Please don't put rubbish on your muck heaps

[SEL]

And expect farmers to remove them!!

Just spoken to the farmer who used to remove mine and he's not doing it any more because of the amount of junk he was finding when he came to spread it. I'm hoping I've persuaded him to do me a favour (although I'll be paying) because mine is pretty much all poo and a bit of bedding but listening to why he's given up I don't blame him.

Hoof picks and muck spreaders don't mix and nor does baling twine or large bits of tree......

 

[Rowreach]

It drives me (and farmer son) mad. I'm a bit precious about managing muck heaps at the best of times, and very particular about what goes on them.

 

[meleeka]

I got mine removed recently and the amount of rubbish in it horrified me. It was there long before me, so over 25 years old. The farmer said he just wouldn’t take it if it had glass in, so I presume he goes through it manually before using.

 

[dorsetladette]

I don't get why people put rubbish on muck heaps! just lazy dumping rubbish in your wheelbarrow and not dustbin.

But them I do have to confess of loosing a few hoof picks in along the way. Empty your hoof picking bucket in to the wheelbarrow and hay presto the hoof pick disappears for ever - or until it gets stuck in the pitch fork while chucking it up on the muck heap.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I always cringe at what go’s on the muck heap at work. The worst and most regular being poultices/ bandages and bandage tape.
I’m only there on the weekend and chuck any stuff like that I’m the bin before the yard is swept. Otherwise it all ends up in the muck heap.
OH removes mine and if not dare put anything on it other than straw and poo!
Apparently even large amounts of hay cause issues and got me into trouble once!

 

[Nasicus]

When I took over the little private place I used to have, the muck heap already there was quite old and unsightly, so me being the idiot I am got to work digging it up and straightening it out. The absolute rubbish I found in there was ridiculous! Glad I did it after all, as it meant I could pay for removal with a clean conscious!

 

[Sealine]

But them I do have to confess of loosing a few hoof picks in along the way. Empty your hoof picking bucket in to the wheelbarrow and hay presto the hoof pick disappears for ever - or until it gets stuck in the pitch fork while chucking it up on the muck heap.

If you attach the hoof pick to the bucket with a piece of string this can be avoided.

 

[Surbie]

YO is very strict about what goes on ours. Even hair from clipping has to be taken home. I can understand why. I have lost at least one hoofpick to muckheaps over the years though!

The last yard I was on didn't have the same rules - coffee cups, baling twine, any old gubbins went on. I did feel sorry for the farmer.

 

[Lois Lame]

I'm surprised about the hair - but I suppose it gets tangled in machinery. Hair is excellent for compost.

 

[Dave's Mam]

We had folk chucking dog poo bags on ours. Once spotted that got short shrift.

 

[Orangehorse]

I was at Hartpury for a show where you tip your wheelbarrow over a big drop into the muck collecting trailers far below. I watched with horror as something that shouldn't have been there - a brush or hoof pick or something, I can't remember exactly - disappeared into the void far below along with the shaving. I felt very guilty but didn't confess.

 

[MissTyc]

I have one muck heap for just poo. I won't allow bedding (maybe a few barrows of aubiose per year!) or hay, etc. Recently a livery's daughter (12) threw a bag of crisps on top of what is basically a small pile of rotting poo. I hauled her up of course but her explanation was "it's the rubbish heap, isn't it?" ... With attitudes like that, we are doomed.

 

[Chappie]

Wow, really disappointing to hear some other yards do this too... thought it was just the low standards at the one I'm at... one or two things by accident, okay, it happens... but deliberate? No way! I have to drag rubbish out of our muck heap regularly - the YO is the worst for it.
I thought it might be an old-fashioned generational thing, but no, the kids and young adults, who get taught about the environment at school, are the same. Clear out their storage areas and chuck it all on the muck heap. Haynets, vi vis, grooming tools, clothes, masses of sweet wrappers and plastic bottles and cans. When our bonfire site is beside the heap - in fact you have to pass it.

Don't people know or care that the muck heap is spread on fields to make OUR FOOD? What about microplastics in the environment, causing cancer? Plus it's disgusting and disrespectful to the environment.

However the farmer himself is going to have a problem with the spreader in spring - he bulldozed a fork and a shovel into the heap when he moved it back earlier in the year - why he didn't get out the cab or call someone to move them I do not know. Last year the machines were junked up with baler twine and carpet, they had to get a mechanic out to deal with it, took hours, they lost the day to it. He left the baler and carpet in the field, where it would cause a problem when they came to plough - guess who was the only one bothered to drag it to the bonfire site, where it should of been in the first place?! I guess I was a Womble in a previous life!

Some of the big influencers on social media could highlight the environmental aspect - not glam I know, but they seem to be the only people anyone takes notice of!

 

[toppedoff]

I have one muck heap for just poo. I won't allow bedding (maybe a few barrows of aubiose per year!) or hay, etc. Recently a livery's daughter (12) threw a bag of crisps on top of what is basically a small pile of rotting poo. I hauled her up of course but her explanation was "it's the rubbish heap, isn't it?" ... With attitudes like that, we are doomed.

We had someone at the RS was doing work experience at say she wouldn't of thrown her rubbish in if the bin wasn't so far away

The bin is in the office which is on a court yard on less than 25 stables..... we are very much doomed!

 

[MidChristmasCrisis]

It’s a symptom of a lack of knowledge as to what muck heaps are made/used for I think. Even on the small clued up yard I’m on I’ve had to remove ragwort and wet wipes from the heap. On previous yards I’ve watched plastics of all kinds dumped in it.

 

[Sealine]

It doesn't matter how many times people are told by yard owner I still see string on the muck heap. My eye is drawn to it and I can't leave it there. Our YO is very strict about what we can put in the bins. String and feed/bedding bags only. YO goes through the bins to check too.

YO changes their mind from one year to the next whether we should put ragwort on the muck heap or in the bin area. Whatever I do it's wrong!

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

I have to pick out everything that shouldn’t be in the muck heap even though I don’t own or run the yard I can’t bear it. I also go through the recycling in to take out non recyclables, last night I took out a load of cotton wool that had been used for wound cleaning and some foil wrappers. This is despite massive signs with what can and cannot be put in them being taped to the lids. I have a handy litter picker to reach the bottom.

On the hoof pick front I have visions of archaeologists finding them in fields in the future and wondering why they are there I have to confess to a number disappearing over the years although I’m not sure whether they went on the muck heap or not.

 

[Rowreach]

I always cringe at what go’s on the muck heap at work. The worst and most regular being poultices/ bandages and bandage tape.
I’m only there on the weekend and chuck any stuff like that I’m the bin before the yard is swept. Otherwise it all ends up in the muck heap.
OH removes mine and if not dare put anything on it other than straw and poo!
Apparently even large amounts of hay cause issues and got me into trouble once!

I made myself very unpopular when I got staff on a large yard (I helped too) to remove large quantities of haylage from the muck trailer - the horses wouldn't eat it (wisely) so it was just getting mucked out straight into the muck trailer and the farmer quite rightly refused to take it.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I made myself very unpopular when I got staff on a large yard (I helped too) to remove large quantities of haylage from the muck trailer - the horses wouldn't eat it (wisely) so it was just getting mucked out straight into the muck trailer and the farmer quite rightly refused to take it.

Yes, I guess it’s just something you’d not think about really. I believe it bungs the muck spreaders up.

 

[Rowreach]

Yes, I guess it’s just something you’d not think about really. I believe it bungs the muck spreaders up.

And it stops everything rotting down properly, takes far longer. Same with mane and tail hair (coat clippings are okay, although I tend to put them in the bin).

 

[SDMabel]

Bailer twine is the the bane of other halfs life....

loves to get tangled up on the rotor , meaning he must clamber out and cut pooey bailer twine from around the rotor of the spreader

 

[poiuytrewq]

Bailer twine is the the bane of other halfs life....

loves to get tangled up on the rotor , meaning he must clamber out and cut pooey bailer twine from around the rotor of the spreader

Especially as I believe it’s recyclable. We are able to out it in with spray cartons (plastic) here which go for recycling.

 

[SEL]

I made myself very unpopular when I got staff on a large yard (I helped too) to remove large quantities of haylage from the muck trailer - the horses wouldn't eat it (wisely) so it was just getting mucked out straight into the muck trailer and the farmer quite rightly refused to take it.

I have to say no large quantities of hay on mine - but it's great for mulching muddy gateway's instead.

 

[Ratface]

We've got two huge muck trailers for the straw bedding, which is the main bedding used at Old Horse's yard. Anything else - cans, plastic, baler twine, biscuit wrappers, goes in a plastic feed bag and I take it back to the boatyard and put it in the appropriate bins there.

 

[Kunoichi73]

We had someone at the RS was doing work experience at say she wouldn't of thrown her rubbish in if the bin wasn't so far away

The bin is in the office which is on a court yard on less than 25 stables..... we are very much doomed!

We've got staff in work who've dropped rubbish on the floor next to the bin and left it there, so frankly there's no hope if that's the attitude of some people!

 

[Chappie]

Same at the yard I'm at - I just don't get that attitude at all! Then they sit surrounded their own litter - weird!