2014 was the year of livestock here on the farm. New additions included Goats, Ducks, Chickens, Rabbits, and Hogs. 2015 is going to be the year of the garden. We plan on, at a minimum, having a 5,000+ square foot vegetable garden, in addition to perennial beds closer to the house and edible landscaping out around our orchard. In preparation for the vegetable garden we have been working all year to prepare the soil. Part of that preparation has included planting cover crop in 2014 that brought up nutrients to the surface and helped break up the dirt, followed by having our goats graze and add their manure, then having our hogs till up all the remaining roots and mix in the soil. The last step has been covering the ground in cardboard then layering on horse manure.
Loudoun County is Famous for the Hunt
Living in Loudoun County has provided us with ample sources for horse manure. Loudoun County is known for its equestrian activities including trail riding, polo, dressage, and of course fox-hunting. As a result it is very easy to find horse owners eager to give away their horse manure. The horse manure is loaded into the bed of our truck with a front-loader tractor , then in the past we have had to manually shovel out the manure into our future garden. It is very labor intensive and as a result we have only been able to do about one load a day… Then we discovered truck bed unloaders!
Truck Bed Unloader
These truck bed unloaders can be found online at places like Amazon, but we found the prices there ($100+) could not match what we found at our local Harbor Freight ($49 – %20 coupons + Free Tarps). The unloader is very easy to install, and despite being designed for smaller trucks and lighter loads we put it to the test with our full F-350 extended bed, filled to the brim with horse manure. Once installed it is just a matter of removing the velcro ties holding the slide-mat roll and pulling it out to cover the bed. With the tailgate closed, load up the bed with your material. When you are ready to unload, just open the tailgate, install the crank and hook the bumper strap to the bumper and unloader frame (that helps keep the tailgate from popping up when you are cranking the load out initially, or you can have someone stand on the edge of the tailgate if you don’t want that pressure on your bumper).
We found that in order to get a large load like ours moving, you had to first shovel away the material from the wheel wells. Since the mass was so large the material around the wheel wells would stick to the main load and make moving anything impossible. Once the wheel wells were clear then it was just a matter of really cranking down hard to get it to start sliding. Once enough material was over the tailgate, unloading became much easier. Of course there was some material left in the bed but it was a small amount that we were able to quickly sweep out. One great thing with the unloader is that you can move the vehicle forward as you unload to help with spreading the material over your destination.
Overall, we would highly recommend this tool. It saved us a huge amount of time and effort getting great manure for our garden!
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