Ice melt products certainly work, but they’re not always ideal for farm use. Still, you can’t have slippery walkways and doorways causing unnecessary winter trouble for you and your livestock. Let’s briefly explore some safe and effective ice melt alternatives and solutions for farm safety.
The Problem
Ice buildup on the ground is often an issue around your farm property towards late winter. It’s easy for deep snow to pack down as people and animals traverse it, and this packed snow slowly turns to ice after a time. Also, the warming winter sun melts snow during the day, but then cold nights re-freeze the moisture back into ice. Before you know it, you have a recipe for slippery walkways, gates, doorways, driveways, trails and paths around the barnyard.
Prevention: Clear Snow Right Away
First off, try to put as much in your favor with some smart elbow grease. When it snows overnight, get out there and clear your farm paths, driveways, and walkways right away. If you can, try to remove the snow before other people or your animals have had a chance to walk around much. Every footstep and every tire tread that falls on fresh snow compacts that snow and forms a compressed layer that is just waiting to become ice. It’s not always possible, but the faster you can remove snow with snowblowers, plows, and good old hand shoveling, the less ice you’ll have later.
Try Sand as an Ice Melt Alternative
Despite your best efforts, ice still has a way of forming in later winter. Warm days and cold nights might be great for maple syrup production, but they make ice in the farmyard. Late winter can also bring ice storms, where rain freezes as it falls. When these conditions occur, you might consider a variety of commercially available ice melt products like rock salt, calcium chloride and potassium chloride
However, these products can be damaging to concrete surfaces, and they’re quite harsh on grass, creating dead spaces. They’re also not always safe around pets or livestock, who might try to consume large amounts because of the taste. Dogs and cats can get their feet irritated by the ice-melt products, and long-term exposure isn’t great for hooves, either.
Ice melt alternatives for farm use can be as simple as keeping sand on hand. While sand doesn’t melt ice in quite the same manner, on a warm day it will collect heat and melt into the ice. And in the meantime, sand gives you and your animals excellent traction to move around safely. Sand is easy to source, inexpensive, and simple enough to apply, so it makes a decent ice melt alternative. Then in the spring, you can simply sweep the sand harmlessly away.
Keep Some Hand Tools Around
You’ll also need some ice-scraping tools to help you clear the way.
· Rounded shovel for digging out deep sections of packed snow
· Spade (square shovel), for scraping
· Dedicated ice scraper, with a flat blade
· Snow shovel for removing the initial snowfall.
Prioritizing farm safety with the right ice melt alternatives will keep you and your animals protected. Be careful out there during late winter! Spring is just around the corner, so keep yourself and your animals safe from ice in the meantime.
This article about ice melt alternatives on the farm was written for Hobby Farms magazine. Click here to subscribe.
