Free manure?

I haven't seen any figures on that nor come up with one on my own. All manure analysis figures fly out the window due to percentage of water. Also don't think of that as waste water since it is liquid manure. The big dairies around here have haulers up to 8,500 gallons. They just nicely cover an area about 30' wide with no big chunks or voids as would come from conventional spreaders with solid manure. I believe that they can also be calibrated for heavier or lighter coverage depending upon the needs of the next crop. Due to it's high fertilizer value, it's not one-size-fits-all and spread accordingly.

But to answer your question, it indeed can be used in a garden. Bacteria will have already broken it down to where the nutrients are ready to be used. Consider it as no more dangerous than manure tea but with the manure as a bonus.

Martin

Darntootin', If your local High School has an FFA program check with them. The kids raising steers,chickens etc. keep their areas very clean and there will be a pile of manure and shavings or straw outside the FFA barn.

Here anyway, They are happy for you to haul off all you will take. I've been making daily runs to the local barn and loading up.

You may find some at county fairgrounds but that's only once a year and usually scarfed up quickly since it's no secret. Zoos also generate a lot of manure but again it's no secret and might even have waiting lists to buy it.

Martin

Some say we're "full of it". Humanure that is.

Using Manure and Compost as Nutrient Sources for Vegetable Crops

For a thousand pound load of beef manure at fifty percent wetness, you'll get 10 pounds of N, 7 pounds of P, and 11 pounds of K, for $36.00.

For two fifty pounds bags of 12-12-12, you'll get 12 pounds of N, 12 pounds P, and 12 pounds of K, for about $36.00 .

Too high, you say? If it's dryer, you get more...

geo

Yep, many horse people have the horses but no land to spread it on.

I know of one couple, who had several horses and would load your truck for free with their loader. But most places are a "U shovel it" type deal.

But just realize, most horses are "poisoned" with lots of wormers and such.

__________________
Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

Meanwhile, I'm spreading over 10,000+ square foot of land. I can't use newspaper! The source says the manure is a few years old, so I'm gonna put it right on. I usually make my rows and top them with manure then plant a few weeks later.

Yes but there are many micro nutrients available in good manure. Its not only about NPK. I will also will be using a good 10-10-10 fertilizer. I always add manure, its just what I was taught and it would feel wrong not to.

I wouldn't hesitate to use the manure even if it was just a few weeks old.

If it were pig manure, though, I'd wait a bit...

__________________
Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

Of all of the barnyard manures, pig manure has the lowest percentage of nitrogen and ties cow manure for least total nutrients.

Martin

Just last week, east of Hoover Dam (in central Ohio), I saw a horse farm that had a big sign out front, If you load it, you can have as much as you want for free. It's out there.

__________________
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

Have you invested in a good, complete with micronutrient analysis, soil test? Have you done any green manuring, any cover cropping, grown any legumes for added nutrients? What residual nutrients, specifically N, is left over from last year's vegetagble crops and residues like beans? Don't overlook the value of those, and the value of mulches like hay instead of straw. Some materials don't have to go through the animal to give you the same value. With 10,000 sq ft, would you be able to compress some of it so you could have fallow, legume N producing areas in rotation?

By taking some of the guesswork out of it, maybe you won't have to import/buy so many tons as you think.

geo

I have had a nutrient analysis. No green manuring yet but I plan on starting that at the end of this season and next. I've only been here a few years so just got the ground more 'workable' last year. I plan on resting some of my plots next year and plowing up new ones this fall for next year.

I'm trying to stick to a rotation cycle of first year potatoes, second year corn, third year oats, fourth year a legume cover crop like red clover/rye and rest for a year or more. My plots are at all different stages right now. My greens and 'kitchen garden' are mostly raised beds and they are perpetual but I mix in alot of chicken manure and compost every year. How's that sound IYO? I also use alot of manure on everything, every year.

Basic needs for an established garden would be 1 gallon of pure horse manure per 10 square feet. If fallow or sod ground, then 2 gallons per 10 square feet. For 10,000 square feet, the maximum need would be 2,000 gallons. It can't be calculated by weight since it will vary considerably according to the moisture content. 1,000 gallons would be about 5 cubic yards, 2,000 would be 10.

Martin

Duplicate

You just shot yourself in the foot. Cancel everything about any mention of manure anywhere close to fresh as that's the last thing that you want with potatoes if there's the slightest chance of there being common scab within miles.

Martin

Let me make a correction, I never use anything on the potatoes. They are my first year 'break in crop'. When I break new ground potatoes go in. So far I've had great success with my potatoes.

That's info that you didn't share in your first question. Sounds like a plan to me. I personally would switch the corn and potatoes, and unless you need the oats for feed, I would compress the clover growing by interplanting it the same year as the oats--using a light sowing of oats as an expendable nurse crop. That way you don't have a second tilling to do to start the clover.... For manures, FWIW, USDA ORGANIC rules are: any fresh manure should be spread directly on garden ground 120 days beforehand, if it will touch root crops, and 90 days if it will be used on vegetables that grow above ground--or, if it is HOT composted and turned three times at 150 degrees, it can be spread at any time...........(how much more conservative a gov't. do you want???)

Sometimes, you can use buckwheat in open spaces, or crimson clover(an annual) if you have early crop spaces opening up, to make a summer cover crop. Depends on your climate and soil.

I have a source of horse manure, but I use it to make compost with the various summer cover crops and fall leaves. The next summer that compost is then laced with fish waste. That way I can use it in planting holes for squash, tomatoes, cabbage, etc, etc--without fertilizing the whole growing spaces. They get covered with straw or leaf mulches. And yes, I, too use some commercial fertilizers........

geo