Ideas for barnyard cleanup?

[canoetrpr]

I feed my cows hay in my barnyard and riding ring in the winter as I treat these as sacrifice areas so that my fields are not ruined.

I'm told the soil under is sandy but with years of manure deposited there, they are retaining a lot of water. They also rut up bad in early spring and late fall. At one point last year I had my tractor stuck badly.

I'd like to clean these areas up. I can scrape the top layer out but wonder if I should be replacing it with fill? What kind might be good for drainage and $

Note : my cows have a separate pole barn where I bed them on straw. The areas where I feed are just too large to put straw down.

I'd appreciate any thoughts.

 

[1wlimo]

If it is sandy and you remove all of the manure it could be OK.

The best bet is to have a concrete strip for feeding the cows on. This would work well beside you barn

 

[dieselbeef]

get free chippings from a local tree cutter to fill it in