Composting manure in 55gal drums?

r.h. - about how many holes is "several"? 20? 60? 100? So you say you put them near the top and near the bottom? Would you say that the middle 2/3 of the can has no holes?

As long as the manure isn't absolutely soggy when I put it in, I have had it cook very very fast in a plastic 45 gallon trash can (in the sun, in the summertime). If I don't put the containers in the sun, away from the treeline, we do get some composting action over the winter. If I put the containers in the shade, there's almost no cooking from mid-November till at least late March.

Late fall to mid-spring is the only time I really collect much manure. The rest of the year I leave most of it on the pasture and drag it with the pasture drag. They tend to poop in heaps that compost pretty fast in the sun. I rotate pastures on about a 5 week schedule. After they use a pasture, I leave the manure to cook for about 3 weeks. Then I drag the pasture to spread the piles. About two weeks later the horses are grazing that pasture again.

As I see it and offer my opinion---your biggest problem is that you are not adding enough other material to your manure to even get composting action going minimally. May I suggest that you check out this site: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fu...n_nitrogen.htm

Can you get paper to add to the mix?

Kind of risky in my opinion, but can you get stall cleanings from other stables which are more carbon based material than nitrogen based to bring you nitrogen material into a better ratio for composting?

Consider buying straw to add to your mix and then sell the finished product to cover your expense. To compost quickly you really need to shred the straw into smaller pieces however.

Just my opinion but you will be buried in manure long before it turns to compost unless you find other amendments to add in greater quantities.

That part of the pile that lay uncovered for so long might need to be aerated and mixed with something before it starts cooking again. I agree that the piled manure would cook better if I had a "fluffing" agent to add to it - such as hay or newspaper or bedding. On the rare occasions that I stall my horses, it is in tie stalls and I don't bed them. I'm not so desperate yet that I am willing to go to the trouble of importing additional compost components.

The manure in the wire cages cook pretty good though. Last summer I cooked and spread three of the 4' x 4' wire cages worth of manure. I unwire the outside of the cage and the compost falls loose in a heap. I shovel it up and pile it up on the ground sled. Hitch a horse to the ground sled and drive across the pasture while I kick the compost off the back of the sled. A manure spreader would be nice but they aren't very manouverable. Costly, too!

What qualifies the "fluffing agent" you refer to is the amount of carbon in it, wood chips and sawdust are great sources of cheap carbon, you can proabably use both for bedding resulting in a nice carbon/nitrogen(the horse manure) mix that would heat vigorously and compost quickly. Odor is the simplest indicator that you need more carbon. The odor is your nutrients getting away in the form of gas.

Sounds like you need to sell or give away some manure. Maybe you could barter with someone for some straw or other compost materials.

The barrels will fill faster than you can believe. I tried it for my teeny weeny sheep and bunny pellets and the number of barrels I would have needed was nuts.

You could use the barrels to make manure tea, and then spread or pile the leached manure in compost - by then it will have lost a lot of it's pungent punch.

Here's instruction to make a rotation barrel if you figure out how to get some dry matter for making compost:
http://www.solidwastedistrict.com/pr...bin_barrel.htm

I wouldn't choose the barrel route if I were in your position. Between the quantity, moisture and lack of materials, you will most likely wind up with a product closer to toxic sewage than compost.
Pallets make a similar cage like you were describing and might look more attractive than wire.

Good luck.

__________________
Hut on the Hill Farm
http://www.hutonthehill.org

I use an old washing machine basket to make compost in, with no top. It works great, and has never rusted in the last 12 years. I raise worms in there too, some years, and then I cover the drain hole with a piece of window screen. This is for making a bushel or 2 of compost at a time, so it is pretty small scale, and also it was free! ldc