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Horse/Cow manure smelling

jctsai8b
9 years ago

How is smelling? I am thinking of getting some, but I do not want my neighbors to complain. Thanks

Comments (12)

  • Kimmsr
    9 years ago

    Some people find the odor of manure to be offensive and some do not. What you smell is nutrients escaping to the atmosphere so the best method of limiting odor from animal manures is to mix it 1 part manure with 3 parts vegetative waste and make compost.

  • grubby_AZ Tucson Z9
    9 years ago

    This may not apply to you because I don't know what form your manure will be in and Arizona is generally a much drier climate than southeastern parts of the states, but here "composted" manures seem to stink to high heaven. It's easy for someone to know when it's lawn over-seeding time because the lawn guys here typically cover the seed with a thin layer of 'compost' they get from the recycling landfill, and it stinks. I suspect it's because the landfill is hurrying (because of the seasonal rush) to produce something broken down and they shove it out before it's ready.

    The composted steer manure that comes in bags from the big box store also stinks. maybe it's anaerobic rot in both instances? I dunno.

    However, the mildest smelling stuff I come across is stable cleanings/manure. Maybe because it's dryer? I let the stuff sit a long time in a wire cage and if it did stink while aging one could always wrap it with a tarp or plastic drop cloth for a week or so. Many people (not all) would suggest you not use fresh manure for a while anyhow, and cold composting (AKA "rotting") works over time if you're not in a hurry.

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago

    Cow manure smells much stronger than horse manure, no matter the source ... it's because of the differences in digestive systems. The worst is the bagged "steer manure" because the diet in the finishing feedlot is high in protein and you get some decomposition as it dries.

    Sheep, llama and goat manure is usually not very stinky.

    The used straw and manure from a stable usually doesn't smell very strong, but if it's been composted until the worst of the urine/ammonia smell is gone you'll be better off.

  • Kimmsr
    9 years ago

    When we cleaned out the horses stall the smell of ammonia would be quite strong, enough to make one not want to breath. When we had horses we could not get enough bedding down to absorb all that manure and urine without having them bump their heads on the ceiling. You cannot put enough vegetative waste, straw, sawdust, leaves, down in a horses or cows stall to make that 3 to 1 ratio necessary to contain the odors.

  • spedigrees z4VT
    9 years ago

    Personally I do not find the smell of livestock manure to be offensive, but since you are worried about the neighbors complaining, I would suggest this method. In the past, when our horses were still with us, we had a large vegetable garden. All during the winter I would put the horse poop from the barn and paddock onto the garden. Everything was frozen then, often covered in snow. I would just add wheelbarrows of manure all winter. Then in spring I would turn the garden soil, burying the poop in with the dirt, although by that time the manure had decomposed somewhat. We added bags of limestone to the garden as well, to mitigate the acidity of the manure, and our garden flourished. I also put horse manure around my perennials and other garden plants in the fall.

    I live in a rural area where complaints are not an issue, but I think a modified version of this would work for you. Also you could lay down the manure and cover with organic material such as leaf mulch or potting soil in a small area. In a large vegetable garden, you could dig out a layer of topsoil, place it in a pile, spread the manure, then cover with the topsoil. If you did this in fall, by springtime the manure would be well on its way to becoming topsoil.

  • Kimmsr
    9 years ago

    While some think animal manures will make soils acidic reality shows they raise a soils pH, not lower it, so applications of lime with animal manures is unnecessary.

    Here is a link that might be useful: pH of animal manure

  • spedigrees z4VT
    9 years ago

    That's very interesting, kimmsr. I wonder if it wasn't the chicken manure in particular that de-acidified the soil in this experiment because of the calcium supplements that laying hens are given to ensure the structural integrity of their eggshells. I'd like to see a similar study done on the manure of cows or horses or pigs alone.

    It certainly proves that soil fertilized with chicken manure needs no lime added. I'll just have to wonder whether or not the limestone we added along with horse manure throughout the years was necessary or a waste of our time and money. It's a moot point now, since, with the horses all gone to greener pastures, I depend on compost to fertilize the small gardens we still have. My lilacs alone command lime and wood ash these days.

  • subk3
    9 years ago

    "When we cleaned out the horses stall the smell of ammonia would be quite strong, enough to make one not want to breath. When we had horses we could not get enough bedding down to absorb all that manure and urine without having them bump their heads on the ceiling. When we had horses we could not get enough bedding down to absorb all that manure and urine without having them bump their heads on the ceiling."

    Most likely this was due to a pervious floor that absorbed the urine and as such the smell that goes with it. I use rubber mats on the stall floors and no more than a 3-4 inches of bedding and have no problems with ammonia smells in the stalls if I clean them daily. Most working stables these days use mats of some sort.

    I don't notice odor in my compost piles/area. I fill a 6x12 trailer with stall cleanings every week to 10 days and transfer it from the barn to a compost area. Even with the most recently moved waste I don't have much smell or many flies once it is moved away from the barn area.

    I've used the horse manure/bedding compost at various stages and ages from not particularly finished to finished and have never had anyone notice a smell coming from my beds.

    Steer manure generally comes from scraping the ground of feed lots, so I would think it does not have the addition of the carbon from bedding material. It would have a C:N closer to straight manure. Most horse manure is actually going to be stall leavings and will include a good amount of added carbon. There should be a pretty significant difference in the C:N numbers of straight steer manure scraped off a feedlot and horse manure with added carbon from bedding.

    It just may be my lifelong involvement with horses, but steer manure/compost seems pretty gross to me especially since I'm doubtful it is actually compost and not just manure from a feedlot.

  • Kimmsr
    9 years ago

    Back in the 1950's, when I helped my uncle muck out the barns (horses, milk cows, pigs) and chicken coop there was that vey distinctive ammonia odor of nitrogen escaping to the atmosphere as we had in the 1960's when we had horses and chickens. I did not notice much, some, under the rabbit cages, though.

  • toxcrusadr
    9 years ago

    Any kind of organic matter, once thoroughly composted in an aerobic, C/N balanced pile with proper moisture, SHOULD end up as a fresh earthy smelling compost. Anything else suggests one of those criteria was not met. Am I right?

    Piling up manure (maybe with some bedding mixed in) for a random period of time does not necessarily provide the conditions necessary for sweet smelling compost. The same is true for leaves or any other organic matter, but others don't stink going in. :-]

  • Kimmsr
    9 years ago

    My experience is that if the right mix of materials of a good size with just enough moisture will have that good rich earth odor right from the outset. It took a while to learn that but most all of my compost piles, once that was learned, had that good rich earth odor and not the pungent ammonia like, or putrid sewage, odor of an improperly built compost pile.

  • gardenshine
    9 years ago

    Manure really only smells when it is fresh and wet. Let it dry out and there will be almost no smell. I have 2 horses and all the manure they produce goes into the compost pile. I have to use sawdust for bedding but fortunately it is very fine so decomposes faster than shavings. I clean my stalls every day so the manure is "hot" but along with the sawdust, leftover hay, grass clippings, kitchen vegetable waste, shredded leaves, and alittle scattering of granular 10-5-5 fertilizer I turn out some very fine compost. I turn it approx.. once a week, except in the winter (NW PA) when its just too cold and the decomp is slow anyway. I have 3 large spaces that I built with rough cut lumber that are 6x8' and 4.5' tall. The piles are started and finished in a rotation so I always have dark, earthy compost available, full of worms too ... in fact I have way too much!! Would you believe last year I couldn't even give it all away? No kidding, put an ad in the paper for "Free Compost" and the city people who called didn't want it "cuz it's not in a bag"

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