I recently bought new home and my neighbors have horses. I need some opinions on whether or not this is acceptable. They spread their manure/shavings 20-25 feet from my house almost daily. Sometimes, multiple times a day. It is their land so I understand it is their right. Is this something I should just overlook? The flies and smell from the shavings is pretty rough at times. They seem to think it is perfectly fine but I am at my wits end dealing with the flies. I have known the people my whole life. They seem to be respected in the horse world but they are making it quite miserable for us. I would guess they own 10-12 acres so they have other space to use. I’m not one to start trouble but I don’t know what to do.
check local zoning ordinances (if there are any) … here no closer than 100 feet
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why did you move into a neighborhood with a lot of horses if you don’t have horses?
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[QUOTE=Manni01;n10113816]
why did you move into a neighborhood with a lot of horses if you don’t have horses?
I have lived in this area my whole life. I actually grew up on the property next door to where I am now. I have no issues with the horses. I have an issue with the way the manure is handled. They spread over one path so it piles up.
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Check city/county ordinances to see what it says. I’m guessing there is no HOA where you live? Are there other horse owners, if yes how do they handle manure disposal. My neighbor spreads hers in her field behind her house, i use a dumpster and have it dumped weekly. I wish it was mandatory that dumpsters be required not optional, I agree the flies are worse, so far I don’t get the smell though.
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Around here some people use dumpsters and others spread or do muck piles. There’s nothing regulating it around here. Unless there is there is truly nothing you can do. Yes if you know the people you can ask about them changing their routine but you can’t make them. If the flies are bothering you I would suggest getting fly predators. They work well for me. To be honest even before the horses moved in we had a lot of flies so it may not be a direct result.
Perhaps some Gov’t agency could declare it unsafe, spread so very close to the house. Is your well near it or any rain runoff from the spreading? Certainly worth checking into. We have a Right To Farm law, but even so there can be local rulings about waste managing. Especially when it affects water runoff and they have other property to spread on.
This sounds terrible, spreading over and over in the same path. I spread lightly on fields near the neighbors houses or in winter, so any flies are few or none in the cold. Smell is minimal with sun drying things out quickly. I have spoken with the neighbors, told them to call if they plan an outside event so I can avoid spreading by them until it is over. They said they don’t ever notice any smells.
Interesting. Its always been my experience that once Manure is pretty dried out, which it would be when spread, the flies are pretty slim. Of course I could be entirely wrong. I too would put up a ton of fly predators along that side of your property. I would also have a chat and just let them know how what they are doing is affecting you. You don[t have to wait for an answer, or expect one, just let them know. If they are good neighbors they will try to work with you about it. Otherwise, you are on your own about it. I would definitely find out what the local zonging etc is about it.
For example, I once had a really super creepy landlord, who owned my property where I was renting, and the property next door, where she lived. My property was a lovely huge hay field, on rolling hills, with apple trees. Gorgeous. After I moved in, she built a PVC material picket fence around my house, 5 feet around my house, 5 feet high, and that was the property I was renting. I wasn’t aloud to venture outside the fence. Found out my lease did not include the basement of the house I was renting, so she was entering the basement of the house all the time, while I was away. Very creepy lady.
Anyway, unable to walk my own land, I found out that the town had a lovely town owned property adjacent to her land, with walking trails. So I sallied forth, enjoying the spring in the woods, to run into a small mountain village of piled up horse manure and sawdust. She was dumping her manure right on the edge of her own property, yes, along the walking path of the town property. What a nasty person. I realized that it was actually wetlands, though, and her piles of manure were leaching into the streams and water table back there. My best friend was on the town wetlands comittee. Another good friend had a saw mill nearby, and had found her tractoring loads of sawdust out of this sawmill to use for her horse bedding. Her response when he confronted her? “You’re not using it, don’t be a bad neighbor”. I relayed to him the story of finding his sawdust and her manure dumped near the town wetlands and needless to say, I soon saw a huge rented backhoe going back and forth down the lane along the town land, presumably rented by her to clean up that huge pile leaching into the wetlands.
Not saying your neighbor is irresponsible. I doubt anyone has a neighbor like I had, above. However, if it were me, I would proabaly want to make sure there arent any wetlands being affected by this, plus, I would want to find out from tthe town how much they are allowed to expose you to their manure. Its entirely possible there are rules about it, so I would say just check those out.
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I think the previous owners have tried getting the local government involved but nothing changed. You are right about the smell. It isn’t bad once the sun hits it for a while but they do it so often over the same path. The urine smell gets pretty bad. I will try to post a picture. It is about a 6-8 ft wide, ~300 ft path that they use. Funny that you mention your neighbors having outside events. We had everything set up for my 4 year old’s birthday party clearly visible. They came out and spread about an hour before the party.
Pic was too large. Here is a link of a pic taken from my carport.
https://imgur.com/a/8jxoiZq
They know how it is effecting us. I have let them know. So have the previous owners. The only compromise that they would go for was to spread the manure in my dad’s field which is behind my house as opposed to on side of it. I have known them since I was 4 or so and have always had a decent relationship with them. Never any issues until this.
The best option would be if you can just negotiate with them on a personal level and convince them to spread or compost the manure in a more distant spot on their property.
If the friendly approach doesn’t work, then the next step is to call your local zoning office and check into any local ordinances. Some local ordinances do address how livestock waste must be handled. This type of action can on some occasions result in a lot of hard feelings, so I think you’d need to be prepared for that.
Getting a dumpster or otherwise paying for manure removal is very expensive, so it’s unlikely that they will do that without a much bigger fight.
Whatever you choose to do, you may want to consider planting a screen of thick trees/shrubs to block the view of the manure and maybe block some of air movement and flies.
Whatever happens is unlikely to change the number of flies, so I think that being proactive about some fly predators is very good advice.
Not sure if Farm Bureau might help you with waste disposal. One bad farmer makes ALL farmers look bad and get in the news. They have State level folks you can talk to, know the laws. For some phone time, could be worth the effort. Any farm waste affecting water is a hot button issue around here. Also things spread so close to your house in deep layers!! Kind of amazing you are getting ignored!
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The owner of the farm is the president of large horse related association so you would think he wouldn’t want to give farmers a bad name. I will check into farm bureau.
I have tried negotiating. He would only go for spreading it onto my dad’s property. They have a completely unused 5 acre plot across from their barn but refuse to spread over there. I honestly think they get a bit of enjoyment doing this to us.
I would recommend trying to stay focused on what your goal is rather than trying to guess what these folks are or aren’t thinking. Is it possible they enjoy irritating you? Sure. It’s probably much more likely that they have their way of managing their horse operation and don’t want some neighbor telling them what to do. I run a farm and I can’t imagine not proceeding with any of our daily work because of a neighbor’s party, so I think that it’'s a stretch to assume that they were being jerks by spreading manure right before your party. It’s also possible that they simply think you are overly sensitive to flies and odor after moving in next to a horse property.
Trying to remain pleasant and reasonable as you investigate a more formal solution through your local zoning office is probably in your best interest. If there aren’t any zoning laws that protect you, I would proceed with other things like fly predators and some kind of a privacy fence or screen of dense plants.
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I can assure You, I have not once tried to tell them how to do anything. Also, I have lived in the area my whole life. I grew up around 1000ft from my current home. I’m used to animals. My dad and I own cattle. I’m not asking them to change their operation. Just a little bit of courtesy. I have been friendly with them my whole life. Now, they literally do not acknowledge us. Not even a wave.
As far as the fly predators go, would I need to get to the piles and spread them out? I will try it if it will help. I had 20+ flies in my kitchen/living room a few mornings ago. I just put a large fan at my back door blowing out and that seems to have slowed them from coming in.
When you were still living at home, did your parents ever bring this up with them?
ETA we spread fly predators around our manure pile. They work great. Also, if I’m remembering correctly, manure could not be spread near the well. I forget the exact footage but that maybe why it’s not going elsewhere. Other than that we had no zoning restrictions on manure.
The part that they spread near my dad’s property is 9-1000ft from his house. Never an issue.
It might be that your neighbors are a little put out that you are having this issue. I’m not saying you are in the wrong, but they might have assumed since you grew up next door that there would be no problems. What is their response when you talk to them? Oh I see that they are unwilling to move.
I have redone my manure plan to accommodate new neighbors and it was a pain in the butt.
