08/05/2026
When's the best time to get manure collected and off the paddock....Best answer: as soon as you can. There are environmental factors that might govern your urgency though and in some cases, you might not even want to bother. Mild temperatures and moisture are going to give any Small Strongles eggs in a manure pile, the best conditions to hatch quickly and develop into infective larvae. The stages of development begin with eggs being passed into the environment in f***s from the host. If conditions are right the eggs can hatch withing as little as three days and become what is known as L1 larvae, that later develop into a more robust form known as L2. Both these stages exist and feed off bacteria and organic material within the manure pile. Once developed into the L3 stage they are known as infective larvae and are free to migrate from the manure pile. At this stage they develop a protective coating over there body that seals them into a hardened sheath that also covers their mouths, so from this point on their energy supply is limited to what they have consumed up to this point. Survival could be up to 6 months but a study that was conducted in Japan shows some interesting facts. Development and survival are very much dependent on the environment the initial egg deposits are made into. Rich moist peat soils give the highest probability of eggs surviving to infective larvae stage and at the other end of the spectrum dry sandy soils give the worst. So if you have moist, peat soils, with healthy pasture you actually need to be more vigilant removing manure than if you have dry sandy soils with sparse vegetive cover. Cold weather will always slow down the development but during summer we do not leave removing manure longer then every 3 days.
