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What to do with Horse manure pile?
I have been placing my daughter's "muck" pile in a corner of our pasture. After about six months, it is starting to accumulate to the point where I need a plan. What are some of my options of what to do with this pile? Should I just leave it? Try to spread it over the pasture? I do not have a spreader but I do have a tractor with bucket.
I would be interested in knowing what others do with their horse manure. Obviously, the manure is mixed with stall shavings.
Part II - since completing my barn project, I have used my tractor very little. So little that I cannot justify having that much money sit idle. The only real need that I see for my tractor is to move this pile occasionally. If I sold the tractor is there another way (other than pitch fork & wheel barrow) that folks manage manure?
Thanks for your help!
Kevin, rookie farmer
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
Kevin, I can't help with the muck problem but I can relate to the idle equipment issue. I have a lot of expensive equipment (toys) like mowers, tractors, motorcycles, snowmobile, ect. I don't use my mowers or tractors very much but I also work about 60 hrs per week and spend 2 hrs per day driving to and from my job in the city. My equipment, though not used often, lets me get my jobs done very quickly. For a person with little spare time this is important. Moving your muck pile with the tractor is probably going to be the fastest way to do it. So, the question is... How much is your time worth and how much of it (time) do you have?
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
One man's manure is another man's gold mine. Horse manure is not as strong as cow or chicken. Horses are not that efficient at converting their forage therefore there is a lot of plant matter left. You can apply it directly to the field, garden or composite it and sell it for fertilizer. My horses are normally in the field and very little accumilates in the barn. I have a flexible harrow and run over the field once in a while to aeriate and scatter the piles.
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
When I moved to Nevada last year and got my tractor and a small trailer, I thought I might canvas my rural neighbors and collect their horse droppings to enrich my sandy soil. Then I noticed that everyone takes their horse manure to the dump and pays good money to dispose of it rather than using it for compost. The common wisdom around here is that horse urine, which is necessarily mixed with the manure in a corral or a stall, is so concentrated and salty that it will kill plants. Anyone else have input or scientific knowledge of this??
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
Sell your only tractor???? My god, man, snap out of it before it is too late!!!!!
Seriously, I am interested in the answers since my wife is after me to get her a hay burner.
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
That is news to me, mighth be the area you live in has high salt in the water. They don't manufacture salt although they may concentrate it bit.
They maybe thinking of the urea which is acidic, see below.
If you look in the field where the droppings are spread out they do not burn the grass near the pile like cow will. I cleaned (mined) my neightbour barns in Kentucky for the garden one year. Rubarb loves it. Like any fertializer you can have too much of a good thing and burn plants. Incidently the next year they wouldn't give it away in KY.
It is always best to compost it with the yard waste to provide the best soil. You may need to neutralize it with some lime depending on the acid nature of the plants/soil.
If they are stupid enough to give it away, collect it, compost it and sell it back at 5$ a bag. Make your tractor and tailer pay their way.
If you are going into business you may need to read up on composting care and construction.
I don't compost house hold waste only after is recycled as chicken a manure.
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
Stall muck generally has enough wood or sawdust to make composting a good idea before spreading, but we have used an antique spreader for years to spread fairly fresh manure on pastures. The reason wood requires composting is that it actually absorbs nitrogen as it begins to decay, releasing it later. Adding some high nitrogen fertilizer makes the muck usable earlier.
Unfortunately, many jurisdictions are imposing more and more regulation on what you can do with manure. It's a good idea to chack yours.
If you search the net under composting and horse manure, there is a lot of advice out there. The bottom line, however, is often to leave it in a pile for a couple of years and then put it on your garden or friends' gardens.
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
I bought an old stable with piles just outside the doors that look to have been there a couple seasons. I have a small 26 HP Deere with a loader bucket (that I wouldn't let go of short of being at gunpoint). I have no other equipment to use, though. Any ideas how to handle this mess with what I have?
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
I drive 15 miles one way to HAUL IN horse manure for my compost pile. I use hay for bedding (straw is a precious commodity in Maine, and I can't use wood shavings with sheep, gets in the wool) so I compost hay, yard clippings, sheep and chicken manure and the horse manure. I pile it in layers over the winter, start turning it once a week or so with the bucket in the spring, turn it all summer and spread it on the pastures and use it for garden mulch in the fall. Any that's left, I sell. I found a usable antique manure spreader, but it's nice, dry compost, and I did it with a trailer and a scoop shovel for a lot of years too.
And don't get rid of the tractor. You'll hate yourself for it later. Money invested in that tractor will give you a better return than the .02% you'll get from putting it in savings... ":^(
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What to do with Horse manure pile?
It pays to learn a little about composting it can save a lot of time. Some of these new item claim that they will compost in week rather than months or years.
The rate of composting is affected by 3 factors, temperature, air and mix of materials. If you can provide the compost with air eithor but turning or ventilation it is good. We would build the sides of the composter with mesh to provide air to the mix. I would assume that you could also pump air into the pile. I would be nice if there was a solar powered fan. Once the mix is going it will generate its own heat and can get quite warm. The third factor is mix. Too much of one type of material is not a good thing. I have had good success with the horse stall cleanings (with hay not wood) and layers of soil.
Peters
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