Paddock hoovers vs. Paddock sweepers (vs. fork & wheelbarrow!) ???????

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ktw_240

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Hi, I am off to look at a second hand paddock sweeper today
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, but have been thrown into some confusion as to how well they work! Does anyone have experience of them, or even paddock hoovers? I am worried that they might only work on very short grass? Does anyone know of any particular good or bad points / models to recommend, or ones to avoid? Hoping retire the fork and wheelbarrow, or is this a pipe dream?!!!
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Hugely grateful for any advice / experiences! Thank you!!!
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I was told that they severely increase the risk of grass sickness.
they are effective but not as good as poop scoop. some places use them, i prefer using the tractor with poo scoop lol
 
we have a terravac hoover and would seriously not be without it now, its a god send, our pasture is much improved as its so much quicker and easier to clear it. we tried a sweeper and found with the slightest bit of damp it just smeared it all over the field, however in dry weather i imagine it would be much improved. also it didnt cope well with long grass which the hoover is much better at. not heard about the grass sickness comment but thats rather worrying!
 
I use the terravac hoover & there is a sweeper on the yard too. The hoover is a 2 person job with quad. Sweeper one on big tractor.
Hoover is handy though gets fully quickly, also on long grass droppings I usually try & tred the grass down with my feet to stop it sucking up & stopping the dropping from going!

Never heard the grass sickness theory & can not see how really as you are only picking dropping up???

When done dry emptying the trailer it is lovely fine crumbly poo! Would be fab for a garden!
 
Oooh... interesting points! The grass sickness aspect sounds a bit awful
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, although - does this article mean you have to have HAD grass sickness on your land? Never had grass sickness on this land (its only been my horses and just sheep for years before that). Seems to indicate that it effects re-occurence rather than cause it? Maybe a hoover is the way to go! The foot note at the end of the article makes a good point.

Grass sickness aside, does anyone have good news about the sweepers? Or any bad news about the hoovers? Someone said the pipes can clog? Can you tell I am desperate to give up breaking my back poo-picking
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?!!!! I have a quad I can tow from, or a 4x4, or a tractor if necessary, but would rather not have to run that over the ground all the time!

Um... particulary classy question... but how does the hoover deal with "runny poos"??!! Lets just say my filly can be rather excitable!!
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We used to poo pick by hand, but as we're a stud, and have also had a small child in recent years, we have now too many ponies & too little time to do that anymore!

We had a poo hoover, which was absolutely brilliant in terms of saving back breaking. Up sides were that it was physically easier, and truly did suck up almost everything, was still pretty good in long grass, and could also be used to do water troughs in just minutes - brilliant! Down sides were that once a field got wet/muddy, you couldn't use it, as you had to attach it to something to tow it - and that (we used a small tractor mower) either couldn't grip, or if you put suitable gripping tyres on it - it would churn up the paddock! Sometimes the tube would block - actually quite often, especially with bigger poos. It also needed emptying - tho it was one you tipped to empty, it would never empty totally, so you'd have to shovel some. And finally, it wasn't actually any quicker than doing the poo by hand!

We've just upgraded to a paddock sweeper. I spoke to my vet about the GS risk, and he said in our area, the risk was pretty low indeed, and he didn't consider it significant - I hope he's right! Upside is the ease of use - sit on tractor, and pull it around the paddock! No more hopping on & off the tractor endlessly! It is quicker, and easier by far. We're finding it much easier to keep on top of the poo now. Downsides - it isn't very good in long grass, especially if poo isn't fresh. It also isn't so good if you have starvation type paddocks - really pulls the ground up. It also is something you have to use carefully in wet weather - too wet & it won't sweep poo up or it pulls up the field. You also have to get the brush level just right. Also when disposing of the poo, it is easy to empty the poo out, but you then need to shovel it up onto a heap!

In an ideal world, we'd combine a paddock sweeper with a poo hoover & also doing it by hand, along with resting paddocks for longer & having ruminant grazers on site. But this isn't an ideal world, so we've had to sell the hoover to pay for the sweeper, and when we can't use it, I'll be out there with a barrow! And one day we'll have sheep/alpacas.
 
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