Can someone help me understanding Manure?...lol?

Question

I once over-heard an old farmer talk about the manure, out of all things lol, and he when to say...

...Pig manure is potash, phospherus is cow, nitrogen is chicken,...all three together make a balanced farmland. Sorry if I have that listed wrong...It was quite a long time ago. It was based on the idea of #3.

I was wondering if anyone else has heard of this,..and if someone could help me clearify this saying?

Answer 1

Those are the three vital ingreds. of fertilizer.  So far as which animals yield which, your tally is good enough for me.  Commercial fertilizer is probably used in far greater quantities than manure, but the 3 ingreds. you mention are the best selling general mixture in the mined varieties, although in various ratios.

Answer 2

If we are growing grain, we need most of the nutrients that are left over when grain is digested.

Chicken manure is mostly digested grain, so it will give us a good grain fertilizer. But we have to use it sparingly because it is so high in all ingredients.

There is no particular value in mixing manures to achieve a balance. Nobody bothers to do it.

Cattle manure, pig manure, and poultry manure all have ratios close enough to be used to grow more food for the animals involved.

We need to know, not the amount of nutrients in fresh manure but the nutrient level left in manure at the time it is spread on the land.

This is particularly the case if someone has composted the manure. In composting the amount of plant nutrient available drops a lot.

The main drop is in nitrogen, as it evaporates, and leaches into groundwater. Oddly, this reduced nitrogen content is touted as a benefit in that one gets less crop burning. Yet when we mix straw into manure so that it absorbs the nitrogen fertilizer, we seem to get more benefit, mostly because the nitrogen is released slowly as needed by the plants.

Adding superphosphate to manure has an interesting effect. It captures nitrate fertilizer and keeps it available for plants, combined perfectly with phosphate. The phosphate might otherwise have been locked up by calcium in the soil thus remains available to plants.

Composting has somewhat the same effect, keeping the phosphate from being locked up by soil calcium or magnesium. (This is a concern for soils high in calcium or magnesium.)

Answer 3

I know that chicken **** is too rich in fertilizer . care need to be taken in the application. very high in ammonia ,I expect

Answer 4

The actual analysis of the animal manures you mentioned are as follows: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P2O5). and Potassium (K2O)

                          N      P2O5   K2O

Pig manure     2.8        1         1.2

Cow manure   2          .65       1.6

Chicken man. 3.6       1.3       1.3

So chicken manure is better in Nitrogen content, cow manure is slightly better in Potassium, but pig manure falls short in all three categories. Actually chicken manure is the best balanced fertilizer by itself. Mostly you just use what you have available to you. It is all good.

http://www.garden-services.com/fertanal....

Answer 5

Don't forget that manure has highly active bacteria that are constantly breaking themselves down and can also cause diesease if un washed fruits and veggies comes into contact with it.

Answer 6

In general the bird guano is higher in phosphorus than the others as they combine the output of their waste where the other animals separate their urine. That makes the poultry higher in phosphorus. Rates are not too different considering their changes during composting. Nothing should be used raw as it would be too strong and not as useful chemically until the conversion by microbes during composting. Mixing is not so vital as I think you were led to believe but cows have more of the beneficial bacteria in their gut to break down and compost where as other animals with single stomachs do not. Add chicken or other bird manure to cow to increase the slightly lower phosphorus and nitrogen and let the bacteria do their magic. Chicken alone would be best but the quick composting is done with cow and their bacteria. Adding good rich active soil for it's bacteria is also good, with or without cow doo. Before the eventual use of the product, incorporate dolomite to bring the acidity down and add calcium. Of the 3 number fertilizer content system, calcium is important enough to have been considered at one time to be added as a fourth number, but it is just represented as a calcium carbonate equivalent instead (on bagged prepared fertilizer). Keep in mind that in the end, not generalized analysis is a guarentee as everything depend on the feed each animal receives so each has it's own wide range.