We have horses, want to get a miniature cow as a pet. They're on 5 acres, we pickup manure and have a manure spreader. My limited experience with cow pies is they're is not designed to be easily picked up with a manure fork. What do people do who have hobby cattle? Can you use a harrow on it?
If it were up to me, I would leave the cow pies where they fell. A couple of cows on 5 acres should not be a problem. Of course, a feedlot situation woulld be different. The consistency of the cow pies depends upon what the cows are eating. Moist green pasture grass will make loose cow pies. Hay and feed will make more firm cow pies. In any case fresh cow pies will probably be hard to handle with a manure fork. A shovel will work better. Seasoned cow pies can be thrown like frisbees. With any animal (people, too, for that matter), the condition of the manure is an important indicator of the animal's health.
I know some folks who used a homemade "drag" (6" steel pipe with a chain welded to each end, and he welded a bunch of short spikes to the pipe for teeth). Then he'd hook onto the chain about the middle and drag the pasture with the tractor to spread the manure left by the cows.
Let them dry and they collect them to burn in the stove, it is a free source of heat, just like in the old days.
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