Walking our Fields: Watching the Manure and Working with Dung Beetles, our Pasture Partners

Submitted by Craig Haney

Most of us livestock farmers likely spend little time thinking about what happens to the countless pellets and pats of manure deposited across our pastures each year. Yet a single 1,200-pound cow will deposit more than seven tons of wet manure on pasture during the grazing season, a remarkable amount of nutrient-rich matter to overlook. Provided we haven’t disrupted the ecosystem around that pat, hundreds of distinct organisms may call it home. Among these, none are more important than dung beetles, whose role is essential to breaking down manure and returning those valuable nutrients to the soil.

Despite being measured in milligrams rather than pounds, dung beetles rank among the hardest-working animals on the farm. In addition to accelerating nutrient cycling, as they consume and bury manure, they’re improving water infiltration and soil aggregation, disrupting the life cycles of flies, parasitic nematodes, and protozoa. Their speed can also pay dividends. Instead of losing up to 80% of volatile nitrogen from manure left on the soil surface, rapid burial can retain up to 85% of the nitrogen that might otherwise be lost. 

Their impact extends beyond soil health. Cattle instinctively avoid grazing around fresh manure pats, creating "refusal areas" that are approximately six times larger than the pat itself. For a herd of just 50 cattle during a 21-day grazing rotation, those avoided patches can tally more than 2 ¼ acres of freshly-fertilized forage that becomes unavailable for grazing if the pats remain intact. By making manure disappear quickly, dung beetles can help return those acres to productive grazing. 

How can we tell if we’ve created the right environment for dung beetles and are receiving the full benefits they can provide in our pastures? As with many of our pasture evaluations, the answer begins with taking time to walk our fields and actively observe what’s happening. While the look of the manure itself can help us assess the quality of the forage our animals have been eating, we should also pay attention to what happens to those manure pats long after they’ve hit the ground. How thoroughly are they being incorporated into the soil? How quickly are they breaking down? The speed and thoroughness of this process can provide insight into the dung beetle activity in our pastures. 

Active dung beetle populations will typically begin working within minutes after a fresh manure pat has been plopped onto the ground. After the manure has slightly crusted over within 24–36 hours, one of the first signs we’ll notice is the appearance of holes across the surface. Tunneling beetles create ¾ inch holes or even larger. These tunnelers will also leave little “volcanoes” of excavated soil at the entrance to their shafts. Within a few days, the holes on the surface of the pat gives it a swiss cheese appearance. 

With all things farming however, weather conditions matter. Dry, hot weather can dry out and harden manure and slow beetle activity, while cold temperatures can slow both beetle development and their ability to fly between pats. But a manure pat that remains smooth and intact, hardening into a stiff, cardboard-like pie after two to three weeks during the middle of the grazing season may indicate limited dung beetle activity. 

Kicking over a dried pat to look at the inside can also provide additional clues. A shell-like pat with a shredded, peat moss-like interior suggests dwelling dung beetles have consumed the nutrient-rich liquid of the cow pie. Vertical pencil-sized holes extending into the soil are another sign of an active tunneling dung beetle population.

Farmers can also directly assess beetle presence by breaking apart pats 24-36 hours after being deposited in the field or by using a simple water-sampling method. Although these approaches may not provide a complete picture—some beetles may retreat deeper into the soil when disturbed, others may remain in tall vegetation or under tree shade, and species active at dusk or at night may be missed—they can still provide valuable information about some of the beetle species active in our fields. 

For the water-sampling method, collect a manure pat along with a thin layer of soil beneath it, then gently break the pat apart in a bucket of water, as beetles may be hidden within air pockets. Be prepared with a fine sieve to collect any beetles since they’ll float to the surface but can still drown if not collected quickly. While it may not provide a comprehensive overview of dung beetles present, you can begin to get a sense of the number and species in your fields. 

The habit of walking in the fields and kicking over patties in search of dung beetles can give us lots of additional information. I recall when my daughter was young and my wife and I spent a lot of time assessing the consistency (and smell) of her diapers as one way to better understand how she was doing. The manure pats can be one other way for us to learn about livestock under our care. Shape, contents or consistency, bubbly or not, and larvae emergence can all provide useful information. 

But one of our primary goals remains to understand how quickly the cow pats return to the soil. Regularly observing manure breakdown, recording weather conditions, and tracking changes over time can help us make better pasture management decisions. While healthy dung beetle populations can help return the nutrients in manure back to the soil, it’s the farmer’s footprint, the time spent observing and learning in our fields, followed up with thoughtful decisions, still remains the best fertilizer we can apply.

These topics and more will be explored during North Jersey RC&D’s upcoming Pasture Partners: Working with Dung Beetles field day on Thursday, October 1st, from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Duke Farms in Hillsborough, NJ. Participants will have the opportunity to observe and trap active dung beetles in the field, learn about the species found throughout our region, explore current research on the interactions among grazing management, parasite control, and dung beetle populations, and discover how farmers can even establish their own dung beetle hatcheries through USDA SARE-funded research. Whether your interest lies in soil health, livestock production or pasture management, you'll gain a deeper appreciation for one of our pastures’ most important partners. For details and to register, visit https://northjerseyrcdconference.regfox.com/dung-beetle-2026

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNE25-492. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.