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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Horse manure..fresh....aged with straw

11 years ago

I have an opportunity to pick up quantities of this horse manure.
The fresh I can add to my compost pile
The straw included manure is older, would that be able to be used as a compost item now?
Or does all horse manure need to age in a compost bin ?
thanks
Jimmy

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Comments (3)

Kimmsr
11 years ago
All animal manures are better properly composted, with 3 parts of vegetative waste to 1 part manure, before being put into your garden. Allowing animal manures to sit around and "age" is a waste of valuable nutrients since they either excape to the atmosphere or are washed away with the rain.
I have composted horse manure with both straw and sawdust used as bedding and found little difference in how the compost pile works, as long as it is properly constructed with just enough , and not too much, moisture. Manures do not need to be "aged", they need to be composted.
wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
11 years ago
Manures that are aged do not lose all their nutrients. They will lose maybe 50% of nutrients if outdoors all the time in rain, but the organic matter is still great.
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Funny story: I'm a "city boy" with a backyard garden so I don't have ready access to manures. But I did have a friend years ago, who had a weekend farm that he invited me to. He had a few horses and cows on the premises, and I took home with me in my hatchback several black-plastic bags half-filled with manure. (The ride back was aromatic, to be sure.) I set the bags aside until time to use the contents, and when I finally did I was shocked by the number of June Bug larvae I found crawling under the bags. Big, fat creatures, the size of one's little finger. They either came along with the manure, or the manure became a magnet for them . I destroyed as many of the larvae as I could, but it took a couple of summers before I could say I won the war of the June Bugs.
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Bucky, Thanks for clearing this up. I've read some posts that clearly questions the distinction between hay and straw. Simply, straw is the stems from grains left after combining of the grain. It's then bailed and usually ends up as livestock bedding. Wheat straw is more absorbant than oat straw and is most desireable for bedding. Also, some livestock will eat oat straw bedding. Hay is simply grasses or legumes or combinations of the two that is cut, thetherd into rows and bailed after drying. This is animal feed. Usually horse owners prefer timothy or grasses like orchard grass or a mix of grasses. Legumes are prefered by dairy farmers for milk production. In either hay or the straw the weeds come from weeds that grew with the crop in the field. I use clean straw for mulch in the garden, but not in the orchard.
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If I had to choose my favourite C material it would be fall leaves for their micro-nutrients. Second choice would be straws from cereal grains and my last choice would be paper or wood due to their lack of other nutrients. Carbon may very well be carbon but the addition of other nutrients would be beneficial IMO. Composts made with mainly wood and paper are not the best nutrient wise. Lloyd
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Hi Al, thanks so much for replying :) forum wouldn't let me submit a reply yesterday, some error it said. I only expected it to last one season as is typical with straw. Are you thinking it won't last that long maintaining good aeration? Why would manure have salts? Correct me if you know more, I just thought that kidneys extract salt and it is passed in urine.... my horse poo is pure horse poo ;) I have read up on most of the gazillion horse manure threads on these forums, but I am a little frustrated on the manure subject because most of the knowledgeable folks lump all horse manure together as a singular product.... when really it's a result of what goes in. Of course I do agree it is hot and decomposes and surely has gazillions of bacteria, since I go to all the extra trouble to buy variety probiotic supplements and prebiotics and all that stuff. Well anyway, sorry for the poo tour... we decided on one extra large planter 8 ft long by 4 ft wide and 4 ft deep for several tomatoes. Using bark mix just around the plants themselves. I'm also thinking to build in a suspension layer of 1 inch web green plastic mesh, which we have, to keep the hay from compacting under the tomato weight as quickly. Provided it works well it will be ever so much cheaper than filling the planter with bark :) I will post how it goes! And if my project looks good we may snap a picture to post... if not we will just pretend!
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tammyinwv
11 years ago
This will be my third season for my raised beds. The first yr when setting it up, I tilled up my hard clay soil some, then filled the beds about 2/3 with aged horse manure from a neighbors barn, So I figure it has straw too. It was aged enough that most of it was crumbly with little odor. They use a tractor and just shove it over into a big pile. I did this in the spring. First yr had a good garden, last yr we had somewhat drought conditions, and I was traveling a lot, so garden did poorly. So last Fall I had it tested. The results came back with everything right where it should be. In fact the county extension agent said she hadnt doen any testz with such good results. Now this Spring, I plan on amending all the beds and adding more with a good amount of the aged manure.
Another thing to check into is to look up the free video online about "back to Eden" gardening. I love the results they are getting by just piling on free wood chips from local tree services. one thing they did warn about was NOT mixing in the wood chips, just piling them on top and letting them rot down.
I am also considering the method found on youtube for quick composting, see link below.
Tammy
My garden: http://www.tammyinwv.blogspot.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Quick composting

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