hi there
I cant help with where to get it in vic but I get mine delivered in large bags and i found the guy in the weekend paper where there were lots of other people advertising different manures delivered by the bag. You might have the same thing in your area so Id suggest you try your local and weekend paper classifieds under gardening or garden supplies and you might have some luck there.

g'day dead_easy,

at the end of the day all manures are going to work.

so source what you can get easily and cheaply:

goat manure will be akin to sheep manure as would alpaca manure.

then there are pigs, horses especially from a private person and out of the stalls, cow again from a small dairy and from the yards.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

I watch Gardening Australia too and I'd like to grab ole Pete by the collar and say 'YEAH, PETE, YA RAVE ABOUT IT BUT WHERE CAN I GET IT?' I've never seen it for sale at any nursery and I've searched around Sydney and also here around the Tweed Valley. Not at a nursery, not on a farm, not at any farmers markets! So I use chook manure and blood and bone with a dash of phosphate of potash instead.

Sigh! You city slickers. With the drought and hand feeding the farmers havent had time to attach the pellet collection bags to the sheep so there is an Australia wide shortage. Some things simply cant be bought with money. The only way is with a shovel, a sack, a bent back and an agreeable sheep farmer and under the shearing shed you go.

Funnelweb that is exactly how I feel!!! I use organic pellets, cow manure, chicken manure and blood and bone. But I would like to try Sheep manure because there is a huge difference between Chicken and cow so there must be a difference between these too, there must be benefits assosciated with Sheep poo.

Plantsplus our area has not been as drought affected as other areas of the country, that and I have been looking for 3 -4 years now and we didn't even have water restrcitions back then at all. I just have simply not found it, also Pete has gone on about a machine produced in Tasmanania that charities have got a hold of that sucks all the sheep muck from underneath shering sheds and then they sell it on to some very happy people. I was wondering if anyone had heard of it?

Anyway thanks for the reply, shall keep my search going and will take the suggestions on board.

Hey, Dead easy, shhhh, don't tell too many people you're not drought affected, neither am I here in the Tweed Valley, the dam is full, the Tweed River is overflowing but I whisper it if I have to mention it at all. My fear is that the valley will see a sudden infux of gardeners from all over the country wanting to move into this bestest place in Aus. And I reckon I can live without sheep manure.

Tweed Valley ehhh??? There wouldn't be many in your position, saying that does it rain a hell of a lot up there?

We have just stepped onto 2nd stage now and are getting serious about water saving for some reason now. Not sure why the urgency as the restriction isn't that bad but perhaps the thought of more restrictions in the future has encouraged us on.
Hard tho as we are renters so everything has to have a system that is easy to rip out later to take with as it is generally not cheap, still good to strain the brain to get around issues like that every now and then.

No, I go over the border into sth-east Qld occasionally and it's as dry as a dead dingos up there. We do get dry spells and we were even on restrictions a few years ago but we have nowhere near the population of the Gold Coast (Surfers, etc.,), and so not the demand on the supply. Rain has been fairly plentiful the last few years; the lawns might just start to brown up and a good storm would come over and cure the problem. I'd say we've had sufficient to keep the lawns and mature plants happy, about once a fortnight on average. I stick mostly with native plants though, and after settling them in leave them (with a watchful eye) to exist on what falls from the sky. I think our saviour is the Lamington National Park and the Nighcap Ranges N. P. plus other rainforest areas in the mountains to our west. Every afternoon, nearly all year, storm clouds gather out there and often come our way with a bit of precipitation. Maybe if we hadn't destroyed most of our rainforrests we mightn't be in this drought, or maybe it wouldn't be as bad. By the way, land prices are soaring here now and the population is rapidly increasing. Just hope they never destroy those forests.

Hi D.E.
Sheep manure IS wonderful stuff, and is certainly the poo of choice here. Horse always has oats and stuff grow out of it. Cow is difficult to work with - big lumps. Sheep comes pelleted. The best place to look is a shearing shed. You need to find a sheep farm of course. People with a few sheep in a paddock might let you collect you own. sheep often go in the same place so there is an accumulated pile, say where they sleep or shelter.
Failing that - you might have more success with Alpaca poo. A lot of alpaca breeders actually have stabled animals and will set out bags of stable straw and poo (pelleted like sheep). This makes great mulch.
If you find sourcing it locally a problem, and don't mind paying the price, then cow manure in the bag from Big W is OK. For larger quantities, garden supplies places (where you buy soil, sand etc) may have cow manure in quantity, well rotted and pulverised so it's easier to handle.
I doubt there is much difference in the effectiveness of sheep vs cow.

Hi all, I'm a new member of this forum and just reading back posts. Just thought I'd mention that if any of you in VIC feel like a drive to Castlemaine, there's an old bloke who has big bags of sheep manure for sale, $4 a bag and piled high. Driving from Daylesford, you enter the outskirts of Castlemaine, which is Campbell's Creek. The guy with the manure is on the left hand side, just before the turn off sign to Top Decor Landscape Supplies. Hope this description gives you enough to work with!

Sheep, goat and alpaca - all great. Nice little manageable sized pellets, and not too rich.
Pig and poultry - too high in nitrogen for a lot of plants, unless they are used in compost and allowed to sit for some time.
Horse manure always produced copious weeds, and cow manure is often lumpy, unless it has been put through a mulcher.
Picking up bags along the roadside in the country is your best bet. Some manures come mixed with stable straw. OK if it's cheap because the straw makes great mulch.
Cheers, Jan

Hi there,
i have horses and i have some horse manure to give away. i have too much and need to get rid of some...i am in south west sydney near Camden.
i live in a very quiet street so i cannot put some bags at the front of my property, considering i live at the end of a cul de sac street.
i have done some research on the net but i can't find anything as to who would be interested in getting some horse manure. some of it is more than 6 months old. anyone could help?

Rabbit & hen manure is higher in Nitrogen & Phosphate, then sheep,steer & horse which are the same nitrogen & Phosphate.
Sheep is higher in Potash the all the above by 0.3-0.4 %.
So I do not know what all the fuss is about. Any manure is good & there are 20 or more plants that are better then manure. Manure is a by product of animal husbandry, not a cure all for composting. Leaves, alfalfa & clover plants or hay,grass clipping,nut shells, peanut shells,tobacco stems, coffee/tea waste,cottonseed mill & comfrey are as good & in most cases better for composting.

Hi,I live in Bendigo,Victoria. I wonder if anyone can tell me where to buy by many bags of cow, horse or sheep manure for the garden.The soil here is heavy clay, it needs lots of manure,please