I was reading about bokashi composting (an anaerobic composting technique), which is basically fermentation. It apparently creates a lot of liquid by product that needs to be drained off. So maybe there isn’t enough oxygen getting in? I also read about composting for small farms where they put the manure in large garbage cans and then pipe in a leaf blower that is on a timer to blow air into the bin for 2 mins every hour. This will apparently fully compost a garbage can full of horse poop in a couple of weeks. I could probably do this with a few garbage cans but getting power to the spot where I would want to store the poop cans would be a challenge. And the leaf blower needs to be protected from the weather. Why does this have to be so complicated?
@Weezer What you’re describing with the blower is the O2 Compost system @Libby2563 has set up.
Hahaha, horse people are so weird, aren’t we! 
My bins aren’t NEARLY as fancy as what you have, but it’s worked really well for us. I think I have quite a lot more room to let this cook for months and our tractor definitely gets back in there. Pls forgive the spring weeds etc, I’m just back to barn work after taking several weeks off after surgery.
Three bins. Each is 16’ deep & 8’ wide. Oak fencing planks for sides. Floor is just dirt. Four horses, in at night, on pelleted bedding. I mostly just use the first & third bin…but the middle one is great to have in the dead of winter when I don’t want to spend hours moving a done bin to make room. If I had to do it again, I would have used 2 by lumber or rough cut 2 by. Fence guy said these planks would be fine, but thicker woulda been better–these really warp with the moisture.
Fresh stuff in the first bin, just turned over. Obviously not near done.
What’s cooking in bin three. I turned this over with the tractor to try to show the inside, but it’s all nicely crumbly, and it just backfilled itself. This is about 3 months old. Still hot, still a couple months before done, but getting there
This is totally done compost that’s been moved out of the bins and is fill to extend a slope.
Fresh stuff gets turned by the tractor as the bin fills up and everything gets piled up and back. And then when the first bin is full, it all gets moved to the third bin. After that, it just sits. No cover, just gets rained on. When it’s ready to go, it’s also just LOADED with earthworms. The hotter parts of the pile is home to little mice families (sigh) and the occasional snake (a bit of a surprise, but a sign of a healthy ecosystem?!)
We used to have just a pile, and it was a nightmare to work, even with the tractor. Having bins makes it SO much easier to keep contained and sort out what is ready to be used elsewhere.
I think that renting the dumpster may be the best way to go.
BTW, we compost our manure, but we don’t have a fancy system. Everything just gets put in a pile. There’s a finished pile, and the currently working pile. There are little to no shavings, and very little hay. (We burn the remnants of winter’s round bales in spring, large amounts of hay don’t get put in the compost.) Besides the horse manure from three horses, there is a lot of chicken manure and bark mulch that we use to bed the chicken runs, and some leaves and grass clippings.
The key to our set up is a tractor with a front end loader. The working pile needs to be turned once a month with the front end loader to ensure even heat distribution and continued decomp. It takes about 12 months for the pile to finish working, and by then it’s black, dense and crumbly, with no distinct manure bits and can be put on the gardens and fruit trees or sold to gardeners.
But this would not be possible without turning with the FEL, so I do think the dumpster option would be best.
I have both. A concrete bottom bin where the manure goes directly from stalls, and then a series of piles that are a bit farther away and can be approached from all sides with the tractor, so you can flip it all.
In the end, I don’t really care about the product, just trying to make it smaller. If I did, I’d pour a concrete pad for the piles too, so that they are less likely to migrate and just form giant weed piles. But you can flip the weed growth as well. If I want to use it for my gardens, I dig deep to the center of an old pile to try not to get any weeds.
I"m gonna have to try to find some photos…but this IS a subject I’m kinda the poster child for! HA!! I have a very small property. VERY. I always thought I’d want a tractor. I truly DONT anymore. For what? I don’t have the fields or the land to use one on. So, think that out. I do have a garden tractor/mower, and I did buy a Newer spreader. I have a tiny (cute as a button) little barn and I felt I could use the Newer spreader for sure. But honestly, its (IN MY OPINION) ‘meant’ to clean stalls, drive off and spread. its not meant to be filled from a huge compost pile. too little to fill with a FEL, and compost so heavy to fill by shovelfull. so to me its a ‘pick’ (stall or field) and spread type of function. That said: I DID plan a nice 3 bin system. It was (and certainly could be anytime) to be electrified to speed up composting. so far? I’ve had the bins manure contents hauled away once filled, typically? about once a year. but, they DO make a huge difference in flys…in ease and help of how to fill. I designed mine with a slight upgrade to the tops for wheelbarrow loads, and in the back ground pad for removal. on the small properties? I’d design a space for containing the ‘pile’ for ease of dumping and ease of removal with covers on the bins FIRST. it helps so much. then? perhaps use your spreader for picking paddock days and if ever needed direct from a stall. but without a large area to spread compost on, I would probably get a harrow instead .
This was the hard part for us. I didn’t have room to get to the “pile” spot from every side, and that just made it a royal pain in the ass to manage. We’re just too hilly, not much flat ish space for manure pile management. That’s where the bins have shined, I only need access from one angle.
Well… I am the World’s Laziest Composter. 
My pile was from 2 horses - bedded on shavings, then pellets, now back to shavings - until I added a mini 5yrs ago.
I used to fill a wheelbarrow, then trundle that across the indoor to a side door on either side & dump there - so I had 3 piles.
3rd from when I picked stalls & lazily tossed the forkfuls over the fenceline into an area formed by my attached indoor & the fence.
I never turned the pile, except when removing the top layer to get the Good Stuff beneath for my gardens.
When I do, the underneath stuff has composted so well, it steams & has a layer of ash.
A neighbor regularly comes & hails away 1/3+ of the pile by the barn for his garden.
Horses are out 24/7, with access to stalls if they want & {knock wood} since grass has come in I have rarely had to pick a pile from any of the 3 stalls.
I was at 5 days & counting when the mini left me a pile in his stall last night.
The manure in the 2 pastures - small: ~.5ac, large: ~2ac - I leave where it lays.
Drylot surrounds the front 1/2 of the barn & I will pick piles there & toss over my fenceline - into pastures or the small L-shaped hayfield on my acreage that a neighbor cuts & bales.
I thought I wanted a Newer Spreader, but in 17yrs have gotten along fine without.
@ayrabz Your system looks awesome.
You shame me 
I borrowed a Newer Spreader to spread my composted manure pile. It did not work well for the manure that was composted.
It worked great for the little bit a fresh manure.
2dogs…you made me laugh seriously!!! ‘I SHAME YOU??’ buahahaha…it wasn’t lost on me you wrote: then trundle that across THE INDOOR. please! I’d kill for an indoor. my manure dump area came from total NECESSITY simply because I didn’t have the land to have one!!! . the hard pack is all I have (and you can see how close to the house :() directly from our driveway lane. out of camera are our tiny ‘turnouts’ and that is all I have. woods on all 3 sides directly into ravines and non buildable useable. side fencing of turnouts directly on others property lines. so, I used all the space I had! to me: enough land to spread manure on, to have a large composting system, to have a nice tractor and FEL is always the best way. It wasn’t available for me to do that here! so my input was from a person who decided her tractor would be a huge waste of money…and went another way.
Great composting pics! I had to chuckle because I do not think most people would ohhh and ahhh at pics of how we store and compost horse sh&! Love it!
so, again, my pix have to do with a small footprint of no land. (at least that is useable) so for reference here are a few more showing how it was orchestrated for small land area for machinery and hay delivery and manure removal.
I have a total of 5ac. Including the acre-ish plot the house & lawns sit on.
In hindsight, I wish I had done perimeter fencing to maximize pasture & minimize mowing.
Indoor was admittedly my Folly when I built. Thought I had to have one, then I hardly used it the first 5yrs, preferring to ride outside. Lost my Steady Eddie horses & the New Guy - 17H WB - was iffy outside & his Evasion of Choice was UP 
Now it is largely 1/3 to 1/2 hay storage for my hayguy. In return I get hay - delivered & stacked - for an embarrassingly low price.
I do use it now to lesson on my newest horse, but infrequently, as I am a Weather Wuss.
I maintain your bin system is A Thing of Beauty. And far more presentable than the pile I have mostly out of sight 
The view from my back porch, some 250’ to the barn:
OMG. SO worth it. Nearly unlimited storage of embarrassingly cheap hay & a great relationship with your hay guy? A place to ride in poor weather is the bonus! If we were all so lucky to have such expansive hay storage! 
I would have done the EXACT same thing!!! if i could have. so its turned out to be a big win win for you!!! thats never money wasted. my entire property is only 4.23 acres with the majority of THAT in the woods/ravine to a creek in a protected zone for the Chesapeake bay. so…Ihave about?? 1.75 acres in turnout. so no indoor for me! (or even a footed arena.) Your view is to envy!!!
My manure goes directly on the pasture. I have 4 horses on 3 acres. I have a drag that I can use to spread it with, but I prefer to dump the manure on whatever gets mowed next and use the mower to spread it. I also try to time it so I mow before it rains. I tried composting and ended up creating a mud filled pile of compost. No problems with flies either.
I thought an issue with shavings is when first breaking down the wood pulls nitrogen from its surroundings? Hence why uncomposted shavings may be harder on the land? Trying to figure out what to do with my shavings pile as I in the past mostly used straw…does one add Nitrogen when composting?
@Simkie & @ayrabz Yes, I know I got the Deal of the Century.
To be clear, the hay stored in the indoor belongs to hayguys. My hay gets stacked on pallets inside my barn. Hayguys get a deal too, as most places charge per bale for storage.
Even with as many as 7 loaded wagons (Inc 2 huge cage wagons) still plenty room for my Dressage trainer to work with me and/or for me to piddle around on my own.
In really bad weather - or for my convenience - I will sometimes turn horses into the arena. Hayguys understand some pillage may occur
Mini plundering a wagon:
I use fine shavings and some bedding pellets, so no big chunks of wood products. Still didn’t do my pasture any favors. I have spread the stall cleanings in a wooded area as a sort of mulch. That worked out fine but it only lasted so long. Manure management on a small farm is painful.
@Libby2563 your blog has been so helpful to me. I wish I had found it earlier. Not only did I your posts on pasture management inspire me to do better (my pastures are looking great right now, BTW) but your system for keeping up with hay and feed use on a calendar is genius. I have never had a good system - I would keep track of what I bought but not actually know how much I was USING day to day. I was always guessing. Now I count my hay strings every Sunday and keep track of feed, bedding, etc. on my calendar as I open bags. So simple and so effective. Thanks!
It would be the mini to pull a whole bale off the wagon! Precious
