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market-farming - Re: Horse manure/sawdust

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  • From: SCook21809 AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Horse manure/sawdust
  • Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 22:44:02 EST


<< Is there an advantage to the straw over sawdust? I've hesitated to use
this resource since I'm not sure if the sawdust would break down enough in a
compost pile & I prefer straw. >>

Liz,
You are right about sawdust. It is a very complex carbohydrate with
lignin. Bacteria can not use saw dust as a food scource. Only fungi use
lignins and complex carbohydrates as food sources. Fungi reproduce and
decompose organic matter much slower than bacteria. Manured straw takes six
weeks to three months to break down depending on how it is managed. Manured
wood chips take up to three years to compost completely. Manured wood chips
are better for herbacious and perenial plants than manured straw compost
because those plants require the synergenic fungal populations to collect
nutrients for them. But as a CSA farmer, I grow primarily annuals which like
bacterially mediated soils and compost.
I still use the manured wood chip compost for my perenial plantings such
as asparagus, cane berries, etc. I use it for the deep bedding in my
brooding coop in the barn because it binds nitrogen so well and is slower to
break down than straw. I also use it in the compost piles I build when I
compost the ofal from my slaughtering operation for the same reasons. But
manured wood chip compost only makes up about 5% of the total compost I
produce in a year. That is one in 20 compost piles.

Art Biggert
Ocean Sky Farm
Bainbridge Island, WA




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