Manure management

Composting is the process of allowing organic materials to decompose in a more or less controlled setting, so that the resulting material can be used as a beneficial soil additive. For gardeners and farmers, composting is an essential...

You have a manure factory in your backyard. What do you do with all that horse poo? Horse manure composting is a best-practices management tool.

I currently muck my four stalls and the barnyard into a manure pile that gets hauled away once per year. During the summer I harrow the pasture once or twice a week instead of picking it. I recently learned about Newer S…

Why Compost? Many horse owners and small livestock operations do not have access to sufficient land to make good use of manure by spreading. Composting provides another option for managing manure on the farm.

Some farms are more susceptible to muddy conditions than others. Mud is a result of prolonged wet soil conditions, which is often dependent on soil type and topography. After a rainstorm or spring snowmelt, clay soils drain more slowly than sandy soils and are therefore more prone to muddy conditions. In addition, muddy conditions are more likely to occur in areas of low elevation because runoff water tends to accumulate in these areas.

a concrete manure storage structure on a small horse farm

The capability to store manure reduces or eliminates the need to spread manure daily. Manure storage facilities allow small farms to store the manure until it can be removed and utilized later.

If you own a horse or board other peoples horses you have had that problem. We lived in Virginia and I learned the hard way…

When I started my horse farm adventure last spring, I had grand plans to create compost piles and finish the season with the very richest black gold.