Cow or Horse Manure???

I have access to both. Anybody know which one is preferable for a garden? How come?

I think cow smells worse, but I'm no pro, I have only used horse/ rabbit/ llama

Sally - after I posted, I did some reading on it. Turns out that rabbit manure has way more nutrients than horse or cow, and you can put it in the garden fresh - no waiting for composting. That's the way I'm going this year.

Thanks for responding.

You're welcome and thanks back. Now I just need to find rabbits.

Search eBay for "worm castings rabbit manure" and you'll find some good stuff. I bought about 20 pounds of it a year ago to help start my very first batch of compost, and it was quite cheap. Under ten bucks, if memory serves.

Of course, it's not what I'd call a steady source. Craig's List might have some sources near you, perhaps even free for the haulin'.

I do need to check Craigs once in a while. Have never taken advantage of it.

Google 'rabbitries' and the name of your town. It will show you rabbit growers in your area. I emailed a few of them, asking if they would sell me manure. I would think that at least some of them would be glad to be rid of the stuff.

I've used all kinds of poopers but horse manure is my most available. In our community some horse people will even load it to your truck or trailer. I never argue the small differences for in gardening any manure is a great plus on the fall garden and your compost piles.

When it comes to foul poopers I will sometimes get just a five gallon bucket full from a pigeon raising friend that has only four birds. A little of this goes a long way.

Craigslist has severeal listings of free horse manure in my area (Tampa), some of it well composted.

I visited a goat farm yesterday, where I shoveled bag after bag of old, dried, goat manure into empty grain bags. I didn't count how many bags I stuffed into my car - has to be at least a dozen, probably more. Big bags, too - I had to half drag them out of the barn.

For anyone in the Tampa area, there are tons of it available. You'd be doing the owner a favor by hauling some of it away.

I'm trying to figure out how much to mix in when I plant. When I Google, I get a whole treatise on microbes, ph, etc. etc.

I just want to know what the soil/manure ratio should be.

This is just an uneducated guess, but if the manure's old and has already composted, then you can probably use as much as you want.

Hey there....on the amount to use. Flowers (all) need very little. I would hand scatter and hoe in not more than sifting. You can always add more in six to ten weeks if you feel you need it. On the general garden start with half an inch or a handfull in the bottom of the planting hole with a half inch of soil over it. By the time the roots get there all should be just about perfect. If you want to do a large garden area I would trust half an inch over all and raked in followed by a good watering in your spring time. Rule of thumb here is a light over all side dressing about seven to ten weeks later. In the fall preceeding a cover crop you may add inches if you have it. Plant the cover crop and by spring you will have a gold mine after tilling in the cover crop. Sounds like you found some real good poopers. Congrats. Easy does it as you learn to apply it. My advise is an easy does it suggestion for spring and growing season.

Put any extra into your compost piles and let it cook you up some really good compost.

Thanks, Puddle and doc

Here's some general info about manure. We had a presentation on manuere at the Winston-Salem NC(where I now live) Rose Society. I'll try to pull together a summary:


I too lived in an urban area (NYC) for many years and was an active "urban composter".
1. Horse manure, altho good, often has weed seeds from the hay that is used for bedding.
2. Cow manure is better and may be available from local farmers if you can locate sources. Most are glad to give it away.

3. Chicken is great but very hot so you need to be careful and age it before adding directly to your garden.

4. DO NOT use dog or cat feces. They can harbor pathogens, especially dangerous to pregnant women and children.

There is a book Easy Composting by Brooklyn Botanic Garden (bbg.org) that is an excellent resource.

I've had very little or no weed problem with horse manure, and around here they use sawdust for bedding anyway., AND it's easier to get and less messy, for us back of the family van type manure collecters.

"Cow manure is better and may be available from local farmers if you can locate sources. Most are glad to give it away."

I inquired the other day at a local dairy farm. Maybe I shouldn't have said "how much do you want for it?" The guy stammered a bit and said $5-10 per yard. They use quite a bit of it to fertilize fields.

I've had good luck with both cow and horse manure, and have never had either burn my crops when properly applied. I would dito the comment on more weeds in horse manure, but what's a garden without weeds! If gardening was easy everyone would be doing it. I would suggest you go with whatever is easiest to obtain.

I've used both over the years, and have found horse manure produces larger/better veggies. But cow manure is not quite as "hot" as horse manure, so can be used sooner.

Personally, if I had equal access, I'd choose horse manure.

Rabbit manure is great, too - as others have said, it can be used immediately, no need to compost it.

I lived in a place with clay soil. After two pickup trucks full of horse manure and straw bedding, I tilled it in and when it was time to plant, I planted my flowers and veggies. My tomato plants grew so well that one plant went over a five foot high fence into the neighbors yard. When it came time to pick tomatoes, the neighbor (an older gentleman) mentioned that there were lots of tomatoes on his side and that he would pick them for me. I told him that in my opinion, anything that grew on his side was his problem. He looked at me and went in his house, his wife came out and asked for clarification. I told her that I felt that the ones on their side of the fence was for them and I had more than enough on my side. We both enjoyed fresh, homegrown tomatoes til into fall. Every year I added more manure and grow veggies for them and myself. So I am sold on horse manure, but can't find any here in Somerset. There does not seem to be any stables for me to get any. OH WELL.
Mary

gee Mary I didn't know there was a county in KY without horses.

There are horses here, just no place were they are interested in getting rid of manure. The horses are all out on pasture. Where I lived in Calif., the local boarding stable had over 100 horses boarded there and they had to find ways to get rid of the manure so were very happy to have someone come in and haul it off. Saved them money.
Mary

Mary.............the horse folks are around the edges of most suburban communities. The weekend cowboys are the ones you seek.

To add another possibility don't overlook the Llamas and Packys. Their poops are among the best. Most people who have them are not gardeners. This poop is mild and ready to use as soon as found. Makes good poops tea too.
Check out the field they are in. They poop at the same spot all the time. In time theres a gold mine pile just waiting for a shovel to pick it up.

I feel compelled to tell a story on myself. A number of years ago in a far away place I purchased four two-third acres of formerly wheat land to build a home. I used two of the four lots to build my home and in the back I decided to place a garden nearily equivalent to the one I have now in Montana. I found some well aged horse manure from a horse stall which had not been used in four years. I took four truck loads of this very dry, powdery material and applied it to my garden. Crop of choice was about a dozen varieties of squash since I didn't know what else to grow. By the end of the summer I must have had three tons or more of squash rotting in my garden. I became the joke of the neighborhood. The next spring I asked the farmer who raised wheat behind my home if he would like to use my garden and the other 2/3 acrea plots to grow wheat. He offered to pay me but I refused payment telling him he was doing me a favor. Anyway the point to this story is my previous garden area produced an amaizing wheat crop compared to the farmers field and the other two parcels of land I owned. The organic nitrogen content of this well aged manure was still working even after five years and a monster crop of squash. Fortunately for me there are more horses than people in the valley where I live. Four houses to the west I have a constant supply of fresh horse manure and the next two west of there is an abundant supply of well aged horse manure which I plan to tap next season. I never cease to be amaized at the difference in my garden compared to several others in the area which do not use this valuable comidity ... always free for the taking.

Wow..............for you. This is exactly what I have been telling folks here about gains experienced by long term soil building benefits. Great report.

Ah, Mary, now I see. around here, land price is too high and most horses do not have enough pasture so there are barns to clean out. The barn where my DD took riding lessons had the most fantastic flowers all around it, she built the beds up with manure.

One sad thing about my living in a city - no horses for miles :(

Ahh, HoneyBee! You need a visit from a friend with a truckload! Wish I lived closer!!!

HEY HONEYBEE............I've been in your hometown many times. Unless you are a shut in person the manure you seek is within twenty minutes in any direction from the spot you are sitting and saying it does not exist. Go to your farmers market. Talk to your farmer. He will sell if not give you a five gallon bucket full or a truck load if he can make a buck doing it. Many private horsemen and ladies beg folks to come take away their manures. They rent trucks in your home town if you find and need that much.

Now I am outta here. Good luck on the manure hunt.

Contact your local extension services or Departments of SOil and water or Waste management... they cna help you. Some states have manure co-ops.

Those doing STRICKLY ORGANIC however should ask the horsemanagers if they are using any chemicals in their animals for worm management. Some growers do not want manure that has such and therefore getting it at the right time might be an issue.

http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm


How common manures measure up

CHICKEN =N 1.1 , P .80 K .50
DAIRY COW = N 1.1 P .15 K .25
HORSE = N .70 P .30 K .60
STEER N .70 P .30 K .40
RABBIT N 2.4 P 1.4 K .60
SHEEP N .70 P .30 K .90

Sources: Rodale's All-New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, An Illustrated Guide to
Organic Gardening, by Sunset Publishing, and the Rodale Guide to Composting.
Note: Nutrient values of manures vary greatly, depending on the diet and
age of the animals, and the nature and quantiy of bedding in the mix.

Chicken manure
Poultry manure (chicken in particular) is the richest animal manure in N-P-K. Chicken manure is considered "hot" and must be composted before adding it to the garden. Otherwise, it will burn any plants it comes in contact with.

Dairy (cow) manure
"Dairy Manure may be the single most useful soil-builder around," says Ann Lovejoy, lifetime organic gardener and writer in Seattle, Washington. "Washed dairy manure from healthy cows is just about perfect for garden use; it can be used as a topdressing and for soil improvement," she adds. Dairy manure is preferable to steer manure, which has a higher salt and weed seed content. Though cow manure has low nutrient numbers, that's what makes ist safe to use in unlimited quantities.

Horse manure
Horse manure is about half as rich as chicken manure, but richer in nitrogen than cow manure. And, like chicken droppings, it's considered "hot". Horse manure often contains a lot of weed seeds, which means it's a good idea to compost it using a hot composting method.

Steer manure
Steer manure is one of the old standbys, but it's not the most beloved because it often contains unwanted salts and weed seeds.





Rabbit manure
Rabbit manure is even higher in nitrogen than some poultry manures and it also contains a large amount of phosphorus--important for flower and fruit formation.

Sheep manure
Sheep manure is another "hot" manure. It is somewhat dry and very rich. Manure from sheep fed hay and grain will be more potent than manure from animals that live on pasture.


How to use manure

No matter what kind of manure you use, use it as a soil amendment, not a mulch. In other words, don't put raw manure directly on garden soils. Raw manure generally releases nitrogen compounds and ammonia which can burn plant roots, young plants and interfere with seed germination. In fact, it's recommended that all animal manure should be aged for at least 6 months. Many gardeners spread fresh manure in the fall and turn it in to the top 6 inches of soil a month before spring planting.

A better treatment is to hot-compost manure before applying it to the garden. Hot composting, where the pile reaches at least 150 degrees F) helps to reduce the probability of passing dangerous pathogens on to people who handle the manure or eat food grown with manure compost. (For more information about compost, read my Compost Happens! article.)

While the chance of contamination is slim, severe sickness and even death may occur if contaminated produce is eaten. To be safe, either compost your manure or apply it in the fall after harvest. Wash up after handling manure and don't forget to rinse the vegetables and fruit well before you eat them--always a good idea whether your use manure or not.


The bottom line

Anywhere from 75 to 90 percent of the plant nutrients fed to animals are excreted in their manure, so it should be no surprise that the stuff is an excellent fertilizer. E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, agrees. "There is no doubt about it, the basic satisfaction in farming is manure."

The best zoo doo? Elephant dung!


So there you have it: The scoop on poop!


This message was edited Jan 27, 2010 12:35 PM

Well, there is something also to be said for fish emulsion and bat guano.....

Horsemanure is variable as all manures are in potentcy depending on how old the stuff is. Manures sitting for say 5 years will have less value than some composted for a shorter time. It only stands to reason on that due to the amounts too of the rains filtering it out unless it is in a closed composter.

Animals are treated often by certain chemicals for worming and medication.. you might want to be mindfull on the animals care that goes into the dung heap as well. Some organinc gardeners want absolute unadulterated manure.

So there you have it more on the poop!