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Small Farms

Manure Storage

This page discusses the management of the most common manure storage structures for small farms and focuses on solid manure. The goal of your management should be to minimize nuisance issues (flies, aesthetics) and environmental impact (water or air).

For information on liquid manure, see Liquid Manure Storage.

Managing Stockpiled Dry Manure on Small Farms

Flies and odors from stored manure can be reduced if good management is practiced.

• Keep the manure as dry as possible.
• Remove manure from the farm regularly during fly breeding season.
• Try not to use insecticides or larvacides; naturally occurring fly predators- tiny, non-stinging wasps and parasites, are beneficial to the pile. Wasps are active during fly season and their activity is better in dry manure.
• When cleaning out the storage, leave a couple of inches of dry manure over the bottom of the storage area to provide a population of fly parasites and predators. Manure removal can be staggered to leave one section per week to supply fly predators and parasites.
• Remove a winter’s stockpile of manure during cold weather (<55°F) before fly breeding season.

Barnyard and Corral Management

Manure should not only be removed from stalls and barns, but corrals, barnyard areas, and sacrifice areas should be regularly cleaned to reduce flies, odor, and the potential for mud. A box scraper, skid loader, or tractor and loader can be used to remove manure built up on the surface of these areas. For more information, see the following publication: Sacrifice Areas.

Related Pages

This is the third of three pages on this subject.

Back to Page 1 Storing Manure on Small Farms

Back to Page 2 Storing Manure on Small Farms : Options for Storage

Author: Fred Kelly, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, New Jersey