Spreading directly onto a field give many unmentioned benefits to the soil of the bulky organic matter of stall bedding, which would be much reduced in quantity, bulk, with composting. My clay soil needs lots of organic matter to make soil more absorbent, fertile, a good home to the micro animals that live in soil working for you. Spreading compost is helpful, but I don’t feel as helpful as just spreading the manure itself on acreage. We use a woody fibre bedding, which will take time to break down into dirt. While still woody, it covers dirt with many helpful results, acting as a mulch to absorb water, prevent dirt drying out as quickly so plants have even moisture, roots are not sunburned in heat. Helps prevent erosion In heavy rains, preventing water sheeting off as it drains away. This use of bedding spread directly also helps other soil types be better soil in using the organic matter, not just clay. Got this from our local College, Michigan State, for pasture improvement. Farmers are getting back into grazing for livestock, saves money, is healthier, cheaper as a feeding plan.
I do fertilize yearly after soil testing, the soil nitrogen stays busy breaking down woody things but never is really “gone or used up” as folks claim. Nitrogen is just not available all to the plants NOW, so more needs to be applied for the green plants. My pastures have improved incredibly, we have nicer soil now, with the use of daily spreading of stall bedding on the pastures. Other improved pasture keeping methods like regular mowing grass high, better rotation of horses, also keep pastures in good shape.
We have a larger, not big or huge, PTO driven spreader for manure handling. I had a ground drive spreader as our first one, would never go back to ground drive and the distances needed to drive to fully empty it!! We live in snow country, want that emptied ASAP on wintery days! I feel like I have better options with the PTO, dump in a pile if ground is too wet, snow too deep to get to the pasture for spreading. The one small tractor is 90% used to run the spreader, stays hooked up most of the time. I do not find it a problem to unhook when I need tractor for mowing or dragging, then rehook the spreader which gets used daily. The spreader tractor is a Ford 8N or 9N. We have had several tractors this size over the years. Fairly cheap locally, easy to repair youself until you don’t want to, then replace it with another like it. Sell the worse running one. We are a smaller place, all horses are our own. This Ford worked great until kids left and I had to do my own stalls! Told husband I needed a tractor with a FEL to move sawdust, was not going to be bedding stalls with shoveled bedding. So we got a second tractor with loader, a nice older Kybota. I love it! Feel like I hit the lottery driving it.
We also use the empty spreader for moving branches, fence trimmings, other loads, around the place. I collect raked leaves into it in spring, which also get spread on the fields for their organic matter addition to the soil. Have to say loading, then dumping the leaves is sure easy with the spreader! Never realized how many leaves we had before I collected them, but I got five full spreader loads this last spring. Rake onto a tarp, dump into spreader, makes leaf removal go fast. We have hickory and oaks, no maple trees, so they are fine on pastures. Spreader sure comes in handy for a number of uses. Trying to keep extra trailers, implements, things down because of restricted parking space. Need to sell some stuff, get the space back again.
