How to compost fresh horse manure?

[beavis]

I just got my first delivery from my neighbor of about 5 cubic yards of horse manure!

It ranges in age from today to approx a month old and is currently in a lengthy pile.


should I just leave the pile to sit and compost on its own?

and how long should I let it compost before it is usable in the garden?

 

[obsessed]

I would give it at least six months but depending on how fast your turning it it could be sooner. Just water it occasionally, turn, and add some soil compost to introduce some bacteria into. Once it look black and you see no visible signs of wood shavings and poop your good.
I got some in October and it will ready probably by end of January. Or I will use it at the end of January and fill the beds. I also just placed it on top of the beds and have been periodically turning it into the soil to speed up decomposition with my pitch fork.

 

[ducks4you]

Me and my horses have been working on our compost piles for 10 years now, on this property. You CAN speed up things by turning the piles. If you don't wanna do that, then just let it sit for awhile longer. My horses love to roll where the last pile is/was (it's not been completely removed yet!) One year a had a friend use her tractor and make a mound. It's the wood shavings that take FOREVER to decompose. Do you have any leaves to mix in with the manure? They'll turn to dirt even faster. To think: I didn't know what to do with my horse manure when I moved out to the country!!!

 

[beavis]

excellent advice, thanks!

 

[journey11]

My dad takes the tractor and piles ours up and it is usually mixed with wet hay from where they come to feed on the round bales we put out. We just let it sit. I'd say 6 months is a good estimate.. With enough hay and moisture in the pile, I have seen them literally smoke, they got so hot. Then they cook down to maybe a 4th of what the pile was to begin with. Really neat, I think.

 

[ducks4you]

If I owned a tractor I'd pile mine, because the heat kills off equine internal parasites. But, so does the cold. I usually spread it out and pile 2 layers in one spot throughout the winter, then leave it alone. I've seen 'em steam, too. I find that it's also a great way to fill in low places. It only takes a few weeks for the height of the pile to diminish to about 1/2 high.

 

[Rusty]

My own experience with horse manure in Florida was that it made heavenly compost all by itself. I thought I could do the same here in Alabama. No such luck. Hay here is bermudagrass hay and its seeds wind up in the compost. I let my pile sit for 2 years and then covered my garden with it. Then I planted strawberries.

Not a single strawberry survived, but the grass that sprouted from that compost sure grew prettier than anything in my lawn.

Live and learn, I guess, but bermudagrass is nothing if not persistent. Now I spread my horse manure/compost on my lawn and save the cleanings from the chicken coop for my garden.

So if you have bermudagrass hay in that manure, be careful where you use it!



Rusty

 

[ducks4you]

My own experience with horse manure in Florida was that it made heavenly compost all by itself. I thought I could do the same here in Alabama. No such luck. Hay here is bermudagrass hay and its seeds wind up in the compost. I let my pile sit for 2 years and then covered my garden with it. Then I planted strawberries.

Not a single strawberry survived, but the grass that sprouted from that compost sure grew prettier than anything in my lawn.

Live and learn, I guess, but bermudagrass is nothing if not persistent. Now I spread my horse manure/compost on my lawn and save the cleanings from the chicken coop for my garden.

So if you have bermudagrass hay in that manure, be careful where you use it!



Rusty

Rusty, you should look for horse owners that feed a different kind of hay. We have ex-glacial soil in MY back yard--really rich, really black--and I have never had alfalfa seeds sprout in or around my manure piles or gardens. Also, can't you cover the piles with black plastic and kill the seeds?

 

[Rusty]

Rusty, you should look for horse owners that feed a different kind of hay.

This is homegrown compost from my barns. I feed bermuda because it is all that local farmers grow here. Bermudagrass is a pest plant in the home garden because it is next to impossible to kill off here. My manure pile heats up so well that you can see the steam rising on a cool day and I don't dig it out to use until it has aged for a couple of YEARS and still I get so much new grass sprouting that it smothers anything else planted in the bed. That is why I spread it on the lawn and save the chicken coop litter for my garden.

I seem to spend most of the summer fighting to keep the lawn from overtaking my orchard and tiny vineyard and my lone raised vegetable bed. Once the black plastic comes off the veggie bed in the spring, it is an ongoing battle to keep the bermudagrass from choking it. I keep it mulched and that, at least, makes the grass much easier to pull. Still, I wage war against the stuff. The total irony here is that my OTHER war is trying to make the stuff grow out in my pastures where I really WANT it to grow.



Rusty

 

[ducks4you]

Guess you already knew. I think the ONLY thing that we can guarantee as we garden (and tend our horses!!) is that we'll ALWAYS have a good workout!