Compost Building

I don’t have a comment but can tell you what I do with my cow manure. Since it’s mixed in with hay waste from the feeders I have to compose most of it so it will not clog up the beaters on the spreader.

My pit is 36′ by 36′ with 3′ high waste concrete block walls and a concrete floor. It’s connected to my two dry lot areas and loafing barns where my cow spend most of the winter. All the yards and buildings have concrete floors. The cows also have free access to two sacrifice paddocks with mounds for walking around and goofing off. My winter waste just about fills the pit up to a height of 3 to 4′

On winter days when the manure is not frozen I push it into the pit with a skid steer and pile it up in sections. The stuff with waste hay in one area and the cleaner stuff in another. In the spring the clean manure gets spread on the fields and garden. The rest get re-piled and turned every couple of weeks through the summer until the hay is broken down and then I spread it which is usually in the fall. I sometimes drag it after spreading using my horses and a chain drag. This breaks up the bigger clumps and scratches the ground up bit.

Before I put the concrete down I had a terrible mess in the spring with muck up to the cows stomachs and stones in my manure which ended up in the fields and occasionally were flung at me on the tractor. No cover on the pit but I don’t get a lot of runoff from it either. The whole system works great and I like it a lot.

I don’t use any commercial fertilizer and vary my manure applications based on the field’s needs and uses. Since I buy most of my hay (about 150 round bales a year) and graze all my open land I am importing fertility on to the farm each year. We have abundant clover, too much in fact for the cows and I have to keep an eye on them in some areas because of the potential for bloat. The bees love it however and we routinely make 100 plus lbs. of honey per hive each year on the white clover. Cows, managed pastures and honey bees have a three way symbiotic relationship.

Ed, sounds about right. My dream plan includes pigs in part of the upper structure to turn the compost, and a green house as well to take advantage of the CO2 and nitrogen rich warm air.

Carl

Ed, as you mentioned, you have seen my compost shed. Its 3 bins…all 10 x10 with removable walls on 3 sides. The back side and floor are cement. The walls are 4 feet (the cement wall is alittle higher). It has a roof, but is open otherwise. Moisture has not been an issue and I have not had to add water to my compost.

In early spring, when it was still pretty cold out at night, I put the new piglets in one bin, while I finished filling the other two. In two weeks they had turned that pile over to my satisfaction. That pile went on my potato patch. Then I moved them to the other two bins, so they had twice as much room. They had both bins composted within the month and then they went to the goat pen, where they are now. Over all, I couldn’t be happier with that arrangement and will do it again next year.

The only change I would make (and still might) is to make to walls abit taller.

Nice Ed….pictures please!

Looks very much like mine…always a good sign that I haven’t seriously f%^&d up!:p

Very nice, Ed! Now go work on that spreader…I want pictures before October!!!!