A manure removing apparatus for a freestall cattle barn, comprising a manure alley (1), a scraper (2) to be pulled along the manure alley, which gathers manure in front of itself for conveying the manure into a removing channel (3), a traction cable (4) attached to the scraper, a traction mechanism (5) for pulling the traction cable (4) and the scraper (2), a control device (8) for controlling operation of the traction mechanism (5), as well as means (9) for measuring the pulling force of the traction cable (4) and for stopping operation of the traction mechanism (5) once the pulling force exceeds a threshold value set in the control device. The threshold value is based on a rate of change or sudden increase in the pulling force of the scraper (2) or the threshold value is adapted to automatically increase as a function of the scrapers (2) traveling distance as the scraper proceeds from an outer end of the manure alley (1) towards the removing channel (3). The pulling force is adapted to be measured with a weighting sensor (9) which supplies the control device (8) with information about the pulling force.
