goat bedding for compost

[chewie]

i am hoping for help on using my goat's bedding for compost. i have a handful of milkers, will have a few more next spring, but its a simple enough job to just put their used bedding into a garden cart and haul it up to my beds. but i'd like to know how best ot use this stuff? do i just pile it? water it?

[fishhead]

You could just use it straight to your plant beds (mulch) or till it in. Or you could put it in a pile and moisten it (compost) and let it heat up and then break down.

Mulching or tilling it in without composting carries the risk of planting a bunch of weed seeds.

[secretcreek]

Goat manure won't burn like some other manures.

[jwal10]

What do you use for bedding? Straw, shavings? I like to compost it first or work it in, but....I used chopped straw so I do all of the above, I mulch with it around plants that can use more manure, work it in around the plants or into bare ground and compost it first.

[strawhouse]

I compost mine first. I was using it right on the garden, but it was pretty strong smelling, and was burning a little. I just make a big ol pile, let it sit a year, then add it to the gardens. (I only have 4 goats, but I get a BIG pile!)

[RedTartan]

I planted winter squashes in mine fresh from the barn and the plants are loving it! Five butternuts on ONE plant

[suzyhomemaker09]

Goat manure is not a hot type..it can go straight into your planted beds..or if you prefer to compost it works for that as well.

[Natural Beauty Farm]

My pigs till all the stalls during the summer and then each fall I put it in the garden with a cover crop. Till again in spring and the soil is so light and airy year round you can dig through it with your hands for fishing worms.

[Paquebot]

Although goat manure, and a few others, may be used direct in your gardens, would any of you eat it? When used on your vegetable garden, literally straight out of the goat's behind, that's basically what you are doing. Not a lot of risk for pathogens or parasites but still always best to run any manure through one compost heat cycle.

Martin

[sammyd]

We put all kinds of manure out in the garden every spring and fall.
Rabbit, goat, chicken, and the occasional cow patty.

When we plant we use goat bedding to cover our potatoes along with straw instead of burying them in the dirt.

[chewie]

my bedding it either hay that they refused, or straw. i only have 3 in the barn area for now, but come spring there will be 6, if all goes as planned. right now its only one large wheelbarrow every week or so, but as mentioned, that will increase, and instead of just dumping it somewhere it just rots for nothing, i would like to use it for good.

as a side note, i am so loving this full circle i'm finally getting--goats make 'compost', feeds the garden, from which anything extra or spoiled goes to pigs and chickens, as does any whey or extra milk. any extra hay that's still good enough goes to the horses. nothing on my place is getting wasted!

[Use Less]

We emptied the barn a couple times a season when we had goats. Straw or dry leaves from safe-to-nibble trees. Two or three loads went into a square 20' x 20' which became a rhubarb bed. 20 plants now, the stuff is hip-high from June till frost. Never added any more & don't water For the amount of goat raisins, I don't see why you can't layer that in w/other stuff you're composting. They're herbivores, after all. The droppings aren't "hot" like chicken poop. Sue