composting manure

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A. Perez AmandaPerez@ureach.com
  I am an avid composter and gardener.  I envy anyone with 'too much manure'!  If you aren't in a hurry, manure will compost itself if left piled long enough.  For faster results, it needs airation, either via turning (they sell big drums that can be rotated, but they are very expensive) or using a storage system that allows are to get into the pile.  I found a circular play-pen in my garage (like a folding 'baby gate' but is a continuous circle) left by the prior owners.  I use this as my compost bin: grass clippings, shredded leaves, coffe grounds and all veggie kitchen waste goes in here.  I also have a fancy, store-bought composting bin, but I find the old baby-pen works better, probably due to the greater exposure to the air.  Every once in a while I root around in it with a garden fork to mix it up but being lazy this does not happen that often.  You can also make big (up to 6' in diameter) cylindrical bins out of heavy wire fencing (the kind with 1' X 2' openings in the grid): just make sure they are short enough that you can easily load and empy them.   Although air is necessary, you don't want to spread a thin layer of manure out on the ground: there needs to be a critical mass for it to heat upo and stay moist. 

I also 'innoculate' my bins from time to time by getting a bucket full of rotten tree-stump fromn the woods behind my house: just find a tree that's fallen and rotted so much that you can chop it up with a spade.  It's loaded with composting bacteria.  

  The key to a good compost heap is the correct mix of 'browns' (high-carbon material) and 'greens' (high nitrogen material).  Browns = dried leaves, shavings, bark, straw; 'greens' = green plant material (grass-clippings are great), kitchen waste (no meat or oils) manure, blood meal.  You want about half-and-half.  Ideally they should be evenly mixed, but they can also be in alternating layers.  This means that if your manure pile has alot of bedding in it, you need to either add additional 'green' materials (such as grass clippings) or screen out the manure from the bedding prior to composting it.  The more often you can churn up the pile so that material from the outside gets moved into the middle of the pile, the faster it will all break down, but it is not essential.  One thing I have thought about doing is getting some lengths of plastic drain pipe (the kind that has holes in it) and plant them int he pile so they run throught he middle of the pile, so get air into the center.  Haven't gotten around to that yet.

  Also, if you live in a dry climate, be sure to keep you pile damp: should be as damp as a well-wrung out sponge.

  I've heard that one horse-owner puts his composted manure in grain-bags and sells them for $3 a bag at a local flee market!