cutipacker for breaking up manure in pasture?

[Haneyman]

If you are going to free range chickens feed your cattle some whole (not cracked) corn it will go right through undigested and the chickens will scratch the cow patties apart digging for the corn.
They are great at eating fly larvae too if you have enough of them

 

[oosik]

That rake is 7 feet wide, and I can easily pull it with my JD 650 which is only 14 pto horsepower.
I was using it behind the JD 4105 in that pic because I had to go down the road a ways,,
the 4105 goes faster on the road.
That rake is also phenomenal for gravel,, and then,, for a little snow,,,,,,,,,,,,

either tractor will pull the rake,,,,,,

Hey - that rake does great on your snow.

 

[oosik]

I made a "drag". Tow it behind my ATV. One side is spiked - other side is smooth. Tear things up - smooth things out.

 

[Elviscaretaker]

If you are going to free range chickens feed your cattle some whole (not cracked) corn it will go right through undigested and the chickens will scratch the cow patties apart digging for the corn.
They are great at eating fly larvae too if you have enough of them

The corn is a good idea. I haven't been told yet how many chickens there will be I figure it'll need to bee a few hundred of them and unless I get a night scope, maybe 30-40 will survive the coyotes and fox's. My wife wants to do electric poultry fence, but each paddock is about 2 acres. That starts to add up up.....

 

[Joe Batt]

The corn is a good idea. I haven't been told yet how many chickens there will be I figure it'll need to bee a few hundred of them and unless I get a night scope, maybe 30-40 will survive the coyotes and fox's. My wife wants to do electric poultry fence, but each paddock is about 2 acres. That starts to add up up.....

We buy 12 chicks about every 3 years. First year we keep them in. About halfway through the second year I get fed up buying chicken food and run out of friends to unload eggs on, so we let the hens free range. Then we start loosing about 1 hen/month to coyotes.

 

[Fallon]

We had a lot more flies with 1-2 dozen chickens behind the house than without. Flies (and the dog) liked the chicken poop. Im sure the chickens ate some of the flies, but enough survived & flourished. Much smaller fly problem in the past few years without the chickens.

Not sure how the equation would work if you already had a fly problem due to cow manure.

 

[Haneyman]

The corn is a good idea. I haven't been told yet how many chickens there will be I figure it'll need to bee a few hundred of them and unless I get a night scope, maybe 30-40 will survive the coyotes and fox's. My wife wants to do electric poultry fence, but each paddock is about 2 acres. That starts to add up up.....

Build a good ,tight coop and put them up at night will do wonders towards keeping them alive

 

[Haneyman]

We had a lot more flies with 1-2 dozen chickens behind the house than without. Flies (and the dog) liked the chicken poop. Im sure the chickens ate some of the flies, but enough survived & flourished. Much smaller fly problem in the past few years without the chickens.

Not sure how the equation would work if you already had a fly problem due to cow manure.

Keep them in a coop at night with sufficient litter
let them free range during the day so poop isn’t concentrated

 

[Fallon]

Keep them in a coop at night with sufficient litter
let them free range during the day so poop isn’t concentrated

Ya, that's what we did. Free ranged over a couple acres & cooped up at night with good litter. The wife (her chickens, not mine) could have been more diligent on cleaning the coop, but it wasn't horrible.

Noticed an uptick in flis when the chickens showed up. Then hardly any flies the past couple years without chickens. Not swarms of flies, but enough to be noticeable & get into the house.

 

[CADplans]

Build a good ,tight coop and put them up at night will do wonders towards keeping them alive

I built this coop about 20 years ago,, zero maintenance other than cleaning out the enclosed area once or twice a year.
We have never lost a chicken that was in this coop.

My wife did re-stain the exterior last summer, it looks like new now. The steel roof feeds into a gutter.
the runoff from the gutter goes into a large water tub.

I dump that tub about twice a year, Otherwise, the coop supplies all the needed water.