Manure Management

[dcsobob]

Morning/Afternoon.

Some initial setup:

1. Small acre farm. I have about 4 acres under fence and working on another 1.5. The 4 acres is parceled of into 2, 1-acre lots, a 3/4 acre lot, and about an acre of lower lot that is mostly surrender and flood area.

2. No tractor. Got a lawn mower (26hp) and a couple of 10cu ft pull carts. no Spreader, no front end loader, nothing

3. 4 horses (3 TWH and a sheltand mix pony)

When I get the upper pasture fenced we will have 3 good areas of rotation and a surrender area for rest time for the other 3.

So, the question is how does a small farm with no equipment mange manure? Last winter di reasarch and attempted a compost effort. Built 3, 8’ by 8’ by 4’ containment areas and carted the manure to them. Stuck in some “holed” 6" PVC lengths for air, covered with a tarp. However, the bins quickly got to the point that I could not turn them. So, I ended up with 3 large poop piles and no way to really mange them. This year I have picked an area in the back lot and I’m just dumping it in a long row, deep enough that I might be able to run a tiller through it to turn it. But, not sure that’s even a good solution.

I don’t have the money/equipment to haul off loads to the dump.

What are others doing? How do you handle manure mgmt on small acreage/limited resource.

[morganpony86]

I personally would invest in a spreader. Entirely worth the investment, IMO.

I spent months composting and moving it to other locations (trees, gardens, etc) but it killed my back. I still do that with some for specific reasons (e.g. my neighbor requested some black gold, I have a few trees that are in need of the composted nutrients), but I broke down and purchased a Newer Spreader. Just the smaller one (8cu.ft) pulled by my riding lawnmower is worth it’s weight in gold in managing 3 horses’ manure production.

[buck22]

I self care board on about 2 fenced acres. I compost manure all year and spread it twice a year and bring home a good bit for my gardens. I have no equipment and do everything by hand.

I go out daily and pick manure and dump it in piles. I keep my piles in the areas the horses have already picked as toilet spots, so I don’t have to walk far. Often, I don’t need a wheelbarrow as the horses are happy to poop around the piles for the most part. This keeps the “roughs” to a minimum too.

I dump my stall cleanings on the piles too. I try to make sure I don’t keep dumping the stall cleanings on the same piles as I’ve found that shavings take a while to break down when in volume, but small layers break down easily.

After a rain, I walk on top of the piles to flatten the top and then with a manure fork pick all the edges and pile on top. This is my process of “turning” the pile. Outside layer gets turned into the middle all year long. I cover my manure piles with hay scraps - either uneaten or the sweepings from my hay barns. I have found that a good cover of hay on top makes the compost happen much sooner and eliminates any fly problems.

At the end of 6 months I have about 3-4 compost piles about the size of a bedded draft horse.

Because these piles are scattered around the paddocks, it makes spreading the compost easy in the spring and fall as I don’t have to walk very far. I just fork my black gold into a wheel barrow, walk it out and dump it into several small piles about the size of a small dog. When I’ve done a dozen or so trips I take my manure fork and just spread the piles out. Pretty easy, just stick my fork in the middle and flick it in different directions. Each little pile ends up looking like an asterik *. I spread compost just before a heavy rain so all the lovely nutrients and microbes dissolve into the ground. If I spread when its dry it just becomes dried dirt.

I often spread lime and hay barn sweepings down first and then the compost on top, so the seeds from the hay have some cover from birds and the chaff can break down too and feed the soil.

I don’t have any fancy structures for compost, just piles, but I do find location counts. Good air circulation helps and its nice to have clearance to walk around the entire pile. I try not to pile too close to large trees or big stands of brush as they send their roots in and suck the moisture out of the piles. Low lying spots are helpful for keeping the piles moist all year.

Since I pick the paddocks a lot of leaf litter and debris makes it into the piles, which I think is a very good thing, but too many leaves will take a long time to break down so I try to avoid having more leaves than manure.

Maintenance of the piles is simple but I do have to pay attention, mostly keeping the piles moist. I bale the water from my trough daily and dump it on the piles. Last year was a wet year and the piles never got too dry, made beautiful compost. Previous years have been dry however and I’ve had to water the piles to keep them damp. A good thick layer of waste hay goes a long way to keeping the piles moist.

Keeping the piles’ edges turned in makes for nice compact tall piles which I think makes for more even composting. Low flat piles seem to dry out more and compost unevenly.

I keep a muck tub lined with a heavy 30gal trash bag with me when I go to spread compost so I can take the primo stuff home with me for my gardens and potted plants.

Its hard work but I enjoy it. I LOVE the smell of fresh compost and love how wonderfully everything grows in it. My gardens are grown almost entirely in compost, I bring home about 60 trash bags full a year.

[Emilia]

Buck22, I would like to say, I like your posts very much. Your horsekeeping and training practices resonate with mine. Your tip on how to get our guy to stay in the trailer was THE answer. Thank you for posting!

I wrote, what I could about the topic on manure management on a recent morganpony’s thread about manure and grass.

It is a tough going with all that manure bursting right and left! :lol:

[buck22]

Aw what a nice thing to say, thank you! Glad your guy is getting along better with the idea of trailering!

[Nestor]

I’m on even less land than you, though with 3 horses. We have a 15’ x 30’ manure pit, and we’re just piling it and have a local farmer who will come pick it up in the spring (and probably more) for free. MANY local farmers want it.

If you have a truck, or something else to pull with, you can also invest in a dump trailer and haul it to a farmer for free if you don’t want a big heap hanging around.

[dcsobob]

Thanks for the information. I’ve looked at many of the small model spreaders, but, budget just does not allow the $1200+ cost for a spreader. I find myself time-limited for doing alot of the work. IF I am lucky I can get an hour at night to get the feeding done and some manure picked up. Most times, manure pickup waits till the weekend when I can devote more time and get it all piled. I know that composting is the way to do it. Had not though about trying to walk on it to press the pile down. I’ll give that some more thought.

I may have to sacrifice budget in other areas to get the spreader.

[dcsobob]

Thanks Nestor. I’ve looked at the dump trailers, but, they are even more expensive than the spreaders. As to the farmers, I live in a farming area that is full of cows and other horses. Abundance of manure in the area.

[Lord_Helpus]

I have a tractor and a drag, bur right now I have 4 horses in a 4 acre field next to the barn for ease of t/o and bringing in. If I do not have time to hitch up and drag, I just go out with my shavings fork and throw each pile of manure as far as I can. While not a perfect solution, it does make the manure dry out faster and prevent “manure grass” = thick fast growing grass that the horses will not eat).

I do drag 2x a week and probaby throw manure another 2x/week. Probably because out of the 4 acres, the horses will poop on only 2 acres. Damn stupid horses…

[DHCarrotfeeder]

@morganpony86;7332258

I personally would invest in a spreader. Entirely worth the investment, IMO.

Check the ratings on the lawn mower. Zero-turns are nowhere near the kind of pulling machine compared to other riding mowers. With ground-driven spreaders, leave plenty of additional room under the weight limit because it will pull a lot harder than the equivalent free-wheeling trailer.

David

[moving_to_dc]

I have 3 horses and 1 steer on almost 5 acres. I spread all of my manure, straight out of the stalls/drylot. I don’t keep bedding in the stalls, as the horses are only stalled to eat meals 2x daily, so the manure is pretty much 100% manure. I might manage things differently if I had lots of shavings/sawdust/straw.

You’ll want to consider the size of your tractor when/if you choose a spreader. I have a 45hp New Holland, and a 22hp zero turn John Deere mower.

I started out with a Peqeau 25G ground-driven spreader. It was too much for my John Deere, and when attached to the New Holland (which has a loader) the combo was simply too big to maneuver into all the corners/areas of my strip-graze-fenced acreage. My strips average 40’ wide x 300’ long. I decided to sell it, and put an add up on Craigslist for just a bit less than I paid for it, and it sold quickly.

I then found a Newer Spreader on Craigslist, a few miles away, never used, always stored indoors. Paid $500 for it, and it is AWESOME! My JD mower can easily handle it, I can get into every nook and cranny, and weave thru trees without issue. I’ve even pulled it by hand once when DH was mowing with the mower. Great workout - needs to be on Biggest Looser!

I haven’t yet overloaded my pastures with manure, and I have been spreading for ~2 years now. The neighbors comment that they have never seen the pastures look so good - last year, the grass was as tall as the horses! But I am not sure how much of that success I can attribute to just the manure, or the perfectly timed consistent rain we had all spring/summer.

[cincoandrain]

Has anyone paid to have manure hauled away and how much is it? I have had 3 horses on 5 acres for almost six years now. My 10x30 manure pile is getting tall. Like the original poster, I don’t have equipment and would have to hire someone with equipment to handle this.

[dcsobob]

Cincoandrain,

I know that some folks rent a dumpster from the local trash folks and have them com pick it up as it fills. I would expect it would run several hundred for someone with a Front end loader and dump truck to come out and remove that pile for you. I’ve got emails into our local trash folks to see how much to rent a dumpster as well as finding out if they will even take the manure as trash.

[dcsobob]

With the Newer Spreader do you compost the manure for a bit before spreading or do you throw it in wet? Which model do you have?

[Lord_Helpus]

[QUOTE=dcsobob;7332627]
Cincoandrain,

I know that some folks rent a dumpster from the local trash folks and have them com pick it up as it fills. I would expect it would run several hundred for someone with a Front end loader and dump truck to come out and remove that pile for you. I’ve got emails into our local trash folks to see how much to rent a dumpster as well as finding out if they will even take the manure as trash.[/QUOTE]

Most dumpster situations I have known do not come as it fills up, but they come on a set schedule, weeky or biweekly. If you keep horses stalled the same amount every day, that is a decent solution (albeit a spendy one). However, if you are like me and keep horses out as much as you can, you will have varying amounts of manure for dumping, A dumpster situation would not work for me since I might need 2 dumpsters a week in extreme weather, and no need in beautiful weather.

[morganpony86]

[QUOTE=dcsobob;7332404]
I’ve looked at many of the small model spreaders, but, budget just does not allow the $1200+ cost for a spreader. I find myself time-limited for doing alot of the work. IF I am lucky I can get an hour at night to get the feeding done and some manure picked up. Most times, manure pickup waits till the weekend when I can devote more time and get it all piled. [/QUOTE]

This was exactly my issue. I work full time, and had to make some decisions in time management. I too would wait until the weekend but then I wouldn’t have time to do other things like weed whack, mow, spray weeds, strip stalls, etc because I’d spend an entire day shoveling manure whether it’d be picking it up, flipping compost piles, or spreading finished compost piles. I realize that all of those jobs would be far easier with a front-end loader, but I definitely don’t have room in the budget for a $10-15k tractor! I realize the sticker shock for the spreader; it certainly was a shock for me! But I bit the bullet and the spreader has made my life much much easier. Instead of cleaning stalls, dumping the manure somewhere to compost, then shoveling it back up again and moving it somewhere else, I dump it in the spreader once, take 5 minutes to spread it, and I’m done with it.

@dcsobob;7332634

With the Newer Spreader do you compost the manure for a bit before spreading or do you throw it in wet? Which model do you have?

No, I do not compost. I pull the tractor/spreader right into the barn by each stall, throw the manure in, and drive where it needs to be spread. I have the Model 100. 8cu.ft is more than enough for 3 horses’ worth of manure a day.

[moving_to_dc]

[QUOTE=dcsobob;7332634]
With the Newer Spreader do you compost the manure for a bit before spreading or do you throw it in wet? Which model do you have?[/QUOTE]

I do not compost my manure. I toss it straight out of the stalls/dry-lot into the spreader. The spreader is extremely maneuverable, and I can handle it easily without the tractor. I push it by hand from stall to stall, and if my stall doors were 2" wider, I would be able to push it right into the stall, but whomever built my barn hand-built the stall with wonky measurements.

I know you don’t have equipment to load your manure, but here in the DC area, I have seen ads on Craigslist for people who want to come take your manure for free. Some of the ads say they bring their own equipment to load the manure. I assume the “picker-uppers” are greenhouses, or business that then compost the manure and re-sell it for a bunch of $$. You might put an ad on Craigslist and see what you get…

[RiderWriter]

OP, you have gotten good advice here and of course I’m also going to suggest you invest in a spreader. Yes, they are a significant upfront investment but the time-and-hassle savings will add up quickly. Note: if your stall pickings include hay and/or straw you will need a spreader with rear beater bars, such as a Millcreek, that can handle those along with manure/shavings and not “choke.”

Good luck with your farm!

[dcsobob]

Yes, that is my one worry but will not know until I try it. I have an 18hp and a 26Hp lawn tractor. I suspect the 26HP should pull it as long as I can get traction

[dcsobob]

I have checked craigslist in the area and there are about 4 or 5 that offer the compost, to include the pickup or delivery option. Mostly larger boarding barns. I may contact the greenhouses.

I did a lot of number crunching last night and discussions with the wife. I think the tax check next spring will be used to get one of the mill creek models. we don’t stall our horses much, only in really bad weather, so I don’t have to worry as much about movment into the barn. But I like the idea of being able to scoop and dump it straight into the spreader, then spread.