It is not a good idea to put fresh animal manure straight onto your land without first letting it rot down.
The rotting down of the manure helps to stabilise the nitrogen and potassium it contains and should also help to reduce any chemical residues and to a certain extent will kill of some weed seeds with the heat that is produced in the rotting down process.
It is a good idea to compost small quantities of fresh manure through the compost heap because it will act as an activator, which is always good.
In the main, there are two types of manure heaps:
Cattle are brought into a big yard in the fall and bedded down with straw daily. These beds build up over the winter and come spring when the animals are turned out the yard will be clean out, with the muck being spread on the land.
It is this muck from the spring clean out that is the best because it is well rotten down and full of plant goodies. Get hold of some of this and dig it in right away.
Horse manure is made in another way because horses will get foot troubles if they are kept on deep beds of manure as cattle are. The horses are normally kept in a stable and any dung is removed on a daily basis and heaped up.
After a month or so, the heap will have reduced in size and the manure should be rotted and ready to be dug into your beds.
If it is not, then the problem may well be that there is too much straw and not enough horse manure, which happens if the manure is from stables that are cleaned out often.
The answer here is to add more nitrogen. This can be done in the form of poultry manure, urine, or grass cuttings, for example.
On the other hand, the heap may be too dry in which case that will be signs f white fungus right through the manure heap. The answer to this problem is to take the heap apart, soak it, and then remake the heap.
There is not much known as to how long chemical residues remain in the manure but it is highly recommended that manure from non- organic sources should be rotten down for at least six months before being dung into the ground.
If you do store farmyard manure on your plot or in your garden, it is best to keep it covered with a plastic sheet to stop the rain leaching out the goodness.
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