I would drive that far without a second thought, but please keep in mind I am a certified "wacko". This sounds like just what you need to put you over the top. I too would compost this manure regardless how "aged" it is; aged to one person may be still stinking fresh to another.

Shoot, I would make more than one trip too; might as well get enough for a couple years if one has the room to store it. Congrats on your find, IMO it will be a great addition for your garden...

Blutranes

Depends on:

If it really 'composted'.
If I had a large pickup truck.
How close my neighbors are in case its not really fully composted.

So, I.c, how are you going to haul it? If you can bring home enough to cover your beds 4 inches deep in one trip, I would go for it. However, if a box store is within a few miles and you can spend $20, that's 6-7 bags of Black Kow or another composted manure that has probably been manufactured surprisingly close to where it is sold. From the situation you describe with your soil mix so far, I do think an infusion of composted manure would work wonders. Combined with a summer mulch of successive layers of grass clippings, you should have a fine garden there.

And though layers are nice and save a lot of time, once the stuff gets decomposing it's good to take the time to dig deep and mix it into the soil. If you keep composting, that will get easier and easier over time.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

some 1" rebar for uprights, 2.5 sheets of plywood, and some straps will git your pickup ready to haul a whole bunch, particularly if they have a front loader. But if it's sacks in the back of a car, I'd calculate out gas cost / vs other alternatives, like bcomplx said.

I made a lasagna bed last fall of old horse manure, leaves, kitchen waste ans UCG. Today I planted my tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in it. It was wonderful. So nice and fluffy. The cardboard was gone and the soil was nice and moist. I will really enjoy planting new things in my new garden. Horse manure is truly wonderful stuff. No smell when it's composted.

Is that 30 miles one way, or a 60 mile round trip? Or is that a 30 mile round trip? What would be your gas, and other vehicle maintenance, costs? How much of this manure could you safely transport that distance? It would need to be enough to offset your costs of transportation.
What do you expect adding this manure would do for your soil that what you already have done has not? People often think of any animal manure as a magic elixar that will solve wide variety of problems which it most likely will not do any better than a wide variety of other material would not also do.

bcomplex - Thanks for the advice. There is a box store shouting distance from my house, maybe I will check out the make-up of black kow. I don't have a truck just a big SUV. I've hauled stuff before by laying a big tarp in the back. I was trying not to buy stuff if I could find it elsewhere and knew exactly what I was getting (from the farmer). Wish I had started this in the fall. Oh well, next year.

Kimmsr - You said "What do you expect adding this manure would do for your soil that what you already have done has not? "

That is my exact question. I don't know. That is why I listed what I had already put in the beds, so that some of the wise folks here could say "go or no go". If you don't think aged horse manure will add to what I already have, let me know. (I'm sure if you had spoken that question to me rather than writing it, it wouldn't have sounded so harsh.)

I would get that manure in a mega second. Can, and intend to. Tomorrow.

Have you so much organic matter that you can turn away from it? I try never to pass any free organic matter up. The stuff you have is great, but nothing especially high in nitrogen. The only down side from horse manure is that it's weedy, so prepare to mulch. It's a better soil conditioner than a fertilizer.

I would make that 30 mile drive only when I had other errands in that direction. I keep HD recycled plastic bags in my van all the time in order to collect whenever I'm near such a source. Is your composted county yard waste closer? Curbside grass clippings? Starbucks?

Horse manure is pretty much the main makeup of my garden beds. I don't know where you are getting the weedy stuff, but I have not had any weeds in mine, none at all. But I also know what the horses are eating, they are my horses. That being said, horse manure does not smell like cow manure does. When you pick it up it looks something like minature hay balls. If ir is still wet, grass balls. I know I have a half ton truck (Dodge, better springs) and I can load it with fresh from my stalls to the top of the rails before she squats. Did you ever think about getting a pick-up bed trailer to put behind your SUV for such emergencies? Or maybe asking a friend who has one? Unless you are willing to load the manure into your SUV by hand, this is probably the way to go.

Hi David52 - did you run away from RMG?

Billie

Manures are no more a magic elixar for your soil than anything else. While manures do have a part in soil health by themselves they will not do much because it is the total of what you add that feeds the Soil Food Web. You could garden with a healthy soil and never add any manure to either your soil or compost. Manures can provide certain necessary nutrients to soil, but so can many other forms of organic matter. Some of those nutrients in manure are soluble enough that if there is not enough other kinds of organic matter in the soil to hold them in the soil they will simply flow out and into the ground water and be pollutants. There are people that will add manure to their soil every year and that is not necessary and may be contributing to pollution, because insufficient levels of other types of organic matter are not added.

I'm surprised to hear that you don't think horse manure is weedy, Billie. I don't really get weeds from horse manure either, because I always mulch. I thought everyone thought horse manure was weedy.

Have you ever used manure, kimmsr? I don't think anyone ever said it was a magic elixar, but manure is a fabulous organic amendment to soil. If you don't need the nitrogen, compost it for a while. You kind of state the obvious. If you have healthy soil, of course, you don't need to add manure, nor do you need to add compost, leaf mold or anything else.

kimmsr asks:

"Is that 30 miles one way, or a 60 mile round trip?"

Read this in a whisper...

PSSTT, hey kimm, 30 miles one way IS a 60 mile round trip! Don't want you staying confused.

Just trying to help.

Lloyd

Lloyd - behave yourself. Kimmsr had that together. I think what Kimmsr mean is that 30 miles one way, which would be a 60 mile round trip OR is it a 30 mile round trip? Watch the punctuation. and SMILE you are way too serious.

Billie

Ha Ha...I guess English must written differently in the States; adding the "or" kinda changes your interpretation there Billie.

I am smiling, I find kimmsr hilarious! ROTFL

Lloyd