horse manure compost

10 years ago

Being new to composting im thinking i may have a compost pile that i didnt realize i had. We have 4 horses and 30+ chickens so manure isnt something thats in short supply for us. My question is i just checked out our old manure piles in the back of our fields and notice the older piles 4+ years old are really BLACK dirt now. Is this ok to put into my garden? Someone told me it would be to "hot" but i cant imagine that since its been sitting so long? Is the pile too old to be good compost? Or should i be using our newer piles from last fall?

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Comments (11)

User
10 years ago
If it looks like "black dirt"...doesn't smell...and falls apart in your hand...it's good to go.

The biggest danger from most horse manures is excessive high-carbon bedding materials that aren't broken down (which doesn't sound like an issue here) and horses that have grazed on a lot of grass/hay with seed heads putting weeds into the compost...which also, probably isn't an issue here given how aged it sounds.

The only thing "hot" about it may be it's high nutrient content if applying to already high-nutrient soil.

It sounds like quality/ideal stuff.
Kimmsr
10 years ago
Research at several Ag Schools has shown that animal manures simply piled up for some time will lose 20 to 50 percent of the Nitrogen and between 5 and 20 percent of the Phopsphorus and Potash, so if that manure is 4 years old it does not have enough N to "burn" plants.
The best thing to do with animal manures is to compost them with 1 part manure and 3 parts vegetative waste. I would not hesitate to add that manure to my planting beds but would add 3 times as much vegetative waste to it when I did.
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wayne_5 zone 6a Central Indiana
10 years ago
If the horse manures comes with a lot of straw and uneaten hay, it should compost pretty well as it comes. I get manure like that and fall apply it [or sometimes in August after a summer crop]. Course it is aged first. I don't worry about some nutrient loss as it makes such good organic matter.
Lloyd
10 years ago
It's no good. You should bag it up, put it on pallets, plastic wrap it and send it to me for proper disposal and I can guarantee it will not hurt the environment. I have a machine designed specially to handle such materials.

You can PM me for the shipping instructions.

;-)

Lloyd
andy32844
Original Author
10 years ago
Here's a picture of my pile.
andy32844
Original Author
10 years ago
Seems to be just like dirt to me. Can't see how this couldn't be good for my garden. A friend said he'd gladly take some off my hands haha.
andy32844
Original Author
10 years ago
Seems to be just like dirt to me. Can't see how this couldn't be good for my garden. A friend said he'd gladly take some off my hands haha.

{{!gwi}}
Kimmsr
10 years ago
"dirt" is mostly mineral matter. What you have there is well aged animal manure that can add some good to a soil, but should have some vegetative waste added to it to help make that soil better. The animal manure has some needed nutrients and the vegetative waste will have other needed nutrients and both are needed to make a good healthy soil.
andy32844
Original Author
10 years ago
What kind of vegitative waste are you suggesting? Like lawn clippings, leaves?
toxcrusadr
10 years ago
It looks like compost to me. Till it in and go forth and multiply!

I would not till in any uncomposted materials unless you are planning to prepare this bed and wait till next summer to plant. If you're using it now, go with the manure compost.

I agree with the earlier posts that said it's good to have other materials when *starting* a manure compost pile. Straw or other bedding can provide this, or any other compostables. The only other thing to be concerned about with fresh manure is harmful bacteria, but if you compost it for a few months or a year first, you'll be fine.
robertz6
10 years ago
The color looks a lot better/darker than the stuff I got a while back at a old horse stable. It was lighter and had a bit of a horsey manure smell, even though it must have been there for five or ten years.