what to do woth all the poo ?

[ibquackers20]

I only have 4 horses and I clean up their stalls and corral area 2 or 3 times a day.The poop pile just keeps getting bigger and bigger with old on bottom and new on top AND sides - I read about composting but right now it is winter and there is hay mixed with poop and snow - how can I keep it burning till there is only ashes -- I keep lighting it but after 1/2 hour or less it goes out on me -- is there a secret to keeping it burning ????

I do have a small pile here and there I use for my garden but it is under snow as well - not worried about that. I also want to shrink the big pile through the winter so come spring when I corral around my poop pile it will be less to clean up and move else where.

Any ideas on how to rid my mountain of poooooo

 

[Sandee]

This probably isn't the answer you are looking for but we have changed our stall bedding to Easy Pic which is about the consistancy of sawdust. This cuts down on the stuff that has to "break down". Because minis are such little pigs we only let them out for 1-2 hours on the pasture. So in our 2 acre pasture we spread the manure and stall bedding with a spreader about once a week (we have 3 horses at present). Counting on the rain and snow to break it all down. We've only been doing this a year so I guess by next year I might know if we're over whelming our pasture or not.

 

[ibquackers20]

well I do not put nothing down in their stalls and they have free entry into the barn and what is now snow pasture, their area is packed down with snow - no grass in sight till spring melting.but I have to get rid of the huge hill before spring when I want to make their area even bigger and that pile is sitting right in the middle of where I want to fence off.Not only that but it is becomming an eye sore to look at.

 

[kaykay]

in order for it to compost you have to keep turning it over. before you add new manure take a pitch fork and turn some of the old stuff over. straw is very hard to compost down which is why we use wood shavings as they compost very quickly.

 

[Loess Hills]

We have two small "manure wagons" that hook to our John Deere garden tractor. We haul them to the back of our property where there is a huge gulch that will probably take us years to fill. Weather and snow level permitting, we haul the manure out about once a week. However, this year we've having to put it in a pile to one side of the barn because we just can't get back north right now. In the spring we'll use a bobcat to load and haul out.

Unsightly.............but necessary!

 

[pepperhill]

Well, we have 20-something horses, both big and small and our poo situation is profound!

I have found that it works best for us to just designate an area "out back" somewhere for a permanent poo pile. We just keep adding to it and it seems to break itself down pretty well. In the spring I put up a sign at work and our small town grocery store and people come running for it to put on their gardens. I also use it to put around my trees, flower beds etc. I can almost get rid of an entire pile every spring so now I have an aged "good black dirt" pile that gets used, and the "currently baking" pile that gets added to as needed. We freeze too hard to scoop much in the winter so every spring we have a mountain of work to do so we finally bought a bobcat. Our piles are located way out back behind the barn so I don't have to look at it much! Good luck! L

 

[ibquackers20]

I do not want to compost that pile - I want to just burn it but do not know how to keep it from going out - and I do not use straw at all I use hay for their feed, it is a mixture of hay that they peed on or pooped that is wasted (hockey pucks ) I need ideas on how to get rid of it besides shoveling it into a truck and dumping some place. It is probably frozen inside the hill as well. But thanks for the idea and info - will remember that in summer to do.

 

[keeperofthehorses]

Compost it and sell it! Organic gardeners will pay you good money for that black gold. Here's how I hot compost. It takes about 10 to 12 weeks, sometimes more if the pile cools off.

The easiest way is to lay the piles out in windrows. The pile needs to be at least 3' wide and 3' tall to have enough mass to heat up. I make mine about a month's worth of stall-cleaning long. I make a well along the top, about 6" wide and the length of the pile to catch moisture. Build this near a hose bib if you live in a dry area.

You need to have more Carbons (browns) than Nitrogens (greens) at a ratio of 25:1 (I think, I didn't take the time to double check this). So more straw, shavings, dead leaves and such than manure and grass clippings. Pine shavings are really slow to break down, and bind nitrogen, so I try to bed with straw if I'm cooking compost. Kitchen wastes are considered greens; don't add any animal materials (meat, dairy) or oils. Egg shells are great though. Once my pile is built, I will also add about 1 cup per cubic yard of bone meal , as our soils are boron & phosphorus deficient, and bat guano which has many values, one of which is heating up the pile.

Then stir and water. It should be as damp as a wrung out sponge. If I have trouble getting mine to heat up (this time of year). I'll add about 20 lbs. of whole oats (yep, horse feed) to the whole pile. Get yourself a compost thermometer. Within 24 hours of the initial stir, you should be over 100*F. If it's not heating up, your C:N ratio is off. When it gets over 136, I turn. This is the back breaking part, but needs to be done if you want the compost done quickly. This works out for me to about every 2 or 3 days for about 3 weeks. Then it will naturally start to cool. If you see white fuzzies when you are turning, your pile has gotten too hot and killed the little critters that break everything down. Keep turning and watering and soon you will have valuable, crumbly, sweet-smelling compost. When it stops heating up, it's cooked and ready to use. You will end up with a pile less than 1/4 of the size that you started with.

You can cold compost too (pile and wait) but that takes a year or more, and doesn't kill pathogens or weed seeds. I have hot-composted through the winter before. It still works, just cover with a tarp to keep the heat in. It's actually really fun and quite rewarding, especially if you also garden. Rodale's has a book just about Composting that is really helpful.

Another thing you can do is contact some market gardeners and see if they would be interested in either hauling off the manure for their gardens, or doing the composting at your place for you in exchange for the end result. In the growing season, I always get at least two or three people coming by asking for my horse poop and compost. We garden, so don't let any of it leave.

 

[Jean_B]

This points out an issue that ALL animal owners should consider BEFORE getting their first animal of any kind...especially horses. Horses poop. There is no getting around it. And you need to have a manure control/use plan BEFORE you bring them home.

Having said this....since "the barn door has been closed after the horses have already left the barn" (a phrase my dad uses when someone hasn't done adequate planning) - That pile will never completely burn unless it is several years old and hasn't had a lot of rain on it. Face it - horse poop/pee filled straw has a lot of moisture in it. And it is a GREAT natural organic fertilizer. It will break down faster if you turn it before adding more to the pile. A pile that is a couple of years old is the BEST fertilizer as it is ready (broken down) to truly fertilize gardens, etc. If you dig down into the bottom of the pile - your neighbors just might like that old stuff for their gardens.

Your best bet is to move it to an area where you can compost it properly.

Since I had over 40 horses before moving here - I hired a neighboring farmer to come in once a year with his big spreader & front end loader to move the pile and spread it on the fields. It was a win/win for both of us.

 

[Buckskin gal]

We haul all of ours to the landfill where it is composted and used by nurseries etc. We have a very small place and can't use it all on our pasture nor do we like piles of poo around. Mary

 

[Happy]

l don't feel you will have a lot of luck burning your poo pile in winter in this country. think of all the moister/damp that gets sucked to the middle of the pile ain't gonna burn. and l guess you noticed theres no way you can turn a frozen pile by hand that requies a tractor. wheel barrow the stuff further out of sight in a little used place. ln spring it isn't the nicest thing to have the juice run off from a winters worth of poo and pee soaking into the ground where the animals are kept.

we burned a huge pile of dead trees and branches last winter started with gas and kept going with oil and added the manure pile and thats about the only thing that took care of it but it was a burn that lasted a week made a lot of smoke and burned through a snow fall. l don't think that would work for your pile though.

 

[Cathy_H]

I put out a sign every spring & people get it for their gardens. For the last several years one person has brought his tractor & scoop & big truck & taken it all away. Usually about 10 loads. He sells it as compost to small gardners.

 

[RENMACMINIS]

every month we load our manure pile into our spreader and take it and spread it out on our hay fields by spring its almost gone and by the time we cut hay it is completely gone. over the summer we spread it out on different parts of our pasture and then take a piece of wire fence that we have weighted down and drag it behind our 4wheeler so there is no big piles and it breaks it up so it breaks down faster as for picking poop out of the fields we dont we just drag the fields and scatter it.

 

[whitney]

I have 3 big horses and 2 minis and I don't have ENOUGH manure!

I pile it up in the winter and then in the spring I load it into the back of the pickup and truck it to my flower and vegetable gardens. It goes around every living thing.

I've found that the woody pet makes the BEST black gold around it doesn't take nearly as long to breakdown.

 

[Leeana]

Here is what we do with our's ..

We use to sell it to this tech school. They have a huge program with greenhouse and plant stuff so we use to sell it to them. We had to make sure it was pure poop. No straw, hay, grain ...just 'clean poop'.

But they stopped calling a couple month ago (use to call every other week) ..havent called in abour 4 month so we just started giving it to some friends who have gardens.

Its amazing how many people really want it!

Leeana

 

[ibquackers20]

well here where I live there are only cattle and farmers that grow feed for them so there is no big demand on horse poop.

I can start another pile I guess some place out of the way but it would mean 2 big piles then, how ever there is a place just outside of town that people can take stuff to burn or I think they even compost there as well - just have to find out who runs it and ask - then I know that would be the easy part - the hard part will be shoveling it into a truck and I am guessing since hubby has a new truck his would be out of the question. So I guess for this winter I will have to stick it out and figure out how to rid myself of it come spring.

And I agree before getting horses that was the one thing I really did not do my home work on - I did a lot of reading on every thing else but what to do with their poop.

so for any new horse owners to be this is a good thing to read up on because it really piles up and fast.

But by all means keep the ideas comming so any newbies will be able to read up on this as well.

 

[Leeana]

were pretty much just giving our's away right now.

I didnt know you could burn it .....we might have to do that when we cant find anyone to give it to.

Leeana

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

When it comes to piles of poop, my 43 horses can poop enough to make a HUGE pile in no time!

My stalls get cleaned daily, I use shavings for bedding over the mats, but I also have a very large run-in and another small barn, my small barn gets cleaned daily, and the run-in I pick along with the pastures in summer daily, and in winter Bob takes the skidsteer out there to clean it, usually every other day. In no time I have a HUGE pile,

we have 160 acres, so hauling it out to fields isnt a problem for us, that we do with a large manure spreader and tractor. In the area where we live, you wouldnt be able to sell manure if your life depended upon it,

we do give some of it away to anyone who wants it, but those are usually cottage owners who think if they come to get a bushel or two..its ALOT.

I keep kidding them, that this year its going to be a 1 semi-load minimum, if they want any.

I have even ran the barn cleaner for a few who were afraid to get "there hands dirty" they just parked there trucks under the slide, and I ran it right into the back of there trucks..dont know what they did when they got home!

Is there any fields around you that you could hire a farmer to haul it out for you, or do it for free..in exchange? Corinne

 

[alphahorses]

The area where I live has undergone massive urban development in the past 5 years and zoning changes have forced some small farms with only a few acres to resort to hiring the local trash company to haul their manure away. The trash company drops off a dumpster specifically for organic material, then comes and empties it on a regular basis.

I don't personally do this, but I know one small boarding stable in the area (large horses) that uses this system and they just love it.

There is only one company that does it in this area. You'd have to check for availability and price and your area.

 

[Margaret]

With all of the fallen leaves and wasted hay, we have enough inert ingredients to make up a batch of horse poo compost, so thats what is happening to ours right now. After we thoroughly mix it up, we will wet it down and cover it with a plastic wrap. Soon it will be steaming in the cold, and thats a good sign as it is breaking down to a more usable form. Its fun to make even if you never do get to use it.