Ran into one of my territorial neighbor's posts

[MossRoad]

Evidently both of you know your $hi*.:laughing:

:thumbsup:

 

[jaxs]

One issue I have read regarding horse manure is herbicide carryover...

So true. Horses are also dewormed far more often than cattle. I prefer seeding manure with Night Crawlers and Red Wigglers so I must know when and what horses were wormed with. Two stables where I get manure tell me which pile is from stalls not fed prairie grass hay and not recently wormed. I start with a pile againest dirt bank shaded by deciduous trees,add worms,cover with old carpet and add water if it doesn't rain. Depending on season and demand for castings and worms,ever 2-4 weeks a little larger pile is set next to first and covered until I have a row where fresh pile contain's 3-5 yards. Worms migrate to fresh manure leaving finished castings behind. I can't meet the demand for castings and worms but you know what they about supply and demand. :moneybag:

 

[Hay Dude]

I'd bet the compositing process killed most of those weed seeds. If the heat didn't kill them, they'd sprout and then the turning of the pile several times would kill them. All I remember is they were long, steaming piles on cold mornings. I'd briefly accelerate from 40 to 120 to get past it while holding my breath. :ashamed:

Apparently the heat kills the weed seeds, but Im not 100% convinced. But how would one get thistle? Horses dont eat thistle, so pass thru seeds unlikely.

 

[Jstpssng]

Apparently the heat kills the weed seeds, but Im not 100% convinced.

I've mentioned this before... a nursery I visited used composted horse manure for their potting medium. He got it from a farmer who only uses hardwood chips for bedding material. To prepare it he addEd mass quantities of 10-10-10 to burn the seeds out, turning it periodically with his tractor mounted tiller. I don't know how he kept his organic certification, and he must burn the nitrogen out along with the seeds.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Wood chips are carbon, they need nitrogen to compost out... Once composted, the nitrogen is then released, so you don't loose it.

Like was said, horses pass more seeds ect. through that cows do, so cow poop is better for gardens ect. than horse poop.

SR

 

[Jstpssng]

Wood chips are carbon, they need nitrogen to compost out... Once composted, the nitrogen is then released, so you don't loose it.

Like was said, horses pass more seeds ect. through that cows do, so cow poop is better for gardens ect. than horse poop.

SR

You obviously missed the part about getting it hot enough to burn out the weed seeds.
Good point about the wood chips though, perhaps that counteracted it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You obviously missed the part about getting it hot enough to burn out the weed seeds.
Good point about the wood chips though, perhaps that counteracted it.

I didn't miss anything, I was just commenting on the carbon/N relationship.

SR

 

[lilranch2001]

Im not quite sure how we drifted to the **** pile.........

 

[riptides]

I found my missing 5 year old towing chain in the horse pile this weekend.

Im not quite sure how we drifted to the **** pile.........

 

[ponytug]

I have both horses and cows. Both adore thistles, with the horses perhaps slightly preferring the seed heads. If you think of them as mini artichokes, it might help to understand the allure.

We compost the horse manure, and have no trouble with weeds. I rototill the manure pile perhaps twice a year and turn it over with my FEL every few months as it subsides. We do worm the horses, and haven't noticed an issue with a lack of worms in the compost. The dilution factor is pretty large. But we don't market it as organic. Keeping horses healthy without wormer is pretty tough. Early twenties life expectancy without wormer, late thirties with wormer. We lost a long time equine companion recently five days shy of his 38th birthday, and he was trotting down the trail. YMMV, of course.

All the best,

Peter