Cleaning Feed Bunkers and Water Troughs

The cleaning schedule will depend on the size of the feedlot.  As it is best practice to feed cattle as early as possible in the morning cleaning are usually the first duty performed every day in the feedlot.  The amount of cleaning teams employed for this duty varies between feedlots.  It normally takes a well-trained cleaning team about 15 minutes to empty out, clean and sanitise a feed bunker and a water trough within a feeding pen.

The length of time necessary to refill feed bunkers and water troughs within the feedlot are then also used to decide the number of cleaning teams to be employed.  If four cleaning teams are employed in a feeding lot that consists of sixteen feeding pens the cleaning process can then be completed in an hour with 4 teams cleaning one pen each at a time.

It is also important that feed bunkers and water troughs are refilled as soon as possible after cleaning, therefore the cleaning and refilling processes must be scheduled in such a manner that they run concurrently with each other.  In most instances, it is good practice to clean one section of feeding pens and as the cleaning teams move to the next section the refilling process can start in the previous section.