip it. Very handy and means you never have to pile the poo. The yard i work at has just a pile again in the silage type area but you have to walk up the pile of poo to tip and then scoop it all back which noone ever does apart from the workers, so its quite annoying. Another yard i volunteer at has a tractor trailer, you go up and empty then throw it all back but in general the owners are the only ones who do that and it goes away every week. Im afraid you may just be shovelling **** for the year..

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

Mine is on a smaller scale..... however, I got some old tin roofing (for nothing as was being given away on gumtree), rammed in some old fence posts (recyled from replacing a length of fence) and initially made an L shape, which kept 2 corners tidy.
I then added a 3rd side. I keep it on 2 levels, one big step at the back, then start infilling at the front till reached same level.
Then with use of scaffold board (plundered from local flytipping mess) I can shove barrow up & then increase the back section again.
Neighbour does the same, but has screwed her tin to posts & its around 7ft high at the back.

It will only stay 'tidy' if all who are using it keep it tidy tho
eg: tip out and fork up, then have a 'stamping' gang of folk with wellies on to tread it down weekly or more often, as this is what will keep the heap most well stacked.
Keep an old metal fork rammed into the side so nobody can say they didn't have an implement to use

 

[Gypley]

Oohh one second. I had a good thread on this, bare with me!

 

[Gypley]

Ok, I can't find it, but my preference is to bang in a few posts and slide pallets over the top to form a wall. When the pallets rot you can ealisy slide them off and slide new one on.
However, if you have your heart set on "freestanding" (I did it for a while but running a DIY yard with a freestanding muck heap was a nightmare. There were certainly a few liveries I'd have happily buried in it!)
Basically you need a step system. But for the heap to hold its shape and not collapse you need to keep the edges solid with straw, then fill the middle with the shavings/pellets. It needs to be stomped down regularly, after every barrow load is emptied and chucked up otherwise you'll have a landslide. Keeping the top flat will also help the raid water to drain through it and rot the heap quicker.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I make a mountain as square as I can and have a slope at one end to start so I can get the muck high, then when that gets too out of hand I start another slope the other side by building the sides up first until I have a slope again, then everyday I get on the top and push it all to the sides and flatten it down, I can't do loads of muck throwing as it makes my back bad so I find this works for me.

 

[honetpot]

The best method for a compact heap is stepped, you do not even need solid sides but it does help if you have a solid back wall.
By stepping it and squaring and compacting the levels it creates more heat in the muck so it decomposes quicker and reduces in size. A yard I was on the top step was nearly 20ft, and you could walk up the steps to the top.
A heap or pile is the most inefficient way, it's full of dead space and the heat is lost. A good muck stack is an art but it also saves space and money if you have to have it carted away.

 

[Enfys]

Mine is freestyle, rectangular, and I just throw muck up on top. Sides are raked straight and then I get on top, stomp it all down flat and tidy it up again. I have too much time on my hands. It is not big as my horses are not stabled, mainly only soggy bedding from the run in sheds.

When I ran a livery yard it was just a massive pile, when it spread too much we'd simply attack it with the tractor, bucket the front on top and squash it up. I never bothered to try to keep it tidy because the dogs dug it up, the chickens scratched it down, the ducks slept on it and the racoons did whatever racoons do with muck heaps. Once a year a local farmer chappy came with a relay of muck spreaders and took the whole lot away and it all started again.

 

[Slightly Foxed]

The best method for a compact heap is stepped, you do not even need solid sides but it does help if you have a solid back wall.
By stepping it and squaring and compacting the levels it creates more heat in the muck so it decomposes quicker and reduces in size. A yard I was on the top step was nearly 20ft, and you could walk up the steps to the top.
A heap or pile is the most inefficient way, it's full of dead space and the heat is lost. A good muck stack is an art but it also saves space and money if you have to have it carted away.

This. Pull the barrow up backwards.

 

[Amicus]

Ok, I can't find it, but my preference is to bang in a few posts and slide pallets over the top to form a wall. When the pallets rot you can easily slide them off and slide new one on.

I do the same and am very happy with it, much lower maintenance tidy and freestyle don't always go hand it hand.

 

[Bosworth]

i used to use the tractor to bucket it up and pile on top. I could reduce it to about a quarter of its original size and compact it down. Twice a year farmer could come and muck spread it on the fields which were then rested for 6 months, while the horses moved into their other paddocks. I had a cocktail of worms specifically for muck heaps, and as we all used wood pellets the muck heap would rot down completely to black powder within 6 months. And provided some much needed fertiliser for the fields. In order to do that tho the heap has to be efficient and heat up well and rot down completely.

 

[nicelittle]

We have a small area with no sides or boarding, in which we make 'banks' of muck round the edge in a square to start with, stamped down, then fill in, stamping down all the while, then start the next layer with more 'banks' and so on. It keeps it tidy and the muck rots down within 6 months and this and gets spread on the fields

 

[D66]

I had a good freestanding heap a couple of years ago. I built it up in a rectangle with a wooden plank to get the barrow to the top. Once a week I'd build up the sides by putting clods of part rotted muck on the top edges and stamping it all down. I left a shallow dip in the top to hold the water.
It's all gone to pot now

 

[windand rain]

The best method for a compact heap is stepped, you do not even need solid sides but it does help if you have a solid back wall.
By stepping it and squaring and compacting the levels it creates more heat in the muck so it decomposes quicker and reduces in size. A yard I was on the top step was nearly 20ft, and you could walk up the steps to the top.
A heap or pile is the most inefficient way, it's full of dead space and the heat is lost. A good muck stack is an art but it also saves space and money if you have to have it carted away.

this is the ideal way but you dont find many people willing or able to do it

 

[honetpot]

On the livery yard we used to wait until everyone had mucked out and dumped it in a heap at the bottom then another livery whose edges were far sharper and neater than mine, or I would chuck it up and square it off. Took on 15mins once a day and then once I week I would spend half an hour bumping it up.

 

[Magicmadge]

Mine hasn't been moved in 5 years and believe it or not doesn't seem to get any bigger . Don't get me wrong it's big, about 20 ft wide X 10 ft at its highest but it never spreads outwards. I have a low end that I push the barrow up and dump at the back end going around the edges squaring it off as I go to stop all the poo picking poo from rolling down the sides if that makes sense. The worms are amazing I only have to move a bit with my foot to see almost more worms than muck heap. It is a free standing heap no sides but hasn't moved outwards in its space in all that time. Grass has grown in the middle helping form a mat to get across with the barrow. It does get a bit squelchie in heavy rain but I've never not been able to get on it . I have 6 ponies , 4 Shetlands and two cobs .

 

[3OldPonies]

My heap is a bit 'feral' compared to some on here! It's a squareish freestanding pile with a flat top and has two halves, one in the process of being used for fresh muck and the other rotted down. The rotted half is the bit that is a bit of a state because we 'mine' it occasionally on behalf of local allotment holders and take it away a trailer full at a time. The fresh half I try to keep in steps, by the wildlife that use it at a stepping stone to the lake beyond seem to prefer a slope!!!!!

 

[_GG_]

The best method for a compact heap is stepped, you do not even need solid sides but it does help if you have a solid back wall.
By stepping it and squaring and compacting the levels it creates more heat in the muck so it decomposes quicker and reduces in size. A yard I was on the top step was nearly 20ft, and you could walk up the steps to the top.
A heap or pile is the most inefficient way, it's full of dead space and the heat is lost. A good muck stack is an art but it also saves space and money if you have to have it carted away.

This, whether it's free standing or not, although a back wall does help as you say. A stepped and well managed muck heap is easy to use, neat and tidy, far more compact and breaks down far more quickly.

I also found it justas quick as struggling to push a wheelbarrow up a mound. It was easy. Empty wheelbarrow at bottom, scoop up muck to where a step needed it, quick hop up to stamp it down and off you go. Quick and easy

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

We don't have a muck heap. Our yard has 5 horses & all muck from stables & the daily poo picking goes up a ramp into a farm trailer. The trailer fills in about a fortnight & then it's towed away & dumped in a field at a nearby farm. The farmer eventually spreads it on his fields. Doing it this way we don't have to worry about ground water run off etc plus the nasty smell that eminates from a huge muck heap.

 

[ester]

Rectangular, with good well constructed walls, the walls are the key, prevent bulging, you must pull the top of them out before treading down otherwise you start to find the sides creep in and it gets smaller as you get to the top.
When it gets too tall to chuck muck up then a step added in the same manner.

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

the back and sides of ours are railways sleepers.

we fill in 1 step and pile it up as neatly as we can and a few times a week good old dad gets on top and flattens/squares it off and makes us another step. then we chuck up on to that until its as high as the first one and start another step at the front.

its a pretty small muck heap tbh but we only have 4 horses (shavings or chopped straw), and it gets removed by the farmer 4 times a year.

keeping the top flat and well trampled can add weeks to the collection times as then the rain compacts it down/helps it rot quicker.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Rectangular, with good well constructed walls, the walls are the key, prevent bulging, you must pull the top of them out before treading down otherwise you start to find the sides creep in and it gets smaller as you get to the top.

Like this, you mean ?

It started out well this spring after the previous muck heap was removed, but its getting away from me now. My knackered back doesn't help me, sometimes I can't push the wheelbarrow up high enough, and I never fork the muck out, just tip the barrow. I do stomp the muck down regularly, though.

We're going to get proper sides made from railway sleepers put in next year, I'm fed up with an untidy heap.

 

[Springate11]

Is it illegal to burn your muck heap? Gotta say mine self combusted in the summer and smolders away all day, everyday. Keeps it down and the smoke doesn't affect anyone. I have only 2 horses on shavings.