Cattle manure is more than just waste—it’s a valuable indicator of animal gut health and nutritional status. By observing the consistency, texture, and quality of manure, farmers can uncover key insights into the digestive health of their cattle, as well as the effectiveness of their current feeding practices. When manure is too runny or inconsistent, it often signals underlying issues such as poor nutrition, digestive disorders, or imbalances in the animals’ diet.
In this article, we’ll explore how decoding cattle manure can help farmers identify and address these issues, leading to improved livestock nutrition, healthier animals, and ultimately better soil health.
How to Score Cattle Manure
Many farmers and vets use a simple 1–5 manure scoring system:
| Use | Mixing rate |
|---|---|
| Stronger mix | 1 part supplement to 5 parts water |
| Maintenance mix | 1 part supplement to 20 parts water |
| More dilute mix for more frequent use | 1 part supplement to 50 parts water |
The ideal score varies with the class of stock and stage of production. Look at several pats across the mob rather than judging from one.
When to call your vet: manure containing blood or mucus, sudden diarrhoea across several animals, scours in calves, or any animal that is off its feed or losing condition.
Consuming Too Much of a Good Thing
While pasture and forage are vital components of a livestock diet, too much of one type of pasture can sometimes lead to undesirable consequences, such as runny manure. Here are four reasons why this may happen.
1. Imbalance in Nutrient Intake
When livestock graze a single pasture species for extended periods, it can lead to nutrient imbalances in their diet. Different pasture species have varying nutrient profiles, including levels of fibre, sugar and protein.
If animals consume too much of one pasture type, they may take in more of a particular nutrient than they need, which can disrupt digestion.
For example:
High-protein pasture: Legumes such as clover and lucerne, and young, lush grasses, can be high in protein. Excess protein can contribute to looser manure.
High-sugar pasture: Some grasses, especially when young and lush, can be rich in sugars. Excess sugar can ferment rapidly in the rumen, causing digestive upset that may result in runny manure.
2. Insufficient Fibre and Digestive Disruption
Pasture that is low in fibre, or a diet with little variety, may not provide enough roughage for proper rumen function. Fibre keeps the rumen working normally and helps produce firm manure.
Without enough fibre, livestock may not digest their feed properly, which can lead to digestive upsets and runny manure.
3. Overgrazing and Selective Grazing
When livestock overgraze a pasture or selectively graze on their favorite grass species, they may end up consuming too much of one grass and neglecting others. This is particularly common when cattle are left to graze freely on monocultures or pastures with limited variety. The overconsumption of one grass type can exacerbate nutrient imbalances, affecting digestion and manure consistency.
4. Change in Grass Composition Due to Seasons
Pasture changes with the seasons. Spring growth is often young, lush and high in water and sugar, and grazing too much of it can lead to runny manure.
In contrast, dry-season feed is often tougher and more fibrous, which can lead to stiffer, drier manure.
Antibiotics, Drenches and Gut Health
Antibiotics and drenches are important tools for treating illness and controlling parasites, but they’re most effective when used strategically.
Antibiotics and the Rumen
The rumen and gut contain a diverse community of microbes that break down feed. Antibiotics can affect these microbes as well as the targeted infection, so digestion, appetite and manure can change for a while after treatment. Giving animals good-quality feed and time to recover helps the rumen re-establish.
Drench Resistance
Overusing drenches speeds up parasite resistance, which makes worms harder to control over time. Strategies such as faecal egg counts, rotational grazing and targeted treatment help reduce reliance on drenches.
Work with your livestock nutritionist or vet on a treatment and parasite management plan that suits your farm.
The Effects of Stress on Animal Gut Health
Environmental Stress
Changes in environment, such as temperature fluctuations, overcrowding, or poor housing, can negatively impact a ruminant’s gut health. Stress can disrupt rumen function and lead to altered microbial populations.
Transport Stress
Long journeys or handling stress can affect the animal’s digestive system, impairing its ability to digest food properly and causing gut imbalances and runny manure.
Water Consumption and Animal Gut Health
Inadequate or Contaminated Water
Water plays a crucial role in digestion. Insufficient water intake can cause dehydration, affecting the function of the rumen and its microbial population, while contaminated water can introduce pathogens that disrupt gut health.
Toxin Exposure and Animal Gut Health
- Mycotoxins: Mouldy feed can introduce mycotoxins that affect the rumen’s microbial environment, leading to digestive disturbances.
- Plants Toxic to Ruminants: Certain plants, such as some legumes, can contain toxins that disrupt gut health, and cause discomfort or illness.
The Importance of Rumen Microbes
The microbial population in the rumen plays a vital role in breaking down food and ensuring that cattle properly digest their feed, absorbing the essential nutrients needed for growth and overall health.
A healthy, balanced microbiome in the rumen is responsible for fermenting fibrous plant material, producing volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and synthesising essential vitamins and proteins.
When the rumen microbiome is functioning optimally, cattle are able to efficiently convert food into energy, resulting in healthy digestion, consistent manure, and improved nutrient absorption
However, when the rumen microbiome is disrupted—whether by poor diet, overuse of antibiotics, deworming chemicals, or imbalances in gut flora—digestion becomes less efficient. This often manifests in poorly formed, runny, or inconsistent manure.
The Role of Livestock Nutrition Supplements
Alongside a balanced diet, some farmers add a natural supplement such as liquid kelp to their program. SONIC’s liquid kelp is cold-fermented with probiotic lactobacillus cultures, and provides a natural source of iodine, trace minerals and kelp compounds such as alginates and fucoidans.
Summary
Cattle manure is a simple, free indicator of how well your herd is digesting its feed. By scoring manure regularly, looking for patterns across the mob, and adjusting diet, pasture and management, you can spot problems early and support healthier, more productive cattle, with manure that benefits your soil as well.
One Farmer’s Experience
A cattle farmer from Kempsey, NSW, has been adding SONIC Liquid Seaweed Feed Supplement to their water troughs for 10 months, and recently sent us a photo update (above). When we asked whether they’d noticed any change in their cattle’s manure, they said: “Yes, it’s less runny.”
Every herd is different, and manure is affected by many factors, from pasture and season to water and stock health. But it’s the kind of change farmers can monitor for themselves using the scoring guide above.
Healthy manure also benefits the soil. It attracts dung beetles, which bury manure and its nutrients deep in the soil, helping to grow better pasture for the animals to graze. And so, the natural cycle continues.
Disclaimer:
The information in this article is for general guidance and not professional advice—always consider your individual circumstances or consult with a professional before making decisions. For more details, please review our full Disclaimer.
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