Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations 20 Geese equal to one Cow!

I was at an aquaculture meeting yesterday and one of the persenters (graduate student Purdue) indicated that the droppings of 20 Geese in a pond are equal to manure from one cow. If that is the case --- Wow!

just picked up a 3 yr. old shepard from animal rescue , he loves chasing them damn nasty things. sweet

Cecil,
IMHO that's a bunch a crap!
They do make a mess!

Good for you Ken! My heron chasing dog is from a dog shelter too and she's the best darn dog I've ever had. Growing up my family had a few purebreads, but this one's smarter by far.

Ohio State Univ says that 10 geese make the equivalent manure of one cow. The two schools even battle it out in terms of geese manure.

I have an old (1992) Michigan Dept. of Ag. chart for farm animals that lists the average dairy cow at 1,400 pounds producing 42,560 pounds (15.2 tons)of manure per year or 116.6 pounds per day which would be 5.03 pounds per day for 20 geese.
Hmmmmmm ??

OSU's in Cowtown - so they should know!

Correction to the eariler post... It should read 21.2 tons of manure per cow per year. The daily per goose figure would be 5.8 pounds for 20 geese to equal 1 average cow at 116.6 pounds per day.

Cecil:

Did they say how many "cows" per acre of surface water?

Rowly

I don't know about the actual mass of manure that geese produce vs. a cow, but the goose manure is much higher in nitrogen than that of a cow.

"Ohio State Univ says that 10 geese make the equivalent manure of one cow. The two schools even battle it out in terms of geese manure."

Bill,

Your forgot that Indiana Geese are full of more $hit that Ohio Geese! :p

You may be on to something. It may not be the quantity so much as the potency of the stuff!

If midwest cows can do that just think of how much BS a Texas cow can produce.

On a serious note, I wonder how much raw material a cow ingests. I wouldn't have thought that a goose packed away that much fodder.

At least cows aren't as likely to leave manure on your dock!

I'm not saying this is totally wrong, but come on a goose depositing half it's body weight in poop a day.

DD:

For feeding adult cattle through Winter, rule of thumb is two 50lb bales of hay per day per head. Add in water (5-10 gallons per head in Winter), subtract some wasted hay, and your input per cow is right around the 116.6 lbs output figure.

Theo Gallus,
8 and a half head of Polled Herefords

Geese probably eat half their body weight a day in grass-feed and water. About all they do is eat and poop - "flying toilets".

Theo, that is interesting. 100 lbs of hay plus average of 63.75 pounds of water turns into 116.6 pounds of waste. Thus, they are using about 47 pounds of the feed for their body. I wonder how much actually stays to grow and fatten. After all, they will burn up some of it.

I also wonder how many cows there are in the US to find out how much poop is created on a daily basis. Staggering thought!

Dave, Cattle waste a lot of that hundred pounds of hay - maybe a third(?). A lot of it ends up getting stepped, layed, or s*** on.

P.S. It smells more like money when cattle prices are up like they are currently.

Recent articles in business news reports two separate companies to start up plants for bio-fuel generation from cow manure at Texas panhandle feed lots.
Smells more like money all the time.

George,

I know a gentlemen interested in getting into aquaculture that sets up plants that burn cow manure in Texas to generate electricity. If I remember right he told me there is one town down there that's entired livelyhood is cattle and they the smell is staggering! Something like a million pounds of manure is generated there each day! No wonder the ozone layer it taking a hit.

Fellows,

Dang, I've been gone a week and the first post I read after getting back is on cow vs goose poop. Man, can't wait to catch up with my reading.

Theo, your rule of thumb doesn't work well in Texas...here most everyone uses the big round bales because they are much easier to handle, less labor intensive and you can set out enough hay for weeks at a time. My rule of thumb in East Texas is to plan on 3 round bales per cow per winter. The round bales run 1300 to 1500 pounds each.

Dan, 22 tons of manure per cow sounds like a lot of sh*t, but I believe it. Unfortunately, the area where I feed hay in the winter months drains into my large pond, and that is the source of my nutrient loads I'm sure. Also why I can never use fertilizer. I have about 25 head that I carry over each winter...thats a lot of manure.

Its good to be back to the USA...I've been in Mexico chasing Tarpon, succesfully I might add and will try to post pictures or at least a summary report as time permits.

In the meantime, glad to see the topic selection is at such a high intellectual level

'Lark, I feed 1200 pound round bales to cattle - but it's easier to work out a rough daily consumption from 100 pounds per head per day than from 50 balesX1200 lbs/bale divided by 8 or 9 head.

But, I now know (East) Texas Winters take apx. 4000 lbs per head, versus maybe twice that for Ahia. I figured you probably had grass grow all Winter and just used hay for dry spells!

Welcome back.