Does anyone else muck out their horse fields?

[Wildsky]

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I threw some in my garden area a little while ago - after all the veggies were done.
Thing is - lots of seeds come through the digestion pretty much untouched, so chances are there will be lots of junk sprouting next year.

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Thanks for that! We are surrounded by farm fields, they plant beans and corn, do you think I just can throw the muck into the fields?!?

 

[Wildsky]

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Someone elses property? I wouldn't without asking. We dump ours on the side of our property - we make rows of it - and then go back later and add another row.

We're planing to actually USE some to fill up holes in our driveway.

 

[patandchickens]

Golly, do not put things in other peoples' fields -- not even on the very edges past where the crops are planted -- without ASKING first! They will probably not let you, either. Horse manure is usually pretty weedy (especially if you feed any form of grain), and farmers do NOT want extra weed seeds put in their fields

Compost it in one big pile (as cubical as possible, ie. tall and compact not flat and spread everywhere) over the winter, then either leave it there to compost further before adding it to garden beds in fall (which is the best idea), or spread it THINLY on needy areas of pasture in mid-spring or early summer.

If you want to use it for garden beds but are worried about the weed issue, you can use it as a DEEP DOWN amendment if you are double-digging a bed. Remove the top shovel-depth of soil, remove one shovel-depth below that too, replace the lower layer with composted manure (mixed with the subsoil or not, as you prefer), then put the top layer of soil back on. As long as you never dig or till down into the manure-carrying depth of soil, the weed seeds won't get light and will not sprout and cause problems. You want to do this in the fall, not in the spring, as some plants would not enjoy being planted into it when relatively mroe fresh.

Me, I let the winter's shed cleanings sit in the otherwise-disused old tractor shed til late summer or fall, then I wheelbarrow and hand-spread them on the pastures. Mind that spreading your manure on pastures will increase your horses' exposure to parasites and needs to be taken into account in your management scheme.

The big advantage of composting the stuff down for as long as possible is that it reduces into a smaller volume and weight for you to have to move

Pat

 

[Bec]

Wow, I have gotten some fantastic feedback for everyone! My question with spreading it on the field: Do you keep them off that pasture for the winter? I supplement the missing grass with hay all winter. (they get hay in the summer too just not as much) So would it be better to keep mine off the bigger pasture for the winter and fertilize with the manure?

 

[toletiquesbysam]

Thanks Ladies-
I will do the composting, didn't realize the horse manure was soo different than the hog manure they use to fertilize the fields around us! I'm slowly learning!!!

Thanks Again!

 

[jBlaze]

We have to pretty much drylot ours over the winter anyhow. The grass does not grow enough to keep up with them. (and they would just tear it up with their hooves, the ground is too wet.) So at the end of summer we put last years pile on the field and keep them in the sacraficial area.
DH learned after the first time to not put it into the garden before composting!

 

[Dustoff79]

First, I just spread out the piles in my paddock (2 acres) to dry faster and speed the breakdown. I compost the stall shavings and manuer I clean out from them until I get a brown earthy smelling dirt then use it for fill in uneven parts of the yard and on the lawn. As for using the horse manure on the garden my only comment is unless you know where the hay you feed comes from and if they use weed killer in their fields be careful using it in the garden. digested and even composted hay with certain weed preventers will still prevent seed germination so if you are trying to start the garden from seed, be careful. other than that it is a good soil admendment, of course not as good as cow manure.

 

[Bec]

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OK! I was thinking maybe as some point soon I would close the gate to the big field and keep them off until spring. So by then, if I keep spreading some out there, it will fertilize it for the spring grass?

This is my 3rd year keeping horses at my house, so although I have had horses for 20 years, I am still learning on proper pasture care!

 

[jBlaze]

Yep Bec, that sounds like us. It is different when you get your own stuff and mom and dad aren't making those decisions anymore! I feel like I don't really know nearly as much as I thought, lol! But I also feel like I know more than I thought I did too. hehe

We put ours in a pile and move it when we can. OUr neighbor spreads hers directly in the field. Both seem to work. I can see the areas that get done for sure.
If it is not composted then you do need to watch for weeds. (This is why you should be using weed free hay when you take your horses into the forests too, we don't want invasive weeds in our forests for sure! I like being able to ride in centeral oregon!!)