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market-farming - Re: Horse manure as a fertilizer

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Subject: Market Farming

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Lucy Goodman-Owsley <goodows AT excite.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Horse manure as a fertilizer
  • Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 15:32:49 -0700 (PDT)



On Wed, 4 Oct 2000 17:21:27 -0400, market farming wrote:

> We have access to unlimited amounts of horse manure mixed with pine
> shavings. The feed for the animals contains no antibiotics or other
> harmful products. I would like to hear some ideas about the use of this
> product as a fertilizer on our organic farm. The manure comes from their
> stalls so weeds, etc. is not an issue. We allow the manure to sit for
> about six months prior to spreading on the field. Any suggestions/ideas
> regarding its use would be appreciated.
>
> Mike
> Flying Frog Farm
>
>Horse manure is a weedy manure unless these peoiple do not turn out thir
horses ever. Horses have a very ineffecient digestive tract so almost all
seeds pass through and can than sprout and become your next weed problem.
Composting it will hgelp a lot.

Also check to see what kind of wormer they are using (99.9% od US horse
owners use chemical wormers instead of DE) Ivermectin (a paste given every 4
to 8 weeks orally) can kill most of the microbes responsible for composting
so that should be avoided, though I have used a lot of horse manure from
horses that I had personally administered ivermectin too and had pretty good
compost piles.

The pine shavings can put too much acid into your soils if you tend towards
acid soils. If you live in the midwest the pine shavings would be an asset
for the base soils there.
Pine can also bind up N pretty badly so go easy on the shavings or add some
chicken manure to add more N.

That's my 2ยข on horse poop


Lucy Goodman-Owsley
Boulder Belt CSA
New Paris, OH
Website: http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa
Organic Farming and Gardening Forum:
http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb135705
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