Compost vs. Fresh Manure

I am in the middle of changing my practices regarding compost / manure as well. Here are some of the things I considered. Am I spreading for vegetable production or pasture? Since my compost piles are not covered, what are my losses while composting? When I pull out a bedding pack, I don’t think the losses are as great as when I pile horse manure every day. I have one pasture where rain run off is spread out with a long ditch. I have seen excessive growth, without any legumes. My understanding is that Legumes will die out when N is persistently high.

I am just starting to build a spreader shed attached to my horse barn. I will start spreading the horse manure / bedding (currently saw dust), on pasture when the spreader is full. Spring, summer, and fall. I will continue to compost my pack from the winter sheep housing.

Also check out the work of Eric and Anne Nordell on how they save nutrients in their compost. Very impressive.

I compost all the manure/straw/hay that I can because I have very little pasture. Spreading composted manure on the pasture results in edible pasture sooner than if I had spread it green. Green manure has to break down for at LEAST a month here (in my climate and location) before my horses will eat the grass that grows through it. Also, the composted manure has fewer parasites and viable weed seeds than the green manure.

I compost my manure in a covered bay system. I don’t have a tractor, so it is a rather lengthy process. I start filling a new bay at the start of each winter. I spread the finished product by the 2nd or 3rd year.

I can’t speak to the nutrient losses in green vs cooked manure. For me, any nutrients recovered by the pasture via the application of the composted manure is a bonus. I can’t afford the loss of grazing time that comes with spreading green manure on my small pastures.

When one pasture is done being grazed, I move the horses to a fresh one and drag the spent one. The horses are quite tidy and use one or two areas for their manure almost exclusively. I harrow these “latrines” many times from all directions. By the time that pasture is ready to graze again, the manure that has been dragged out of the latrine by the mat harrow has broken down sufficiently as to not be a grazing deterrant. However, they still won’t graze the latrine itself.

If I apply green manure to the spent pasture in a single batch and then harrow it in as I do the latrines, it is also sufficiently broken down by the time that pasture is ready to graze again. However, I found that if I am going to the trouble of saving up my manure in a heap in order to spread it when a pasture is spent and ready to be harrowed… I might as well just leave it in the heap and let it compost properly. The compost can be used anywhere without worry – root vegetables, pasture, orchard.

I spread some composted manure on the finished pasture after I have dragged the latrines.

The manure that goes in the composting bays is from the tie stalls and the dry lot. In the summer I end up composting only about 1/3 to 1/4 of the horses’ output. In the winter, more like 9/10ths since the horses are only on the pasture when there’s snow on the ground. The rest of the time they are in tie stalls or on the dry lot.

We have a covered, cement lined manure shed we have used for 30 years. We keep 5-6 draft horses, some pigs and a dozen sheep and a couple of goats. The horse manure is by far the largest component of the resulting manure/compost. I tried one spring parking the spreader under the bucket coming out of the barn thinking to save time and spread directly. I was spreading the composted manure at the time, so out in the field I had strip after strip of composted manure spread and then 1 of fresh, and then more composted. All year in the hay I could see where the fresh manure was spread – it didn’t look as though any manure had been put there at all. Ever since then I try very hard not to ever spread fresh manure – the composted has so much more effect. I do turn the parts of the pile in the course of the year, usually spreading only in the spring, though we may get some spread this fall.
I used to have a small leak in the roof and the compost/manure was always black and moist. I fixed the roof and now I have to add H2O and it does come out nice and black and the fields love it. Jay

There is a great 19th century plea for covering manure in Ten Acres Enough.

Can anyone address the pros and cons of spreading fresh and/or compost in Fall vs. Spring. Other than wet areas are usually more accessible during a dry Fall like this (in NH).

Mark

Legumes will fix nitrogen from the atmosphere if it is not available in the soil. If N is applied from manure or other sources the legume will use it and fix less. I have not heard of N being toxic to legumes, but heavy N fertilization will stimulate grass growth so that it is much more competitive than legumes. Legumes don’t like competition. An example is the increase in white clover in pasture when it is over-grazed, and the increase in grass when N fertilizer is applied.