Horse Manure. Does anyone have recommendations on what to do with it? I was thinking about composting it but?

Question

worry that the smell will be offensive to my neighbors. Any advice? What do you do with your horse manure?

Answer 1

Fortunately horse manure is the least offensive of all f***s.

Not that I want to roll in it before dinner, or anything like that, but on the p**p scale, it isn't that bad.

Fresh horse manure is very hot, but old manure is a great fertilizer.  

Our neighbors (Amish) take ours for fertilizer.

Maybe try a small compost pile.  You're very considerate, so tell your neighbors to let you know if the smell is too much.

Answer 2

Your name should say it really,but I have kept horses.

We always kept 2 seperate piles of horse manure. 1 fresh and 1 rotting down for 12 months.

After 12 months it's ok for the garden or to sell on if you can.

We never mixed it with regular compost,ie grass,veg etc.

As for smell,I never thought it was that bad.

Answer 3

We use ours in the garden and anyone else who wants some picks it up themselves.  I have a big chuck of property so it goes on the back 40, no smell, no flies and i dont have to look at it.

Answer 4

Aged horse manure is a GREAT fertilizer and it really doesn't smell bad--only the fresh stuff smells.

If you have a pile and you want to get rid of it, often an ad in a local paper (Free Manure) will bring plenty of gardeners willing to take it away for you.  If you have a really large pile (like at a boarding stable), there are sometimes local companies that will haul it away and sell it as fertilizer.

BTW, if you can let it sit long enough, it turns into what appears to be dirt. I recently took some of my friend's 10-year-old pile for my garden, and you couldn't tell it from ordinary top soil.

Answer 5

Let it sit for a couple years and it turns into what is called "black gold"

This is highly desired by tomato growers.  It's great to add to potted plants too!

For the first few months you can put LIME on top of the pile to help hold down the odor.  

Order some FLY PREDATORS and let them loose in the pile to help hold down the flies.

Advertise on Craigslist that you have 'black gold' manure.

Some nurseries will accept the manure if you truck to them.

Some people will use it as fill, no idea why but it's a hole to dump it!  

The way I see it...if they are living out in the country where there are farms and such....there is gonna be stink so deal with it people! haha

good luck!

Answer 6

It only smells for a little while,  Once it is composted it doesn't smell at all.  I compost mine and give it away to friends for use as a soil ammendment in their gardens.  I use it in my own garden as well as on my pastures.

Answer 7

Compost it!  It's amazing to add to gardens or plantings.

The smell should not be a problem if you do it properly.  If it's only a very small amount and you're very close to neighbors, use a covered composter such as CompostTumbler.

Answer 8

its great you respect your neighbors. Have you asked them if it would bother them. I spread my manure in my neighbors field. funny rite.

Answer 9

our muck heap is in the field so unlikely to bother the neighbours. We get a couple of garden guys and a couple of allotment type people who come and help themselves. It goes on the yard owners garden and the rest ( well rotted) gets spread back onto the fields.

Edit: Once it's stacked the stuff on the outside dries and it doesn't smell unless you disturb it. You do get liquid runoff though so if you're making a pile you need to consider that ( in the UK you can get a whopping fine if your runoff gets into a watercourse)

Edit 2: it's apparently great for tomatoes, rhubarb and mushrooms as well as roses.

Answer 10

That's very nice of you to worry about your neighbors.  You can usually load all of your manure into a trailer or in little buckets and go dump them at your local horse facility. Thats what I do. You can also put your munure in trash bags and on trash day put it out with your garbage and the disposal service will charge a little extra. BUT IT GETS THE JOB DONE!