How do you get rid of your muck heap?

[Loulabelle007]

Probably a daft question, but I have always been at yards that lose the muck themselves (by some magical means).

I am looking at going DIY at a yard where everyone is responsible for the removal of their own muck - and there is only so much my roses will take!!!!

So, what are the most usual and cost effective ways of muck removal?

Thanks all!!!

 

[meesha]

I pay a friendly farmer to take mine away couple of times a year but I have large muck heap that he removes with tractor and trailer. Next door to me pick poo up straight from field or bedding (using gloves so only poo ) put in old feed bags or gravel bags and take it home and put it outside with a note saying "free manure" it always goes and she gets requests for more and people knock on the door if she hasnt taken any home for a while !!

alternatively, if you have alotments nearby ask them if they want it and get them to come and pick it up once a week or drop it off to them !!

 

[tazzle]

We have made our own little veg garden

we grow veg for the horses to eat when they are on hay when yarded during the wettest of the winter months

this it the only pic I can find at the mo tho I do have some more somewhere else .. just cant find them

might not be possible on a yard though ... surprised folk dont club together pay local farmer take it away.

we also add worms to poo pile to make it transform to compost quicker and make it more attractive to local gardners who come and collect some.

a neighbour does as meesha says and puts in in bags outside gate .......

 

[1Lucie]

omg never heard of that before at a yard! At ours my friend has some huge raised veg patches and filled purely with muck. Grows he biggest veg youve ever seen in you life. So much so all of her neighbours have asked for some too.

You could aproach local farms, they are normally glad to take it from you!

 

[Rose Folly]

We easily dispose of all our manure, but we do make it seriously. We have three bays - Bay One piled high and ready for collection, Bay Two being added to every day, and Bay Three empty (hopefully) in reserve for when Bay Two gets full up. We also add all our house compost to them, and the ash from our log fires.

All our neighbours in the village take the manure, and can't get enough of it. Some just come for a single barrow load, others ask the farmer to bring them round a great pile in the tractor bucket. We never charge, but get some lovely presents which we really appreciate - veg they've grown, or chocolates, or a bottle of wine. One many always gives me £5 for the local church. We also have a very productive veggie and fruit garden.

The temperature in the middle or the mature heaps goes up to 50 degrees C even in winter, and my son is now going to put a coil of hose piping with a control on the other end from one of the stable taps through the manure heap so that we will have hot water on demand - great for cold winters.

It may be more difficult for you to do something like this individually on a yard. Frankly I don't understand why the YO isn't organising it for you. It would be much more efficient than having everybody doing their own thing. And in these hard times, people are crying out for good manure.

NB We don't charge for it because then you lay yourself open to all sorts of problems (grumbles, people expecting you to dig and bag it for them, price comparisons, etc.). Just give it away - get the Brownie points!!

 

[Goldenstar]

Never heard of that one from a DIY yard before.
It's cased as business waste if it comes from a commercial yard they will be in breech of the regs asking you to do this can't help with what to do with it but finding a local farmer who will take it seems the best bet, but if they charge you for this you might be better on a more expensive yard that deals with it properly.
Will you have to put it in your car ?what will you do when the weather is awful and roads snowy and you producing lots of extra muck it sounds a awful hassle.

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

Years ago when we were restoring the Rochdale Canal their were some stables at the top of a cutting and their muck heap was built by tipping down the bank towards the Canal, when visited by British Waterways to get them to stop and clear it up "They Stated" Its Nothing to Do With Us

 

[OldNag]

alternatively, if you have alotments nearby ask them if they want it and get them to come and pick it up once a week or drop it off to them !!

^^^ This. I've got an allotment and I've always been extremely glad of muck. (I now have my own supply now I've got ponies).

This time of year especially is good, as many people want to leave a nice thick layer all over the ground for it to break down over winter. The other main time for manuring is spring.

One problem though is that many allotment holders and veg growers have been hit by the a problem with manure being contaminated with a weedkiller called aminopyralid. If animals have grazed land sprayed by this, it goes on to affect crops that have been manured with the resulting poop. So you may be asked if you know if it's aminopyralid-free.

hth

 

[Toby_Zaphod]

We are at a small yard of 5 horses. The muck is barrowed up a ramp into a large trailer. This is filled every 2 weeks & is then towed to a local farm where the farmer gladly accepts it.

 

[OldNag]

If it helps, I've just checked on the allotment forum I use. If you register as a user there you can post details of the muck you have available, I bet you will get takers.

Or if you give me details I'll post where/when for you (not giving your number though!) and ask people to pm me for full details how to contact you. Let me know if that helps.

 

[alsxx]

I put a post on freecycle offering my manure, and have a lovely man that has an allotment and has taken it away for me for the last 2 years.

He sometimes brings his pals too would recommend logging on to your local freecycle and advertising it that way, he told me had been paying £45 for a trailer load of manure before!!!! Works great though as its just me there, I build up my muck heap over winter, and he comes and takes it away over the summer, so by winter I have an empty 'heap' again.

 

[millimoo]

We let the farmer take the hay off our 4 acre field every summer.
In return he provides two large trailers in rotation, bringing the empty one down when he collects the full one. It's mutually beneficial as we use Hayledge rather than hay as we don't have enough storage, and he also tops our other paddock too.
No money changes hands at all

 

[missshell]

I pay a local farmer to remove it once a year (2 horses worth)
Have just had a guy ask if he can take it for his garden so have told him to help himself and spread the word!

 

[bumblelion]

I pay a farmer to collect it twice a year!

 

[Maggie2009]

At our yard the owners have started to bury the manure in the individual turnout paddocks,cover with a layer of soil and then reseed it.Myself and other owners are worried about worms then contaminating the paddocks.

 

[Fairytale]

I spread mine on my fields - saves buying fertiliser

 

[Faithkat]

I put ads on a couple of local Freecycle sites and had to remove them pdq as I was inundated with replies. This time of year is a good time to advertise as people are digging over and ferlilising ready to plant next Spring.
Although I haven't advertised for about a year, people who came last year still contact me for more.

 

[JanetGeorge]

I spread mine on my fields - saves buying fertiliser

Ditto - and I generally have a minimum of 20 horses stabled during the summer - and closer to 30 in the winter, so vast quantities. Bedding is mainly paper - with a few boxes on shavings. I have two BIG concrete block walled muckheaps for daily use, and empty these (with tractor) regularly onto big piles close to the yard but out of the way! The big piles get to about 7' high before they are considered 'full' and I start a new one. During spring, summer and autumn I use the well-rotted muck to spread on fields due for resting.

Being on heavy clay, I need to get all the organic matter I can into it - and the pasture has improved 100% in the past 10 years as a result. Because it's stacked so high and left for at LEAST 6 months, the heat generated is amazing and it breaks down into lovely, friable 'black gold' - with no risk of spreading worm eggs (they'd never survive that long at the temperatures the heaps reach.)

 

[bexandspooky]

Our heap is quite large, but well contained, and some of the stuff lower down has been in there for 4/5 years. We have a chap who comes and gets it for his allotment, he comes every week through the winter. It comes out like peat - thick and black and easily 'sliced' with a shovel. He digs one side out and once he has finished at the end of the year, I fill it back up and the next year he works from a different side.

Apparently since he has been using our muck, his veg are noticably bigger, and they crop earlier and for longer. He plants his veg straight into the manure.

He refuses to tell any of his other allotmenters where he gets it from and they all want to know!! Perhaps we should start charging for it!!

 

[Tinsel Trouble]

I muck out into a small trailer (6' x 4') and empty it down the pig farm a couple of times a months. It costs me nothing, but me and the car smells of pig manure for a couple of days!!!