Muck! Trailers, heaps what do u have?

ElleSkywalkingintheair

ElleSkywalkingintheair

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Morning,

Dispite having horses at home for that last 11 years in various rented places, we have never had to start a muck heap from scratch, current property has a heap that is constructed with tin sheeting and the base of heap is hard core with mud/muck on top.

We are hopefully moving soon and new property doesn't have a designated muck heap. The current owners just had a sprawling one behind stables. For various reasons we don't want the muck heap to be in the same place and are thinking of having it in next field by hedge line as is easier access for removal.

Concrete base is not likely to happen this year due to funds, so any thinking either hard core underneath and railway sleeper sides, or getting a very old tipping trailer so that whoever empties it for us just needs to hitch up and go.

So lovely HHO-ers, what do u all have? To give you idea of scale/size needed I have 5 horses, so 5 stables of muck in winter (wood pellets) and 3 stables mucked plus poo picking in summer.

Is there such a thing in this country as renting a muck trailer and getting it emptied by a company?

Tea for all :) Elle
 
I have 3 horses and heap (approx 8m x 8m) and a 2.5T trailer. I keep the trailer at the barn as the heap is a distance away. I also deliver muck to a friend with an allotment. We can fill a 2.5T trailer at the barn in the summer (one muck a day) in 3 weeks.
 
that is a very large amount of muck for a trailer unless you can get it very regularly emptied. Also don't forget if it is emptied often then the tractor may chew up the field as it goes to collect the trailor in a wet winter. Obviously dependent on siting, soil type and drainage. In the worst scenario not only are you dependent on a helpful farmer but also you could end up with a lot of deep tractor ruts.
 
tescoexpress said:
I have 3 horses and heap (approx 8m x 8m) and a 2.5T trailer. I keep the trailer at the barn as the heap is a distance away.
Click to expand...

Similar here . . . two ponies, two horses and a tip-up trailer that gets tractored to the muck heap as and when required - usually a couple of times a week.

P
 
tescoexpress said:
I have 3 horses and heap (approx 8m x 8m) and a 2.5T trailer. I keep the trailer at the barn as the heap is a distance away.
Click to expand...

Similar here . . . two ponies, two horses and a tip-up trailer that gets tractored to the muck heap as and when required - usually a couple of times a week.

P
 
We have five (four horses and a 14hh) and a c four ton tip-up trailer which gets emptied about every three weeks in the winter. However, we bed on wood pellets so not too much bedding goes on - around two-and-half barrows per day.

The same trailer goes in the field for the summer and is emptied when necessary - three times since April this year and will now probably last nearly until they come in at the end of October.
 
We have 1 horse and 2 ponies and have a muck heap about 100 yards from the stable, which we empty (onto the garden/veg patch) in the summer. Its 1 pallet deep and 2 wide but our horses are on rubber matting and a tiny bit of shavings. We also have a pile in the corner of each field, 3 fields of about 2 acres each which we have never emptied yet (only been here 30 years!) they just rot down; we use these heaps for poo picking the fields.
 
Our hay man will supply his customers with a muck trailer if they need one and then charges them whenever he empties it (think it's about £40), If we ever manage to have the horses at home this is what I will probably do but will make sure I choose bedding that rots down well and ensure it is firmly packed in so I have to empty it as little as possible.

Poorly kept muck heaps irritate me, illogical I know but......................... It used to really frustrate me when our yard has a muck heap near our stables, only one or two of us ever actually chucked our muck up, everyone else just tipped their barrows and left it!
 
I had a 3 pallets width heap divided in to bins a pallet wide, with two stables deep littered. I use hemp, or chopped rape. I treat them like compost bins, as they are solid sides you can climb up and compress the muck down. It rots in about 3 months if wet and looks like compost in spring then I just advertise and someone will always come and collect.
I now have a half straw heap which is a pain and had to deep litter my barn on straw so I need a farmer to come and clear it which is like getting Christmas to come. I can not wait to get back to my bins but I can not decide where to put them.

Depending who you are renting off there rules for muck heaps, if its on soil you have to map where it is and move it every two years.
https://www.gov.uk/keeping-horses-on-farms
 
Railway sleepers as sides and hard core as a base. Mine live out 24/7 365 days a year. I only use the stables if I need too and at feed times.

I harrow the fields every 6 weeks during the summer to clear the droppings. Poo pick the winter field during the winter.

My muck heap is cleared once a year by a local farmer £120 each load.

I have 5 horses and the stables are bedded down with shavings, we also have a field shelter that has a hard core base and shavings are put down on that.
 
Jumping up and down on the muck heap is a great help, and the whole family can get involved in that!!

I like a tidy muckheap too, I am old school and was brought up to sweep the grass so that it all goes in the same direction too :-)
 
Thanks for that link honetpot :)

I'd love a trailer but not seems that is have too much muck really and the ruts etc caused by tractors to empty would drive me mad!

Heap it is then. Going to look at house again at weekend so will have a good think about where we will put it etc.

Does anyone have any pics of their sleeper or similar home built muck heaps?

How sad am I that I want to see pictures of poop!
 
Mine is 10ft wide & I have 3 large fence posts in with a wide (5ft?) sheet of tin roofing on its side. as the 'back wall'.
Same on the left hand side.
(when heap is empty, I use a couple of old fence posts to prop the back & side up till there is enough muck to ohld them up again :)
Sleepers make up the RH side tho only half way & 2 x half sleepers at the front. Hardcore base.
Have got only 2, but I periodically stamp the heap down hard - and sculpt levels etc :o
When its ready to go, its usually around 4 to 5 ft high and a 10 x 10 square.
My farmer mate collects usually in early November & again in April - when I bellow at him that it 'really really' needs collecting!

Next door run similar for 3 & they have 3 collections a year.

I do poo-pick & also have them in in the worst of the winter.

When I had 8 or so in, then the heap was double the size, but still only went 3 times a year.
 
We use a trailer (old tipping one) which is emptied probably very fortnight or so, maybe longer (5 or 6 horses in at night on wood pellets) If you use a trailer, try to site it where it is easy to push the barrow onto it as it's a pain having to fork it all out of the barrow up into the trailer. If you use a ramp try to lay a piece of rubber or old carpet down on it, I've known several people slip and badly hurt themselves in wet weather. If you're in a farming area you could try asking a farmer/contractor if you could hire a silage trailer which would have high sides so would probably only need emptying 2 or 3 times over the winter. You can get proper muck trailers which have an inbuilt ramp and high sides, if it was twenty years ago, I'd be very tempted!
http://www.easterbytrailers.co.uk/easterby-manure-trailers.htm
http://www.farmtrailers.co.uk/muck.pdf
http://www.cotswoldfarm.co.uk/files/Manuals/90.pdf
 
I have a little Ifor Williams tipper, about 8'x4', works off its own battery. It lives between the stables and field so handy for both. It needs emptying about every 4-5 days (for 3 horses- about the same whether they are in or out). I tow it with my Discovery and tip it on a neighbouring farmer's huge heap.

It is a slight drag having to empty it so frequently, but I really like having no muckheap, and being self- sufficient for trailer emptying
 
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