Hello! My name is Liam and I live on a small cattle farm in rural Australia. I used to live in the city so when I moved out to the country it was a bit of a culture shock. Not only did I need to get used to the idea of driving many miles to get to the nearest shop, I also needed to start to understand the various pieces of agricultural equipment and supplies. One area I really struggled with was cattle feed. Thankfully, Paul who lives and works on a neighbouring farm has really helped me to understand which type of feed is right for my animals.
If you're a farmer, it is absolutely critical to prioritise sanitation, as failing to do so could lead to your livestock getting very ill or disease-carrying pathogens killing your crops. Here are two way to keep your farm clean and hygienic.
Disinfect your road broom regularly
Road brooms are ideal for removing dirt and debris from large expanses of ground. However, if you use a road broom to tidy up your yard, it is important to ensure that you disinfect this piece of equipment regularly.
The reason for this is as follows; each time this device is pushed across a dirty part of your yard, large numbers of microbes (including pathogenic microbes) will get trapped in its bristles.
If you don't disinfect the broom before you use it again, you may inadvertently disperse these pathogenic microbes over various parts of your farm when you next use this equipment (as the contaminated bristles will be rubbed across the ground and any bacteria or fungi on them will then be transferred to this surface).
If you do this in areas that are close to where your livestock are housed, or where they eat or drink, then they could come into contact with these microbes and become ill.
As such, it is important to disinfect your road broom after each use. To do this, you should rinse it off with a hose and then pour a bucket containing a mixture of bleach and water over the bristles.
Use a pressure washer on the hottest setting when cleaning up animal droppings
If you house your livestock in sheds during the colder months, these animals will inevitably end up leaving droppings in these sheds on a regular basis.
These droppings need to be cleaned up properly in order to ensure that the pathogens in them do not make your animals sick.
The best way to do this is to use a shovel to collect most of the droppings and to then use a pressure washer to rinse off the residual materials left behind on the floor of the shed.
When doing this, it is crucial to use the hottest setting on your pressure washer. The reason for this is as follows; the water must be hot enough to kill any remaining microbes that are on the ground. If it isn't, the moisture from this equipment could actually make it easier for these microbes to breed.