10CY sounds about right as a soil amendment. As fertilizer, you need a lot less, perhaps 0.5-0.8 CY. Bought at a garden center, it will cost a fortune. But - you don't need to add it in one year - you can dilute the manure cost with some heavy wood chip mulch (plus some nitrogen). The wood chips will eventually compost, and they should be free of charge if you contact a tree company and ask them to bring you a load. - you can further dilute it by collecting bags of dead leaves and yard clippings in your neighborhood. Discard only the bags with grass clippings treated with pesticides. All the mulch that you pile this year is compost you don't have to buy next year. You still have to get 10CY of organic material eventually. See if some dairy or horse stable will deliver manure to you, and load up on dead leaves this october.

New to this forum. Enjoying all the new stuff I'm learning. Feeding Bambis alfalfa will get verrry expensive. I have both cows and horses and can't tell any difference in how hot it is or which one has more weeds, although my grandfather always swore horse manure was too hot. You can use green manure, but don't pile it up thick on anything or it will burn (it starts cooking). You can mix green in with your native soil, and it will be fine. I planted larkspur and delphenium directly into green manure and they were gorgeous and healthy. I used to plant my annuals with a scoop of composted manure and got many, many weeds immediately around the plant. I blamed the manure and started planting them with a spoonful of Osmacote. I still have lots of weeds. I realize now it was the combination of turning over the weed seeds to sunlight when I planted along with the added nutrients. It doesn't matter whether it's manure or a commercial fetilizer. I'm going back to the manure as it's free. My conclusion: Weed seeds are everywhere and when you turn them over to the sunlight and give them a boost with manure or commercial fertilizers, they go nuts.

The dry weight analysis of horse manure is often listed in the 0.7-0.3-0.6 range. While not near what a 10-10-10 synthetic fertilizer is it is known to be a "hot" source of Nitrogen because that N is pretty readily available. Almost every soil test report I have seen over the last 45 years has suggested adding 2 pounds of Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet, whether the lab tested for N or not. That is not very much and in a good healthy soil probably not really needed. Perhaps these simple soil tests will be of some help, 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains� too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

When I did, in my ignorance, add animal manures to the garden beds without first composting those manures, I did see an increase in "weeds" and it made no difference if it was manure from dairy cows, horses, pigs, goats, sheep, llamas or alpacas, unless it was dehydrated manure. It seems the heat used to dry that manure was enough to kill any "weed" seeds. Since the easiest method to keep these "weed" seeds out of the garden is to compost the manure first it simply makes sense to do that, along with all the other very good reasons to compost manure before applying it to your garden soil.