manure - compost - dung

Busy day today: we collected a car-load of horse manure from near by.  I know it's good stuff - but now what to do with it?

Apparently the best poo to use is from chickens (or other birds) as their poo contains both solid and liquid parts.  The liquid part is high in nitrogen, potassium and sulphur, so as horses' poo is only the solid bit it's likely to be deficient, unless the manure's from a stable, when it's likely to have both.


Horse dung has also received a bad press as it often contains weed seeds.  One way to avoid this problem is to leave it in a big pile until it 'cooks', thus destroying the weed seeds, and by big, the optimum size is about a metre cube.


To make a horse manure heap: layer of dung 6" deep, water it, then add a layer or general purpose fertiliser, followed by a green layer (leaves, food scraps, hay etc). Repeat until about a metre high.  Create ventilation holes, using crowbar or similar. Turn the heap about every three weeks and this should be ready in a couple of months.

If you don't want to use it yet, keep it slightly damp and covered.


See: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/horsedung.shtml