HELP-what to do with a shavings muck heap!!!

[bumblelion]

Can't seem to get rid of my muck heap! Local farmers don't want it because it's shavings, tried allotments but others have already beaten me to it and supplied them for years!! We rent where we are and the landlords not happy as it's built up over the winter. Only got 2 horses but it's big enough to struggle to dispose of in bags etc!!

Any ideas?????

Please!!!! I'm so stressed by it!!!!!

 

[FrodoBeutlin]

You have to pay an agricultural contractor to take it away, that's what we do with ours (also two horses, same problems as you)

 

[assuan]

Burn it - It'll stink for a while, but it'll get rid of it (on the whole)

 

[JadeWisc]

Do you have a flower or vegetable garden? I use mine to keep weeds down and use it as pre fertilized mulch works great


I also burn mine sometimes

 

[bumblelion]

Tried to get rid of it by an agricultural contractor but can't seem to find any locally!! All equestrian maintenance around here don't do muck heaps!!

Can't burn it as live in a residential area and too close to the neighbours!!

Thanks for your suggestions though

 

[assuan]

speak to the environment department at you local authority, they should have details of places; alternatively, ask them for a list of local allotments and visit them to see if they want to take any off your hands.

 

[Annagain]

Try an ad in your local shop window offering it free to gardeners who can collect - up to them to bag it or put in in a trailer then! You might find there are plenty of people who want it for gardens at home rather than the allotments you've already tried.

Or a sign at the entrance to the yard if you're in a residential area and have plenty of people walking/driving past? If you're feeling energetic you could even fill some bags, leave them at the entrance and let people just take them?

 

[assuan]

ooooo, try calling all the local landscaping companies, they might take it off your hands FOC, they would be able to use it on many of their jobs, they could even sell it to their clients!

 

[ossy]

I'd contact your local council or Environment agency office they should be able to give you contact details for your nearest contractors, you should have some somewhere near you. The problem with it being shavings mixed in with the waste its very show to degrade compared to staw wastes which is why its more difficult to get rid of, I certainly wouldn't want shavings mixed manure on my gardens. It will cost a bit to have the contractor remove it though. Also I wouldn't have thought landscape companies would touch it as wood shavings are classed as a waste product and I doubt they would be allowed to spread it over their land.

 

[bumblelion]

Thankyou for all of your suggestions! I will phone around today and get some bagged up also, just in case people may want for their gardens! Will keep you posted on the outcome!!!

 

[lhotse]

Burn it - It'll stink for a while, but it'll get rid of it (on the whole)

Burning muck heaps is illegal.

 

[ossy]

Burning muck heaps is illegal.

Only if its classed as a Controlled waste by the EA, which it is when it comes from commerical stables/liveries. "Horses at home" muck is classed as household waste and therefore you are actually allowed to burn it, even in a residential area, although not advised if don't want to p** your neighbours off.

 

[bumblelion]

Only if its classed as a Controlled waste by the EA, which it is when it comes from commerical stables/liveries. "Horses at home" muck is classed as household waste and therefore you are actually allowed to burn it, even in a residential area, although not advised if don't want to p** your neighbours off.

I didn't know this!! Hmmm, I rent here, do I care what the neighbours think?! LOL I could dothis but would need to move it down the field to do so. How ruined would the ground be do you reckon?

 

[ossy]

I didn't know this!! Hmmm, I rent here, do I care what the neighbours think?! LOL I could dothis but would need to move it down the field to do so. How ruined would the ground be do you reckon?

You need to be able to prove that the manure has been produced from animals kept within the curtilage of a residential house. It is then classed the same as any back garden bonfire which are not illegal. However technically if its just a field with some stables the landowner has the stables and is recieving rent for them it would therefore be classed as a commerical buisness, it is then the waste producer that is resonsible for it so you might not fall into the household category renting. The world of waste management is a very confusing one! I will see if I still have some guidence documents around I could send you a link too.

 

[bumblelion]

Thankyou ossy!! Would be great, it is all very confusing!!

 

[CBFan]

As others have said really but in the mean time consider changing your bedding to something that rots down a bit better. Aubiose, flax or similar is a bit more garden friendly. Particularly if you (semi) deep litter.

 

[bumblelion]

As others have said really but in the mean time consider changing your bedding to something that rots down a bit better. Aubiose, flax or similar is a bit more garden friendly. Particularly if you (semi) deep litter.

I can't use straw as tb has dust allergy.Tried aubiouse and hemcore and my two were too messy for it, they're big boys so easily disrupt and they both roll and box walk! I have to do a full muck out daily otherwise it's hard work! I like big beds too as they roll and I find the less bedding, the more mess!

 

[ossy]

Thankyou ossy!! Would be great, it is all very confusing!!

From what I have reread the fact you rent the land rather than it being your own residence your waste would be a controlled waste and therfore subject to regulations under varies enviromental legislation. I would not burn it unless there really is no body around to complain about it. Below is a link to the varies local EA offices, phone up your nearest one and ask for contact details of registered waste carriers for agricultural waste and they should be able to put you in touch with someone suitable.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/contactus/36324.aspx

 

[ozpoz]

Advertise it as mulch/compost for conifer/ heather, azalea or generally acidic loving plants?
Try Freegle as well as preloved etc.

 

[alison247]

We have hired a skip from our local skip company for the last ten years.
It is a 6meter skip which costs £120.
We have it emptied twice a year. We used paper bedding but had to stop as the skip man used it on fields so are now on shavings. I do burn it occaisionally but the shavings are hard to burn. We have neighbours and have never had a complaint but if they did I would complain about their blardy cockralls waking us up lol

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Only if its classed as a Controlled waste by the EA, which it is when it comes from commerical stables/liveries. "Horses at home" muck is classed as household waste and therefore you are actually allowed to burn it, even in a residential area, although not advised if don't want to p** your neighbours off.

Household waste is controlled waste as a matter of fact. Manures and slurries including natural bedding materials are not considered waste if they are spread to land as a fertiliser for agricultural benefit. However if they are disposed of by burning or burying or they are subjected to a form of treatment such as composting or anaerobic digestion then they become waste and are subject to waste legislation.

There is no exemption under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 for the burning (disposal) of manure by anyone including householders. Therefore disposal by burning is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The best option is either for a agricultural contractor to take it and store at the farm where it will be spread until it matures or for it to go to an exempt or permitted composting site where it will be actively composted. A lot of new types of bedding take a lot longer to breakdown and that means that it is less attractive to farmers.

 

[Rose Folly]

It'll take a bit of time, but try making 'proper' manure. Ideally when it's up and running you'd have 3-4 compartments with manure of different stages rotting down. We do this, and everything goes on it - household compost, grass cuttings, shavings, stable dung and droppings from the field. It really cooks (our son took its temperature last winter and it was 50 degrees C - too hot to stand on in wellies). We give it away free to everyone in the village and lots of other people from round the area. I do work hard on it, including turning it over. It's always alive with worms, and get very good reports (and pressies) back from contented gardeners.

We have 3-4 horses who live out 24/7 but with access to barns with deep-litter shavings. It's 'real' deep litter in that only the poos are taken out, and fresh shavings put on top, so the bottom has half broken down before it ever gets to the muck heap when we do the great muck-out in the spring.

Hope this helps.

 

[beeswax]

what we did was dig a 4ft x 4ft hole in the ground, away from streams, rivers etc, possibly as dry an area as possible, put the shavings in to that hole, burn them and then the ash just breaks down and you keep putting the shavings on and burning it and so on and so on, could even add some grass matter if you like and vegetable peels and chicken eggs and end up making a compost heap, speak to the farmer if you are making a compost heap he will be delighted to help you. have fun

 

[FairyLights]

Put it on Freecycle, people near me get rid of theirs this way.

 

[bumblelion]

From what I have reread the fact you rent the land rather than it being your own residence your waste would be a controlled waste and therfore subject to regulations under varies enviromental legislation. I would not burn it unless there really is no body around to complain about it. Below is a link to the varies local EA offices, phone up your nearest one and ask for contact details of registered waste carriers for agricultural waste and they should be able to put you in touch with someone suitable.
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/contactus/36324.aspx

Will do, thanks a lot for your help! Hopefully will get it gone before the next landlord check!! A farmer at the beginning of winter said he'd take it, then last week when I asked him to get it (being paid to do so too) he said he doesn't do it anymore!! If I'd have known sooner, I wouldn't have let it get so big but because he was charging £35 an hour from moment he left his yard (7 miles away) in tractor to moment he got back and dumped thought I'd do it in one go!!

 

[bumblelion]

Thanks a lot for the advice everyone, hopefully I will sort it soon!! Will keep you posted!!! Big hugs!