Maintaining a clean barn is the best way to keep your animals healthy and productive. Cleaning the barn is, however, one of the most overwhelming tasks for farmers. It becomes even more challenging when you are a first-time farmer with varying or no barn skills. However, it does not have to be complicated.
Maintaining cleanliness in your barn is simple, but only if you know how to proceed. These tips will help you clean and keep your barn in good condition. Additionally, you can install a barn exhaust fan to remove excess moisture, dust, and waste gases from the barn atmosphere.
Check out these tips for maintaining a clean barn.
Table of Contents
Start with the Clutter
If you are deep cleaning your barn during spring, you probably have surplus supplies from winter. Clearing this is often the most challenging task in cleaning. Check the tack. If anything is broken, fix it or dispose of it if it is beyond repair.
Sort the tack room and remove expired items and empty containers you do not want. If you find some tack you no longer use, consider selling or donating it to those who need it. In addition, it would also help to store the stuff you do not need at that time in the barn storage.
Clean the Tack Trunks
The tack is the most noticeable area in your barn. Tack trunks collect dust and grime, especially along the aisle. Daily morning chores, such as sweeping, cleaning stalls, shaving, and giving hay, can generate significant amounts of dust, underscoring the importance of integrating dust collectors like these into your routine to maintain a clean and healthy environment.
Therefore, once you finish your morning duties, use a dry towel to dust off tack trunks and wall boxes along the aisle, tack room, and grooming rooms. Purchasing a cleaner or wood polish for extra shine would be appreciated if you have wooden trunks.
Proceed to the Stalls
If your barn stall fronts have bars, you can expect them to collect grime and dust. Wiping them regularly can make all the difference when cleaning thoroughly. Deep-cleaning stalls is a comprehensive job requiring close attention.
Remove all bedding from the stalls and scrutinize them. Start from the floor and check upwards for rotting boards, protruding nails, and uneven floors. It would help to scrub the stall walls to remove any manure accumulated over time. Complete the process by introducing new bedding. Stall cleaning can be time-consuming, depending on how many you have.
Check out these tips for cleaning stall bars:
- Use a wet towel for quick cleaning
- Clean the bars at least three or four times weekly
- You can use a brush for any hardened grime
- Use a hand-held wand for quick touch-ups to remove daily dust
Clean the Cobwebs
Cobwebs can be a menace in many barns. Allowing them to build up can make your barn appear dirtier and older than it is. Cobwebs are easy to clean. Just take a few minutes daily and move around the stalls with a long-handled wand or a broom to clear them. Doing this when the horses are out is advisable so you do not scare them.
Splash Water Down the Aisle
Sprinkling a mixture of water and multi-surface cleaner down the aisle is the secret to reducing dust and making your barn smell pleasant. Once you finish sweeping, put a multi-surface cleaner such as Fabuloso or Pine-sol and water in a watering can.
Sprinkle this mixture down the aisle, especially in open areas, wash stalls, and grooming areas. You can do this quickly, often daily, to keep your barn clean and smelling pleasant. It also prevents respiratory diseases caused by dust.
Sweep the Rooms Well
It would help sweep various rooms like the tack, feeding, and laundry rooms at least twice daily. If your barn is active, people will probably walk in and out of these rooms throughout the day.
As a result, dust, dirt, and footing will accumulate from paddocks, stalls, or the ring as people walk in from these areas.
Therefore, sweeping rooms regularly is the only way to keep them tidy. Installing barn exhaust fans can also reduce dust in the barn’s atmosphere.
Clean the Windows
While cleaning barn windows takes the shortest time, it makes a significant impact. Since the rest of the barn is clean, avoid splashing water and messing it up. Take a bottle of commercial glass cleaner, spray it on the window panes, and wipe with newspaper.
Do this on both sides and see your windows shining. Besides general tidiness, clean windows allow more natural light into the barn, creating a cheerful environment.
Fold and Put Everything Away Neatly
Leaving messy towels and blankets in the grooming room, stalls, and aisle makes your barn unsightly. If you have barn blankets and sheets in each stall, fold them neatly and put them away. It would be wiser to keep turnout sheets in separate storage than in the stalls because they are often too dirty.
