I am getting older and I am trying to work smarter and not harder so I automate everything I can. And no double efforts. If I muck into the manure spreader it gets backed into the barn and I muck directly into it. If I am using muck tubs - they get filled and slid into the tractor bucket that carries them out to the back corner of the pasture and the tractor bucket dumps them. Back pre tractor I only had two horses and I would push the wheelbarrow up the hill and across the pasture. But now I have a third horse that will not poop outside and the rationalization that this is great exercise is lost on me. I don’t care that I am getting fitter. I can use that finite energy in better ways these days.
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I just switched to a Gorilla dump cart and won’t go back - it has a handle or you could hitch it to a lawn tractor/atv if desired. I do have a muck tub cart and a wheelbarrow - so far the dump cart is definitely my favorite. My only complaint is that it only dumps to 90 degrees so I do have to do the work to get that last tiny little bit out on every dump. Worth it.
I use muck buckets. I dump or set the buckets into my wee dump trailer. When I’m doing paddocks I might have the buckets in the bed of the golf cart so I can pick into the wee dump trailer and the buckets before having to drive to the poop pile.
I am “Team Muck Bucket”
I like being able to move it around the stall and I never fill it too much. We dump into a little ground driven manure spreader driven by a lawn tractor, so we only have to lift it about 2 feet up. Works fine for my mid-30’s year old back. Manure is spread throughout the fields…no manure pile.
Now my neighbor who I farm sit for…she has a manure pile. I wouldn’t do her 3 stalls without a wheelbarrow since she has no way to get waste to her pile (she turns her pile regularly and has a composting system). It all depends on farm design.
Can you share the brand? I’m searching for a wee dump trailer in which I can collect a few days worth of manure then later dump into my compost pile, but can only find monster big ones (for $$$)
I got it at Tractor Supply, but I don’t recall the brand. It’s not the best at actual dumping but it works well enough for me. I think they are about $300 currently at my local store
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Here’s the best muck cart I’ve ever worked with. I have a fleet of them. 
Seriously, still tight mechanically after 4 years and used daily.
What I love most though is a tractor with a front end loader. Game changer. Especially out picking a field/pasture.
I even use my FEL now and pull right up outside my dutch door stalls.
Really helps your body sustain the daily wear and tear of it all.
I have been using the same muck bucket since at least 1990, maybe longer.
Well, clearly these were inferior, because most were cracked and split.
I think it also has quite a bit to do with how they are handled. And no, I am not saying you abused them, just that others might be treating them more carefully.
I have had the same two wheelbarrows for a very long time. One is over 20 years old. Did have to replace the tire because of dry rot recently, oh, and that rusted off bolt that secured the tub to the frame. The other is like 16 years old. Both get daily stall cleaning use. Both have been used for moving gravel, firewood and other various not barn jobs. Both are in great shape.
I have a friend who seems to have to replace hers every six months. She is always coming up with creative (amazingly creative) ways to patch the tub back together, or mend the frame to get a little more use out of them. I am not 100% sure why hers break all the time, and I mine do not, but I do know they come from the same place as mine did. Her originals came from the same place mine did way back when, too.
Sample set of two I realize is not a really big example.
Can you share the brand? I’m searching for a wee dump trailer in which I can collect a few days worth of manure then later dump into my compost pile, but can only find monster big ones (for $$$)
we have a steel John Deere dump trailer that we have had for Decades (which we do not use at all), I suspect there are others around that people have who would like to sale them, check whatever local advertising is best for your area
We went to using roller trash cans that are picked up with a hydraulic arm to dump,
The Walmart muck tubs are incredibly brittle and barely last a few weeks. They used to be sturdier and cost less than 5 bucks. The muck tubs I got at TSC (I can’t remember the brand) are a whole lot heavier and sturdier. They also cost a whole lot more. I think they are around $20 bucks and I paid +$30 bucks during the pandemic. I have yet to tear one up although the rope handles don’t last very long. So muck tubs come in different grades.
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If only the employees were offered the ability to choose their tools, they might pick better, more ergonomically, etc.
Alas the people buying the tools at boarding barns usually aren’t the people familiar with and stuck using them.
One vs two wheeled barrows, for example.
