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Creating and Managing Heavy Use Areas
Definition of a Heavy Use Area:
An outdoor area where livestock are primarily sustained by imported
feed. Livestock are confined by fences, other structures, or
topography. These are most commonly known as confined livestock area,
feedlots, corrals, exercise yards, or holding areas.
Use a Heavy Use Area When:
- The paddock or field is primarily used for holding, exercising, or feeding
of livestock.
- Vegetative stubble height cannot be maintained at 2 inches.
- Associated grazing areas are recovering during a grazing rotation.
- The soil is saturated on grazing areas.
- Site conditions and animal densities will result in more than 20% of the
area becoming bare ground or impacted by hoof action.
Water Quality Guidance:
- Provisions to divert uncontaminated water from roofs or upslope areas away
from the site to avoid contaminating receiving surface or ground waters.
- Surfacing materials will be applied where a vegetative cover of desirable
species or an adequate buffer cannot be maintained or soil saturation leads
to animal health concerns. See Mud
Management.
- The minimum thickness for surfacing materials such as bark, hog fuel, or
sawdust is 12 inches. The minimum thickness for gravel is 8
inches. The thickness of surfacing material can be reduced by 50% when
filter cloth is installed beneath the surfacing material.
Several Other Management Practices are Appropriate:
- Provide a free-choice shelter, such as an open shed or windbreak.
- Feed inside a barn, shelter, or shed to concentrate the manure under a
roof and make it easier to collect and store for growing season use.
- Plan for 60 - 80 square feet per 1000 pound animal that is using a
building.
- Heavy Use Areas should provide 300-400 square feet per 1000 pound
animal. The confinement area size should not exceed 750 square feet
per 1000 pound animal.
- Collect as much manure from the Heavy Use Area and associated buildings as
possible, and store under cover. Plan on sufficient storage to hold
the material until a safe application time. Plan for one cubic foot of
manure storage per animal per day.
- Locate Heavy Use Areas on well-drained soil as far from flowing water as
possible. Avoid excessively sandy soils to reduce the leaching hazard.
- Install surface material per Mud Management
page.
- In the spring or when the surfacing material has degraded, scrape and
spread on pastures as fertilizer and soil amendment.
- Use a temporary cover crop, such as cereal grains, after the livestock
have been removed from the area. The Heavy Use Area can then be grazed
or harvested in the summer or fall.
Operation and Maintenance Considerations:
The following activities should be addressed in maintaining a Heavy Use Area:
- Collection, storage, and disposal of waste,
- Maintenance of fences or barriers,
- Maintenance of buffers downslope of Heavy Use Area
- Maintenance of surface treatments by picking of manure and filling of
holes as developed.
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