Managing Manure

 Managing horse manure can seem like a burden especially in the winter months. But, that manure is a valuable resource for your farm. You can use it as a supplemental fertilizer for your pastures and hay fields and cut costs on buying commercial fertilizers. The key to being able to use this resource is managing it correctly. 

• Never store manure in a low lying or wet areas because the moisture will cause nutrients to leach out out of the manure and you will be losing valuable resources for your fields. Also, leaching can be harmful for the ground around the manure pile and water downhill or down stream. 
• If possible try to store your manure a good distance away from your barn to reduce fly and pests for your animals.
• It is a good idea to turn your pile or mix it every once in a while to distribute the heat in your pile and turn those fly larvae that are hatching into the heated center and kill them before they become adults. 
• Always take a soil sample on your fields routinely, about every 1-2 years, because most of the time horse manure contains a lot of bedding, sawdust or straw, and those materials take time and nutrients to break down. Some of your soil Nitrogen could be fixed or unavailable to plants while breaking down those stemy and woody materials. Also, adding lime to your manure pile or spreading lime on your fields after soil testing will help break down materials faster because your soil pH will be more stable. 

Scooping manure and mucking stalls is never a fun job, but since it is a necessity when keeping horses why not make the manure work for you in return.