Quote:
he's aware, I hope, that "Hot" manure will most likely kill anything he puts it on ....
if he's wanting to fertilize his garden, aged is better
my old neighbor raised an incredible garden using overwintered sheep barn muckings, and kelp from the beach
I had good luck with a local stable, got permission to dig their year-old muck pile, they use pine shavings in their barns, so there was NO smell at all
(one of my neighbors here kept her horse there, so she told them to let me have anything that had come out of "her" stall ... LOL)
I got a bunch of fresh cow patties, put them in my compost bin, worked wonders after it had worked itself out for six months or so
but as already recommended, check to see what ELSE is in the manure, and what the animals have been eating
(if the animal has eaten tomatoes, be prepared for "volunteers")
I'd be willing to bet he's looking for a way to make a really hot compost (raw manure and brown matter, about 1:1) to use as a base for an organic hot frame, or to kill weed seeds in whatever brown he's using. It is the compost of my childhood, that stuff, and I miss having a big barn midden at the end of winter: take the new stuff off the top, put it in a manure spreader and fertilize the corn patch, the composted but still hot stuff gets hand-spread and rototilled into the whole vegetable garden, and the brown gold at the bottom is made into manure tea and lined along the rows as they get planted.
You can actually use sheep, goat, and rabbit uncomposted; they're all pretty low in Nitrogen, but I'd worry about pathogens. I had a friend who was into biointensive gardening who had a greenhouse with rabbit cages inside over barrels with carp from which she irrigated her winter vegetables... it worked OK until the whole thing went down in a windstorm; I think most of those great ideas need sturdier construction than they're prone to get.
It is the compost of his childhood as well. He wants to hand-spread and rototill the manure into his vegetable garden for the winter. No tidy bags from Lowe's for him. No sir!
My mother doesn't think it's such a good idea which only makes him want to get some "fresh" all the more. Their exchanges could be the fodder for a sitcom! Hilarious to listen to them. Mom so serious, Dad so funny.
I only hope that when I'm in my 80s I'll have such energy - for my garden and my relationships!
