Manure

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Chloesmum

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One of the things that I hadn't thought through when I bought Chloe to live at home with me was what to do with all the manure. She has been here two months now and I am fast running out of room on my heap. I bed her on shavings and with the stuff from overnight and what I clear each week from the two acre paddock it amounts to more than I ever imagined. A friend burns her straw/manure and harrows her ground (she has four horses and loads of paddocks). Does anyone have any ideas for me please......
 
Hi Cloesmum,

I have the same problem as you. keep three on a 1/4 acre space, all in stables - No space for muckheap. And here is what I do:

Rubber Matting - seriously reduces the amount of bedding you have.
I contacted a local gardening club and they take most of it for me - so I muck out into bin bags - 1 per horse per day with the matting.
If not, I am going to get a little trailer and contact local farmers to come and get it for me.

I find that mucking out into the bags means that I don't have a smelly much heap which attracts flies etc and I can get rid of it at the tip if necessary. I am a bit of clean feak with my yard though!

Its just a real headache whatever and unless you find someone to take it, you amy have to end up paying to get rid of it.
 
Think you will find its illegal to burn it now.

Parents have permenant heap to rot down (in far field) but have enough land so thats ideal. We used to pay farmer to come and scoop up heap and take away with a trailer. Think it cost about £40 every 3 months but would depend on farmers round you
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I'd phone around and see.
 
The trouble with using shavings is that it takes soooo much longer to rot down.

I use rubber matting and a thin layer of straw on top. This rots down very quickly and we spread it on our fields in the Spring.

If you are using shavings, the best thing I can suggest is that you remember to turn your manure pile at regular intervals - this will help to speed up the decomposing. Leave the pile for a year and then start a new one the following winter. By the time the next Spring comes along, your 2 year old pile will be ready to spread on your fields.
 
Have you thought of changing your bedding? I used to use shavings but the muck heap was massive and people didn't want it as manure. I now use Equisorb or Aubiouse on rubber mats and the heap rots down quickly, plus gardening neighbours are keen to use the manure for their gardens.
 
My recycling works even better! Italians have a real thing about growing their own veg and lots of them so I have no problems with my muck heap getting out of control.The nice thing is that my muck goes away as muck and returns in the form of local wine (Dolcetto), truffles, cheese and tons of veg of every shape and size
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Now thats what I call recycling! Mairi.
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I can hardly keep up with the demand for mine! I use hemcore, which rots down faster, and makes for a smaller muckheap. I then bag it (my son is meant to!) and put it at the gate with a courtesy bucket, sell it for 50p/bag and it goes like hotcakes. You could always pay a local farmer to take it away - about £40, I think my neighbour pays.
 
If the european parliament gets its way, shavings will be banned! Ive stopped using them and have changed to pelleted straw which I love (less on the muck heap too). It seems that shavings will be banned due to fact that if spread on land or left to rot down they change the PH level of the ground making it acidic. Some areas in Austria have already banned shavings. Nothing is sacred anymore
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. Mairi.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The trouble with using shavings is that it takes soooo much longer to rot down.

[/ QUOTE ]

We use miscanthus which seems to rot quicker, also makes a good garden mulch whereas wood shavings don't.
 
No better ideas for how to get rid of muck, but regular watering with a bucket of water (yes, really!), turning and 'stomping' will all help it to rot faster. Also, try to section your heap - once one section is complete, start on the next one, etc, and hopefully by the time you've reached the last section the first one is rotted and ready to be spread and replaced with new muck.
 
We get ours from fennington fibres. It's more absorbant than woodshavings and can be put straight on the garden as a mulch. I think nwe pay about £5 a bale.

All I can say is that it seems more absorbant than wood shavings.

I'd imagine it's quite like hemp.
 
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