Burying manure

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Maggie2009

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Our yard owners tell us they will bury the muck in our individual paddocks on a rotational basis to get rid of the muck heap.They did this to a small paddock last year which is now boggy and full of stones,rocks,rubble and shards of glass which can injure the horses.I am also told that digging up and disturbing the soil raises the risks of grass sickness as it releases botulism to the area where the horses will graze.Also the ragwort was added to the muck heap,by the owners,and it is a mix of fresh and older manure.
Thoughts and advice please as we are all very worried about our horses welfare.
 
Why can't YO just find a corner of a field, make a muck heap , let it rot down over year or so.
We have one and after 4 years its like black soil, the local gardeners come with bags and spades and often take it away, it's away from main fields and under trees where the grass was not good anyway. We now have a trailer that is emptied weekly in a farmers field and he spreads in autumn.
 
Why can't the YO get a local farmer to take it away?? Or take it to a local site themselves. I wouldn't be impressed with this method either!
 
Burying muck is illegal. It can be spread to provide anagricultural benefit and if used in this way is not treated as waste. If it is buried this is disposal and constitutes a landfill and is subject to the Environmental Permitting Regulations and would need a Permit. they would not get a permit as it would have to be deposited with an engineered liner.

Not only that it is biodegradable so it will breakdown, the land would sink and if contained may even produce gas. If you are in a sensitive groundwater location it could cause pollution of a potable water supply.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/sectors/32771.aspx
 
What a ridiculous idea!! Sounds like a great way to ruin the grazing, I would try to move asap or maybe show them this thread? It may change their minds, they sound like they need some educating in grassland management. At the last yard I was at, the landowner thought it was fine to top the ragwort and leave the horses in with it afterwards!:mad: Didn't stay there long.
 
Blimey, I thought it was bad enough when the farmer at my first yard used to just empty the muck heap onto a field which was home to two horses.

I can't imagine what burying muck would do to the chemistry of the land, but I doubt it's legal or safe - I'd run for the hills !
 
There's nothing wrong with burying muck (away from watercourses) if you then plant your runner beans on top - you'd get a GREAT crop!!

But digging up fields, filling the holes with muck?? I think not! You will have a boggy sinking area that will collect water and turn into a cess pit!! Spread it properly on the land - one field at a time - and rest the fields; or fence off a corner of a field and stack it there to rot down (a 3' high muck heap will become 2" of good top soil in 2 years - and improve the land all around it with increased earthworm activity.)

I have a 'safety corridor' between 2 stallion turn-out fields and I dump muck in there, pushing it up until it's a 4' high, 10' wide and 50 yard long heap. It does grow a lot of weed, but it actually disappears within 12 months - then I start again.
 
Sorry this would constitute landfilling and would therefore require an EPR permit and would also at this time of the year be an offence under EPR and water resources regs by causing pollution of groundwater as it is very liekly that the muck would come into contact with the groundwater as the groundwater transition zone raises during the winter so the muck would be in the GW continum.
 
Agree with sussexbythesea and scribble, I spend every day chasing people who do this sort of thing. Report to EA incident hotline who will get an officer investigate.
 
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