I currently have a dump cart, collect poop and dump and spread. But rented a weekly dumpster as there is no where left to spread. What is the best option to get manure into dumpster? Dump and Shovel? Bucket in cart to lift and dump? Looking for some good ideas. It’s really tall so a ramp is out I think.
Your dumpster does not have a swing gate end so you can roll up into and dump like that?
If not, can you ask for that type for future use?
Use the FEL loader of your tractor to lift and dump the manure over the side? (If you have a tractor with a FEL?)
Can the dumpster be placed next to a natural slope to allow a ramp to be built?
Anything manual sounds hellish!
3 Likes
Unfortunately I only have 2 horses and one mini, so no tractor. Manual is going to be not fun but it’s a small load morning and night. And since I am in the desert there is no slope…that would be nice though.
My (boarding) barn went to big dumpster 2 years ago. It has a swing open gate and also BO built a ramp to platform almost 3’ high. Works great - wheelbarrow in the open gate or muck cart up the ramp. Only maybe 20 " from ramp to top of dumpster so easy lift and dump.
@Amym600 The people I know that happen to use a dumpster mostly have the swing gate like I mentioned above. The one person I know who does not have the swing gate uses muck buckets to clean and dumps them over wall. It takes some getting used to and there will be the occasional need to climb in to retrieve a muck bucket.
We looked at a dumpster but was advised by our trash pickup (twice a week) if the stuff was bagged less than 50# per bag they would pick up as regular trash (no limit to number of bags).
We only have three horses, one pony and three miniatures so this doable for us, We just bag the manure, the wet bedding we spread
2 Likes
Huh, I didn’t even think to ask that. That may work fine and dandy to add a second trash bin or twice weekly pickup. And solves the problem of people driving by and dumping in it.
“In the desert”, if it is like here, manure is so dry and light after sitting there a few hours, your buckets should most times be light enough to lift and dump them by hand?
Use one or two manure carts and buckets, don’t fill them full, easy to wheel to the dumpster.
Some times I put buckets on the pickup tailgate for transport, like those used to clean in the covered arena and parking lot.
Would make dumping into trash bin very easy when already half way up there.
We have a large dumpster (top loading) for manure (3 horses), I just shovel it in with the manure fork from the manure cart, it’s twice the workout but I don’t mind it.
Thanks, that’s seems to be the ticket. When I called about adding extra pickup or container it’s almost as much as a dumpster…
Wheelbarrow
Could fasten baling twine to one of the handles, hang on to that when dumping to prevent this. I have twine on my muck bucket for dragging purposes anyway.
I just got a 4 yard dumpster (top load, the gate ones are temp rental only) this week for my two here at home. I use a wagon with the muck bucket in it, clean, and use my other trash bin as a platform. So lift bucket from wagon onto trash bin then dump into dumpster. Works well so far.
1 Like
We have a ramp that goes up to a platform and the dumpster is backed against it.
My favorite way to use a dumpster (though may be pricy depending on your layout) is to have a retaining wall platform built into a hill the same height as your dumpster, then you can dump the wheelbarrow from the top of the retaining wall right into the dumpster with zero lifting required.
If you are only doing a few stalls, I put the manure into trash bags in muck tub, and the wet goes out to a pile to break down. Trash guys don’t mind, and I never forget them at Christmas!
We have a swing gate dumpster that is loaded via wheelbarrow and than pushed up by the tractor. Once we can’t push it any more, my boss built a ramp that we could conceivably drive a side by side up. Its sturdy, steady and way too bloody steep. Pushing an overflowing wheelbarrow up that ramp is like trying to push a boulder up Mount Vesuvius. To reach the dumpster from the top of the ramp there are metal plates that we drop down. They hook on the side of the dumpster and make a safe pushing off point to allow the manure to fall in.
It was the best investment they made to make the dumpster work. However I hate that ramp. I can’t see a better way to do it (also on flat ground). It doesn’t change that I hate(and kinda love) that ramp.
Where I worked in my 20s we mucked into smallish rubbermaid tubs, used a hand truck to drag them out to the dumpster and then dump them in. It wasn’t wonderful, but it wasn’t horrible either. I didn’t throw any away and got in the best shape of my life that year!
Ah… you need a ManureMaster 2000.
Before I lost my mind and bought a 50 horse boarding stable, I kept a few horses at my old house and we had a 3 cu yard dumpster for manure. Basic dumpster, the kind featured in cartoons for the last four years whenever there were dumpster fire cartoons- two flappy lids and a metal box about 4 x 8’ with a depth of about 6’.
So the ManureMaster was a thing I had made up by a local welding shop out of 1" square steel tubing that kind of hung like a ladder down the front of the dumpster. It had a framed step welded on that stuck out from the lowest rung which was about 18" below the lip of the dumpster.
The thing is, the wheel of a wheelbarrow doesn’t need to be the height of the dumpster lip to dump in; only the lip of the wheelbarrow needs to clear the lip of the dumpster. So the ManureMaster lets you hang a motorcycle-hauling ramp off the front of your dumpster and run the wheelbarrow up that ramp (with you straddling the ramp) and then the wheelbarrow wheel plops into the framed step of the ManureMaster so the wheel can’t move, and you just flip the entire wheelbarrow full of poop into the dumpster!
Because the ManureMaster hangs by gravity over the front of the dumpster you can just nudge it right or left on the dumpster lip to allow for nice, even deposits of manure all along the width of the dumpster.
This system worked great for me for about ten years, until I moved to the aforementioned commercial stable where we have 20’ roll off boxes for manure. They have doors and present an entire new set of problems involving tractors, pitchforks, tarps, and bungee cords. Oh, and aluminum ramps from the concrete loading dock across the chasm to the roll off boxes.
The only flaw to the ManureMaster 2000 is you need to be at least about 5’ 6" tall with proportionate legs, and pretty strong (like most #HorseGirls) to perfect the straddle 'n flip move. I’m tall so it was very easy, and boy did I feel smug every time I made gravity put the manure in that dumpster!
1 Like
