What's that smell?

Spring Cleaning On The Farm!

Spring cleaning means pretty much the same thing that it might for your home. You clean up things that got left all Winter, you sweep, you neaten up, and you put things away.
The one difference to cleaning a barn versus your home is the Poo!

We have been building a manure pile all Winter, and Spring is the time for it to be cleaned up.

Now, I don't think that my animals smell very bad. I clean their barn very often and do everything I can to keep the animals clean. However,

when you're digging into a pile of six-month-old manure, it's going to smell, and does it ever!

The smell is on our boots,  on our jeans, on our dog, (because he rolled in it).  

We drove the tractor up and down the driveway, so there are remnants on the driveway. That means all the vehicles have it on their tires. The whole yard smells of it! 

  It's not a particularly bad smell, not a great one either. Especially when it's on your dog!

We have Farm rules.

1. Don't go into the barn in your good shoes.

2. Don't go into the barn in your good clothes!

3. Don't let the dog out without supervision if there's company coming.

4. Don't let the cowlick your hair.

Do we break these rules? Of course, we do, but we shouldn't, and here's why.

There is something about the smell of cow that permeates your entire being! 

My husband always said this was true when he was working in the dairy barn, but to this day it is true with Daisy as well.

If I walk into the barn in my good clothes to check on everyone before I head out to do errands it doesn't matter whether I touch anyone or not, the air of the barn seeps into my entire being.

 I can smell the cow on my coat, in my hair, and even on my shoes,

whether I stepped in anything or not.

 If you take a "cow smelling" coat and wash it with some other clothing items that don't smell like a cow, when you pull it out of the wash, it'll all smell like a cow, 

unless you use some good deodorizing soap. 

We're not sure why cows have this effect and it doesn't seem to be true with any other animal. Sheep have lanolin in their wool.

If you handle them you will smell like that for a while, but you have to touch them to do that.

 Pig, surprisingly, I don't find that they smell very bad. What smells the most is their poo and if you give them the opportunity to be clean, and get away from it, they don't smell much like anything.

Chicken's poop can smell pretty bad but the chickens themselves don't smell much, except chicken dander. 

Chickens can be quite dusty animals and that is their worst trait. They love to take every opportunity to make dust baths in the dry ground and they roll around and flip the dirt all over and through their feathers, this is a natural deterrent to mites and to cool their skin.  Then they get up and shake as they walk away.

Horses smell GOOD! 

I love the smell of clean horses!  I would prefer the smell of horses,

but what is it about that cow smell?

 It leeches into every pore, crevice, and follicle we have!

I don't know why, but it's true, unfortunately. 

Why do we break our rules? Well, we have to check on the babies before we head out to do our errands. 

We know we shouldn't, but we do it! What happens? 

We go downtown with the faint aroma of the cow on us. 

 I would recommend, for your own nose's safety, to steer clear of our place for the next few days. For some reason, non-farmers find the smell a lot more noxious then farmers do. 

However, the smell will fade soon, and that manure we spread on the fields will make our crops and our gardens grow gorgeous and lush. That is the other part of the cow's two-fold jobs.  (and the pigs and the chickens and ducks) is to give us wonderful nutrient-rich manure to keep our soil healthy. 

That keeps our plants and different grasses healthy, to feed us, as well as the critters.

So we thank you cows and other critters for your smelly poo!

We really really do! Without your poo, we couldn't feed the soil that feeds you and in turn, feeds us.

In Praise of poo!

Honest and true, we praise poo!