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Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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Posted by
damonstealth NW Illinois (
My Page) on
Thu, Mar 4, 10 at 20:21
| Hello all, 1st post here. I recently found a guy wanting to get rid of a rather large pile of horse manure. It's around 40'x40'x15'high and has for almost 10 years. The outer perimeter is newer manure from his wife's 7 horses but the older material in the center could very well be 7-10 yrs old. It has been turned via skidsteer recently but has not been for years prior. He said most of it already looks like dirt and has composted on its own. Is this a gold mine or something I should steer clear of? I'm planning on digging 2 100' deep beds this spring and this could be a great amendment to the soil.
Can manure age too long and lose its nutrients? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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That is Awesome ! !
Jump all over that and be THANKFUL ;-)
VERY THANKFUL |
Here is a link that might be useful: New Compost Bins Woo Hoo ;-)
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| I believe the nutrients become more concentrated with age. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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LUCKY CUSS !!!! I think that the nutrient level evens out as composting becomes complete. Maybe higher nitrogen when fresh, but that black composted material is pure gold! If I'm not mistaken, compost functions not so much as a fertilizer [in the commercial NPK sense], but as an enabler of the soil organisms [which prosper when compost added to soil], which are then the 'mother's milk' to plant roots.
===
BTW ... how does this material smell? Sweet and 'woodsy' is supposed to be the test of 'doneness' ... BTW are there earth/compost worms in this material? Also, do I understand that your garden will be 100' long DEEP PLANTING BEDS? When I first read it, thought it was 100' deep....YIKES!Next question you would ask, from deeeep into that DEEP bed, would be about nutrient level of magma. [LOL] [Seymour's book is among my favorites] |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| Yahoooo! So I really AM looking at a gold mine here! I believe my contact said the pile looked like rich black dirt but he didn't mention the smell. He said it was mostly manure, straw, and some shavings so the C:N ratio might be way heavy on the nitrogen. It might not even matter at this point. What do you all think? Heck, I've got room on my property to take the entire pile. The only problem would be loading and transport. I've got an IH454 with a front end loader at my place for moving/turning but this guy has nothing but a shovel. He says he's looking into tractors right now but may not get one until later this year. If I can get this stuff to my property I'll have all the compost I'll need for a LONG time. Heck, I could even toss it into 50lb bags and sell it right? What's a 50lb bag of aged compost go for? @borderbarb - Yes, I'm actually planting lava carrots which require at least 2 miles of loose earth crust on top of an active magma pocket. ;D
I realized as soon as I posted it looked like my beds were 100' but I figured you all would know what I meant. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| I used a bunch of thoroughly composted horse manure - at least 5 years old - last year in my garden. It looked like peat moss. It smelled good and had alot of fibrous material in it. I received it after I had already planted most of my garden so I used it as a mulch. The problem with horse manure is that there can be a lot of seeds in it. Horses don't have as many stomachs as cows so they aren't as likely to kill weed/grass seeds. When I watered my garden the mulch turned into a chia pet. No matter, I just mulched over top of the horse manure with shredded leaves. Worked into the soil should be OK, but there will be seeds in there. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| As a followup, I rented a dumping landscape trailer and the guy with the manure borrowed a friend's tractor w/ loader. Long story short... this stuff is AWESOME! The manure in the center of the pile may have been 10 years old but we never got that far in. I took about 15 yards and barely made a dent in the MASSIVE pile. Most of it was well broken down and extremely rich, a few apples here and there but certainly fine to lay down on my beds. I spread it with my tractor and then tilled it all in. Over the next few weeks I tilled several more times to kill the weeds and grass that kept popping up and when I planted it was pretty clean. The garden has sprouted and I'm just seeing typical grass and weeds that were expected so I don't think much came in with the manure. I've started my own compost pile with our sheep, goat, and chicken bedding but I plan on taking 20 yards every year from this guy if he ends up buying a vehicle to load it. I didn't get as much as I wanted this year (ran out of time and the trailer blew a tire) but I'm thrilled to have what amounts to an endless supply of aged manure. Cheap is good, free is better! ;D |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| Make sure to ask him if anyone used lime on the manure at any time over the years. Its somewhat common for stables to use lime to control the flies on horse manure. High lime content could cause you a lot of problems unless you have highly acidic soil. Might not be a bad idea to double check the pH if you have way to do it. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| How long, and how, manure is piled up will determine what nutrients might be there. An improperly piled pile of manure exposed to rain can loose most of the nutrients throught leaching by the rain (one of the ways CAFOs cause pollution of our waterways) although a pile of manure that readily sheds rain, or os covered to prevent rain from soaking in and leaching nutrients, may have nearly the same nutrients as fresh, just not quite as readily availabel. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| The source was a private residence and I don't think they used any lime. The pile wasn't covered but was literally 10'high and 40' wide. Just looking at and smelling the stuff and I could tell there's still plenty of nutrients. My garden is really taking off so I'm happy! |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| Any weed seeds would have come from the fresher manure that was added recently. The old stuff in the center of the pile would have already digested any weeds seeds long ago. |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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| The only time it has aged too long, is when somebody else gets it before you do. If the manure is in a short/shallow pile, some of the nutrients can be leached away by rainfall. If the pile is more than a couple of feet deep, only the outside crust of the pile will have suffered any leaching. The rest of the pile will absorb the nutrients that rainwater washes down from the top. The weeds you seen are only from the very freshest manure that has not composted and heated up. GREEN WITH ENVY.....
Greg |
RE: Can horse manure age for TOO long?
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- Posted by jolj 7b/8a-S.C.,USA (My Page) on
Tue, Jan 4, 11 at 20:43
Yes, when any manure sits for alone time, it beaks down & changes to compost. It is no longer manure, a plant can use it & grow to produce more, then with out the compost. If you are lucky it is in stage two, HUMUS- which is more compact, so it is easier to move. You are lucky.
Give thank to the compost God & enjoy! |
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