Maintenance is a big line item on any farm. Buildings, fences, equipment. There is always something that needs attention. And coming in just as important, but far less glamourous, is gravel. A farm always has the need for more gravel.

With over 3 miles of private gravel roads at Eden Shale we have plenty of need for gravel. That doesn’t include any areas around barns, winter feeding areas, or cattle watering locations.

A maintenance item that has been needing attention for some time now is the automatic waterers in the paddock section of the farm. There are 22 paddocks with 12 different automatic water tanks. All of the waterers have some level of erosion around them and each one needs gravel added to bring it back up to grade. We ordered 4 loads of rock and used it to get the water tanks back in good condition. It took on average about 6 skid steer buckets of gravel for each water location.

As you can see in the photo, these water tanks had not had any gravel added for quite some time. They are all in good shape now, and should be stable for several years of service.
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I know gravel is not very glamourous, but it is necessary to keep a farm in good working order. ​

​In the middle of April we rented a skid steer for a week to clean out the winter feeding areas. As I have mentioned before, we use a rotational system with our winter feeding so that the cows will eat their winter hay from four different locations. This allows the manure to not be concentrated into one location and lessens the amount of drudgery that animals have to endure to get to the hay.
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The two locations that get the worst are the heifer calving facility and the mature cow calving facility. The heifers eat their hay on an existing concrete pad and it builds up enough that we will scrape it clean 2-3 times during the calving season. This location has a manure stack pad that we store the manure in until conditions are right to spread the manure on pastures and hay fields. 

​The cow calving facility also has a stack pad that stores the manure. This barn is equipped with 6 different flooring treatments that give the floor structural support when it is wet, but it also has drainage which allows the moister to percolate down away from the bedding. This helps keep the flooring surface dryer and makes for a better surface for the new calves. 

If you are interested in learning more about the different flooring types you can go to our website at https://www.edenshalefarm.com/producer-resources.html. Click on “Bull Barn Facilities” and “Calving Barn Facilities”.