If you’ve been managing paddocks for a while, chances are you’ve used or considered dragging as a way to deal with manure. Dragging a chain harrow behind a vehicle to break up manure piles seems simple enough – but is it really the best approach? When it comes to long-term pasture health, parasite control, and animal welfare, collecting manure is better than dragging.
Why Collecting Manure Controls Parasites Better Than Dragging
Dragging simply spreads the manure and along with it, the worm eggs and larvae across your pasture. Instead of removing the problem, you’re just redistributing it. Parasites such as strongyles (worms commonly found in horses and alpacas) can survive in broken-up manure and remain on the pasture for weeks or months, reinfecting your animals and keeping the cycle going.
By removing manure entirely, you eliminate the parasite eggs before they can hatch, helping reduce the overall worm burden on your property and decreasing the need for frequent deworming.
How Manure Collection Supports Soil and Pasture Health
While dragging might give your paddocks a “cleaner” look on the surface, it introduces excess nitrogen and organic material into concentrated areas, potentially stressing your soil and encouraging weed growth. This can lead to patchy grass, poor regrowth, and nutrient imbalances.
Collected manure can be composted and returned to the land in a controlled and nutrient-balanced way, giving you healthier soil and better pasture productivity over time.
Reduce Odors and Flies With Manure Collection vs Dragging
Spreading manure doesn’t make it disappear, it just spreads the smell. Dragged manure increases surface area, making it easier for flies to breed and increasing odors, especially in warmer months. This can quickly become unpleasant for both animals and humans.
Collecting manure keeps your pastures cleaner and more enjoyable – less stink, fewer flies, and a better environment overall.
Improve Grazing Safety: Don’t Drag, Collect Manure
Most animals instinctively avoid grazing near manure. When manure is dragged, it’s smeared across grazing areas, leaving few “clean” spots for your animals to feed. This reduces grazing efficiency and increases the risk of overgrazing in clean areas.
Collecting manure creates truly clean grazing zones, improving forage utilization and making your land more productive.
Turn Manure Into Fertilizer: Benefits of Collecting vs Dragging
When you collect manure, you gain a valuable resource. Properly composted manure can be used as rich, organic fertilizer on your fields, gardens, or even sold locally. Dragged manure left in the field has no chance to compost effectively and can’t be easily managed.
With a collection system in place, you turn waste into a usable, safe resource.
Final Thoughts
While dragging might seem like a convenient option, it often spreads the problem rather than solving it. And while it takes roughly the same amount of time as collecting, it leaves you with no control over where the manure ends up. With the Tow and Collect, not only are you cleaning as you go—you’re also removing the manure entirely, making disposal, composting, or storage simple and efficient. It’s a smarter use of your time, delivering cleaner paddocks, healthier animals, and a more manageable manure system.
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