SECTION 1
A primer on picking and shaking
SECTION 2
A better way to collect manure
SECTION 3
Reach for the fork that saves time and trouble
SECTION 4
A better manure fork
Firefly
Ranch,
Located in Southern Oregon, USA
FOR MORE INFORMATION
on Breeding to our
BLACK
ANDALUSIAN STUD
Why Equi-Tee Fencing makes products that are right for you.
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THIS
MANURE FORK
SHAKES, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO !
A
primer on picking and shaking Picking up
after horses is not rocket science. Some
folks use a manure fork
(pickers), while others use a shovel and a rake
(scoopers). This manure fork is for barn stall cleaning where the
bedding shavings need to be separated from the manure. If your technique is anything like
ours was, we picked up the combination of shavings and manure and then by
manually bouncing the fork, attempted to separate the manure balls and shavings. Cleaning
a stall took many repetitive actions,
especially towards the end, where there were many
shavings and only a few bits of manure remaining. Cleaning stalls
in this fashion was especially frustrating because the road apples, being round, tended to roll
out of the fork, requiring another scoop to collect it all.
To make our job easier we tried many different products, from bigger
forks to stall bedding sifters. In the end, none of them could
beat the light weight and simplicity of the standard manure fork.
That is why we chose to improve on this system, resulting in the
development of this patented Berto Shake'n Fork.
"Just when
you think you have lived long enough that you have seen it all,
they come up with something new."
Horse expo visitor
The difficulty of
stable cleaning
Since it saved us so much time and money, we figured that we would look
into the market for selling this stall cleaning product ourselves.
This is what
we found.
In
the USA there are 1 to 2 million horses
that are stabled in stalls where shavings or sawdust are used as bedding. A
horse produces approximately 30 pounds of manure each day. Each
pile of horse manure consists of 35 to 50 manure "balls" that get mixed up
with the bedding. Nationwide, the picking up of over 1.4
BILLION manure balls a day is a time
intensive endeavor. In addition to the labor involved, the volume of
the manure is another factor to consider. The quantity of manure
produced per horse per day is
about 1 cubic foot. If the bedding is not carefully separated from
the manure, however, it results in a volume of over three times as
much! Disposing of a combination of shavings and manure
can also be difficult. An entire industry has formed around
composting to reduce volume, with companies like
o2 compost making special bins
to help. In some areas it is a requirement for manure to
be completely hauled away in dumpsters. Since cleaning horse stalls is
expensive in time and labor, most facilities try to find a balance
between sifting and the volume of manure to dispose of. Since disposal
costs are
often based on quantity,
specialized
"boutique" bagged shavings are now produced that are smaller or
pelletized and therefore easier to sift. Pellets or smaller
shavings are an excellent alternative for reducing volume, but to get the best results
considerable time is still spent manually shaking the fork. From an
environmental perspective, the manure itself is an excellent soil
amendment. The
shavings, however, are not and will literally
make the manure inert, rather than
a healthy compost. Therefore, it is of great benefit to horse owners and
the environment that the manure is separated from the bedding. The
Berto Shake'n Fork is the answer to more efficient manure
disposal.
Reach for the fork that saves time and trouble
You can save time and steps with a self cleaning fork. At our Andalusian
Ranch we have 12 to 16 horses to pick up after, several times a day.
Experience has shown us that by using the Shake'n Fork we spend HALF the time per stall that we
did with a conventional fork. Just as important, we found our shavings
use also dropped by about half, requiring far fewer trips to the
store to purchase more. Additionally, the resulting manure pile was
much smaller and the quality of the compost far improved. More efficient
cleaning means fewer trips with the wheelbarrow and less wear and tear to your body
as well. We were surprised at the physical aches and pains that seemed
to disappear once we used this fork. The resulting cleaner stalls made for healthier, happier
horses, and more time to spend enjoying them too!
Imagine
life without
electric tools
 It is hard to imagine life without electric tools.
From hair clippers to electric drills there is a motorized version
available. Given a choice, don't we always choose the efficiency of
electricity? Just think of clipping your horse with scissors... Of
course a good set of electric clippers costs 10 times what scissors do, but the
benefits more than make up for the price. There are currently
commercial
vibrating stall cleaners, but they cost thousands of dollars more and require rolling them into the
stall like a wheelbarrow, and then emptying an additional muck bucket.
They may also require that the horse be removed from the stall to clean.
In contrast, the Shake'n Fork is made for any size facility, even with
only one horse. The fork head basket is slightly larger than
conventional forks like durafork(tm). This larger basket allows
for fewer trips to the manure cart. However, the Shake'n Fork is constructed with modern materials
and weighs only 1.5 pounds! Of course the motorized version weighs
more, but the weight is carefully distributed so it does not feel heavy
on the basket end. Even with batteries, motor and a gearbox, it only weighs 8
ounces more than a 3.1 pound wonderfork(tm) which still must be moved by
hand. With the Shake'n fork there is no manual sifting and with special care
as to balance and feel, it
certainly works easier than any big basket fork. The push button
switch is positioned on the top of the fork, eliminating wrist fatigue
too! It has rechargeable batteries, so no
extension cords are needed. It is quieter than a pair of clippers,
and since horses are
not bothered by its sound they can stay in the stall while cleaning
is accomplished.
The choice of customers
The feedback from customers
has affirmed the effectiveness of these new stall cleaning tools.
Their enthusiastic approval of both the pasture and powered Shake'n
Forks
shows that whichever model you use, both are the forks of choice over
any basic fork on the market. To remove even the smallest
particles, our close-tine version is the best choice. When it comes to cleaning stalls
bedded with shavings, sawdust or pellets, nothing does the job better or
faster than a Shake'n Fork.
I love owning and working with horses, especially my Andalusian
stallion, Conquest. You can read my thoughts on horsemanship
here if you like
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