Muck heap-ideas please

Bryndu

Bryndu

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Hi,
My muck heap will be 3 in January and I need a little help with getting my muck on to the muck heap.
It was meant to be spread in the Autumn this year but due to an unexpected growth spurt in the grass, we were unable to get it on to the land in time - hence it is now 3!
My ponies live out 24/7 but come in for exercise/munchies/their own space and are bedded on deep litter Easibed on earth floors, so it is mostly poo going to the muck heap.
My problem is my muck heap is getting taller and the planks I use to wheel up and down are getting increasingly slippery. My heap is about 15m x 15m and 5 foot tall.
The heap is fenced off in it's own grass yard but either way to get to it is up a short incline, but quite steep. The heap is on the flat.
I also have an excellent wheelie which no matter how you fill it, it stays balanced, but pushing it up above waist height is getting difficult. I have tried grading the incline on the muck heap but this is not too successful with slippery planks.
Any ideas at all would be gratefully received.
Thanks for reading:)
Bryndu
 
Have you thought of advertising Dig Your Own Mature Horse Muck in your local free paper.

The other option is treading down the heap, squaring the sides, and using a pitchfork to throw up muck making one part higher, with ramps, and reducing a section to a manageable height.

A friend gives her muck to a guy with a very large garden just round the corner. She puts it straight on to a trailer when she mucks out and when it's full he comes round with a tractor and takes it away.

Good luck.
 
martlin said:
hmmm, mine is a giant one and I get my neighbour to come with his JCB periodically and just turn it/pile it up a bit for me, it is about 12-15ft high in part.
Click to expand...

How do you get the muck on to your heap after the JCB has mashed it down?
Bryndu
 
festivecheer said:
Have you thought of advertising Dig Your Own Mature Horse Muck in your local free paper.

The other option is treading down the heap, squaring the sides, and using a pitchfork to throw up muck making one part higher, with ramps, and reducing a section to a manageable height.

A friend gives her muck to a guy with a very large garden just round the corner. She puts it straight on to a trailer when she mucks out and when it's full he comes round with a tractor and takes it away.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks
We hope to spread it next Autumn, but I will try the 'paper idea' to get rid of some.
The manageable height thing is what I try to achieve but still struggle with the slippy planks!:)
Bryndu
 
Here in France I have the luxury of having mine cleared every 4-6 weeks by a local farmer - but I do have 13 horses/foals!!

In Scotland, I had just three horses and had no trouble giving it away. One client was a TV chef who's wife had an organic vedg garden. I did turn it so that it was well rotted. What wasn't taken by friends and neighbours went onto my vedg garden.

In France, I have raised beds for my vedg. Manure on the bottom and compost on the top. In spite of -6deg at night I have kept Coriander alive outside. Squashes are hungry feeders. If you plant courgettes and pumpkins on your manure they will break it down into fantastic compost. This year one pumpkin plant - cost about £1 produced 9 huge pumpkins.
 
Bryndu said:
How do you get the muck on to your heap after the JCB has mashed it down?
Bryndu
Click to expand...
Well, my muck heap is about 10x20m, I started with just randomly dumping wheelbarrows of muck in that area, then when I started to struggle up the ''banks'', I got the neighbour to come and scrape the front 10m and put the muck on top of the back 10m, and so on. So every time he comes to pile it up for me, I get an area of floor exposed where I dump the muck from my wheelbarrow, until it becomes difficult, then the neighbour comes and... you get the picture :D
 
martlin said:
Well, my muck heap is about 10x20m, I started with just randomly dumping wheelbarrows of muck in that area, then when I started to struggle up the ''banks'', I got the neighbour to come and scrape the front 10m and put the muck on top of the back 10m, and so on. So every time he comes to pile it up for me, I get an area of floor exposed where I dump the muck from my wheelbarrow, until it becomes difficult, then the neighbour comes and... you get the picture :D
Click to expand...

Ah ha... me feels a spot of tractor driving comin on!:)
Ta
Bryndu
 
Rollin said:
Here in France I have the luxury of having mine cleared every 4-6 weeks by a local farmer - but I do have 13 horses/foals!!

In Scotland, I had just three horses and had no trouble giving it away. One client was a TV chef who's wife had an organic vedg garden. I did turn it so that it was well rotted. What wasn't taken by friends and neighbours went onto my vedg garden.

In France, I have raised beds for my vedg. Manure on the bottom and compost on the top. In spite of -6deg at night I have kept Coriander alive outside. Squashes are hungry feeders. If you plant courgettes and pumpkins on your manure they will break it down into fantastic compost. This year one pumpkin plant - cost about £1 produced 9 huge pumpkins.
Click to expand...

As a newbie veggie grower, I am liking this one a lot - thanks:)
Bryndu
 
We've done the courgettes and pumpkins on the muck heap. if you have rabbits in the area grow the seeds in pots first and then plant out, and, the rabbits don't seem to find the plants if they are on the top of the heap rather than ground level.
 
festivecheer said:
We've done the courgettes and pumpkins on the muck heap. if you have rabbits in the area grow the seeds in pots first and then plant out, and, the rabbits don't seem to find the plants if they are on the top of the heap rather than ground level.
Click to expand...

Thanks:)
Bryndu
 
We had rabbit pie last night,shot,short gutted,skinned,then cooked ,cooled ,deboned carrots[of course]added,onions,celery and braised,then topped with pastry,with bunnies on top .delcious..!!!!
 
Love the idea of growing squashes on the muck heap rather than the compost heap! Will have to put electric fencing up to keep pony away.
 
You could aways build a house inside the muck heap !! Well if no one has complained about the size and niff of it yet, the council wont even know ;)

On a serious note though, we had ours removed by the local farmer for £10... was gone in a couple of hours... bliss !!! Now we use tractor and muck trailer and empty it every week or so up the lane on his concrete pad.
 
ditto trying local farmers. Our vet practice is on a farm and we dump all of ours with the lot from the cows, he then spreads it.
 
I love a muck heap challenge! Have you got a piccy and then we can see the art of the possible? Steps is usually a good idea but not sure if you've already got those?
 
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