Box Blade for manure squisher?

[Dave Pee]

I picked up a Land Pride 5' box blade recently. On U Tube, it looks so easy to clean up a dirt road, for example. Well, not for me!

But let me start with a typical usage question: is the rear facing blade typically only used for blading while in reverse? Or is it typically used to smooth out dirt that the forward blade has dug up; and rear blade squishes the dirt down, while going forward?

Next issue. I now have 3 horses that have free run of the property. They do a great job keeping the grass short on the 10 acres or so. Think I will sell lawn mower.

But they crap all over the place - duh! So I slapped together a weighted section of steel fencing, and drag that over the poop piles, just to spread it out; let it dry fastr; maybe fertilize the grass. Works pretty well, for being free. One annoyance is that I cant back up with it.

So the last questions: think the box blade would be a reasonable manure squisher? Maybe I need to lift the 4 rakes, and angle the whole thing so it is tilted down in the rear, where only the back blade is in contact with the ground?

I know: "don't be so lazy mister - just go try it!" It may be fall, but still too hot in North FLA!

Thank you, men!

 

[Redlands Okie]

Adjusting the top link longer so as to raising the front of the box and only letting the rear facing blade drag on the ground while going forward is a pretty standard prodcedure for smoothing things up. Probably work fine on the manure also. Same adjustment can control how much the front blade digs in for other types of work.
Chain link fence or similar dragged behind the box blade might help also. Would work even better if your pipe was on fastened on top of the fence on one end.

 

[jeff9366]

For spreading manure in pastures the optimal attachment is a Chain Harrow.

You can buy a 4' wide Chain Harrow with three abrasion options from Tractor Supply Co., Agri Supply, or Rural King for <$400.

Adding a <$200 Boom Pole you can lift the Chain Harrow to back up.
LINK: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...c-countyline-tarter-boom-pole.html?highlight=

The optimum form for a Chain Harrow includes a frame.
VIDEO: LIFT CHAIN HARROW - YouTube


Wingfield makes the best framed Chain Harrows for compact tractors.
LINK: Wingfield 3pt tractor harrows provide the operator full control of the chain harrow mat.

 

[majorwager]

Love jeffy's advice as he has Never owned a horse.

Suggest the backblade is not the tool. I have horses however they are restricted to large grass paddocks, not the lawn.

I have two manure tools. The first is a billy goat vacuum w/ a gas engine. Either use the extension hose w/ a helper and the vac is mounted to the FEL, helper walks along and the vac hose does the collection. Same tool collects the fall leaves. Vac impeller grinds manure, leaves and residue rots in a compost pile, or spread on the hay fields via manure spreader.

The second tool is the HD PTO finish mower used to cut the paddocks. When the mower is over the manure droppings, I lower the mower w/ lower links and instant distribution, finely ground manure . A hydraulic top link greatly assists the mower adjustment. A chain harrow will disturb adjacent grass, which I prefer not to do. Harrow does nothing to break down manure, just spreads the mess to adjacent areas. Rotary cutter less effective, blade sweep too wide and blade tip speed too slow. High lift blades work well, convert manure to mulch.

I have a run in shed and much manure is deposited there due to the bug population . Horses hang out in the shed by day aided by a huge cooling fan, and graze at night when bugs, deer flies are less active. The run in shed is scraped clean w/ a skid steer loader every 3 to 4 weeks.

 

[Oldoak]

For use in a pasture, I would also recommend a chain harrow. The teeth on the set I have can be very aggressive when pulled in one direction and less aggressive when hooked up to pull from the opposite end. Plus if flip it over, not aggressive at all. It then acts the same as chain link fencing would. The extra weight of chain harrows and option of spikes make them work much better than chain link fencing.

I also wouldn't worry about scratching up surrounding sod. Along with the horse manure, it can help invigorate grass growth depending upon moisture conditions.

 

[Stimw]

A box blade is not designed for what you want.
They are for spreading/leveling loose dirt and the trick is to adjust the top link so they pick and spread.
Wrong angle and they either dig or skim over the dirt.
As stated, you need a drag to spread the poo.
I was leasing my 10 acre pasture to a guy with 4 horses for 3 years.
He made up a drag from two phone poles 10' long with a piece of fence wire in between with cables between the poles.
I dragged my pasture last spring JUST before 5" of rain and it washed the poo in nicely!
With a drag you crank up the speed and if an area needs more you just hit it again going round and round.
Might want to do it in sections because horses don't like to graze where they poo.

 

[powerscol]

I picked up a Land Pride 5' box blade recently. On U Tube, it looks so easy to clean up a dirt road, for example. Well, not for me!

But let me start with a typical usage question: is the rear facing blade typically only used for blading while in reverse? Or is it typically used to smooth out dirt that the forward blade has dug up; and rear blade squishes the dirt down, while going forward?

Next issue. I now have 3 horses that have free run of the property. They do a great job keeping the grass short on the 10 acres or so. Think I will sell lawn mower.

But they crap all over the place - duh! So I slapped together a weighted section of steel fencing, and drag that over the poop piles, just to spread it out; let it dry fastr; maybe fertilize the grass. Works pretty well, for being free. One annoyance is that I cant back up with it.

So the last questions: think the box blade would be a reasonable manure squisher? Maybe I need to lift the 4 rakes, and angle the whole thing so it is tilted down in the rear, where only the back blade is in contact with the ground?

I know: "don't be so lazy mister - just go try it!" It may be fall, but still too hot in North FLA!

Thank you, men!

For horse poo I use the front bucket and back drag into a windrow and then pick up. I also have a drag harrow I use in the spring. All horse poo get composted for a year then re-spread as needed to fill in low spots, etc

 

[oosik]

I simply can not see Majorwagger using his horse poop vacuum. I laugh so hard I can barely type.

JMHO here - I'd get rid of the horses and sharpen the blades on the lawn mower. And yes - I've had a horse and it was a very real PITA. Sold the darn thing three months after I got it.

Your box blade is not going to be the best tool for spreading horse poop.

Go cheap - - a section of chain link fence. Spend some $$$ - buy and use a dedicated drag harrow.

Adjustment of your top link will allow either the front or rear blade on the box blade to drag and smooth DIRT.

 

[CADplans]

My wife wanted to do the same thing for her horses, so I built an attachment,,
It also worked well for the driveway!

 

[jjp8182]

Unless the area where you're working is really flat it's likely that using a box blade to spread individual piles would result in digging up the grass as well (even if the box blade is adjusted "right"). On the other hand if you're trying to spread out a large pile (say from cleaning out stalls) it'd would handle it just like moving dirt.

"is the rear facing blade typically only used for blading while in reverse? Or is it typically used to smooth out dirt that the forward blade has dug up; and rear blade squishes the dirt down, while going forward?" From what I've seen it's really the rear blade is the most useful when going in reverse; when going forward if it's not a hinged blade on the back it'll also act as a float that limits the depth of material the front blade will remove in a single pass (I've run into that problem trying to remove small mounds/rises of dirt already).

If you tilted it full back and tried to use the back of the rear blade while going forward ....that might be something interesting to try, though I'd think it's possible that the top link may not provide enough adjustment length to tilt the box blade that much??

As others have noted, it's possible to add a boom pole or a frame to lift a chain harrow to be able to back it up which would definitely work. Personally though I recently went the spike harrow option - just came in last week actually. I figured that while it has higher purchase price (was just under <$1300 through my Kubota/Land Pride dealer) than a chain harrow it does allow me to back up into corners without having to wrestle a chain harrow (or add a frame/boom), and it provides a few more setting options (which I've already been playing with dialing things in) which should allow me to tweak things depending on ground & grass conditions when I'm working....

So far it's done exactly what I want on breaking up and spreading the droppings in my pasture (let the neighbors keep horses on it) - I'm hoping it'll work as well for scratching up the surface for grass seed this fall, and with time removing some of the overgrown fire ant hills.

 

[AlaskaL3130]

For spreading manure in pastures the optimal attachment is a Chain Harrow.

Excellent advise. This is what we've used for years. One person operation, inexpensive, near zero maintenance, versatile.