Emergency Muck Out

The normal routine of feeding the cattle was disrupted the other morning when my husband went to feed the cattle and was faced with a leaking water trough. The cattle must have knocked the drinking trough and broken the plastic. Water had been gushing out for some time and the fold yard was nearly a wash with muck and water, yes, that’ll be ‘mucky water!!’. The cattle were all standing at the front of the fold yard trying not to get their hooves wet! They were not very happy and neither were the farmers because the yard wasn’t due for a muck out until the following week and the broken drinking trough had brought the job forward.

Broken Drinking Trough

Firstly the water needed to be turned off to stop the yard becoming completely flooded. (Not convenient for the farmer’s wife going about her housewifely duties!) Then the cattle needed to be moved to one half of the yard whilst the other half was mucked out. This all sounds straight forward but extra fences were needed to pen the cattle in on one side of the yard and the fences in question where at the other farm. So off the farmers went in the landrover, returning later with the trailer loaded with fences.

Once the fences were in place, the cattle were moved and the mucking out began. It doesn’t sound like a long job, but with only two farmers it can take nearly all day.

Cattle Being Mucked Out

The muck was scooped out with the teleporter and put into a trailer and then when they had a full load the muck was tipped onto the land, allowing the lovely aroma of cattle muck to waft through the countryside.

When one half of the yard had been cleared a bale was rolled out to give the cows bedding for them to stand and sit on. The cattle were then moved to the other side of the yard and the process was repeated. I can tell you it was an awful lot of muck that needed to be removed and the two farmers were very tired (and smelly) when they had finished. 

A new water trough was ordered, collected and installed all in the same day and everything returned to normal in the fold yard……….that is until a cow was spotted getting ready to calve and the the emergency muck out was swapped for an emergency assisted calving as the calf was very big and the cow was struggling to calve on her own.  

Newborn Charolais Calf