Garden manure, mineral additives

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM YARRA]

Hi I'm new to this site....

Does anyone know if if its advisable to rotary hoe freshly delivered manure into the grond or if there are any supplies of bulk minerals i can mix into my 5 acreas or so of land which has only ever been used for grazing before.

The more important question i'd like to ask is, if i use chicken manure from chicken pens housing chickens inoculated with hormone treatments will that hormone be transfered into my current organic soils through the manure?

Anyone know where i can get truckloads of horse or chichen manure in the Yarra Glen area?

[eco4560]

Have you considered getting a soil analysis from someone like Nutritech so you know exactly what minerals you need?

My bet is yes - the hormones will get into your food supply.

[briansworms]

I was reading yesterday that you would have to eat two whole chickens every day for the hormone levels to affect you. The hormones would probably break down over time and is it possible for plants to absorb it then transfer it to you? I think we would be in more danger of being run over by a bus than being affected from the food in your garden.

With the manure being fresh, everyone will tell you that you need aged manure. This Worm Farmer will tell you that with fresh manure in your soil you will attract more worm activity than aged manure. The worms in your soil is what you want. I used to use aged manure but now feed my worms fresh as I can get manure. I say this with a caution to others that not too much at once as it can heat up but if you have enough worms they break it down before the heat can be a problem.

The concerns about worming mixes used in horses and cattle killing earthworms appear to be unfounded. I have never had a problem and worm farmer of 20 years told me that he has never heard of worms dying from manure after the animals have been wormed.

[GILLYS CHILLI FARM YARRA]

Thanks Briansworms....that makes me feel better.

Do you rip in into the soil or plough it in.?

Is it ok to mix various manures in together , any known benefits ?

Which manures are better for worm farming? Any noticable differences in different manures?

[Grahame]

Hi Gilly,

I'll leave the hormone question aside as I have no information or experience with that.

There are problems associated with both rotary hoeing and fresh manures.

With repeated rotary hoeing, you can develop some problems such as a clay pan (depending on your soil profile of course). This can effect the way water drains through your soil and effect the eventual structure. How is the soil structure now? how deep it is, what is the profile like?

Are you looking to use manures to add organic matter or as a quick and dirty fertiliser? Overuse of manure can lead to leaching of nutrients into the water table just as artificial fertilisers can. I think composting manures first makes more sense or better still get some chickens to work through it first. Have you thought of using pigs to cultivate the land for you?

What are you looking to do with the land? etc etc etc? There are a lot more questions you need to be asking before you go pumping fresh manure into your soil in my opinion.

Different manures all have different characteristics, some are high in organic matter, but low in nutrients and visa versa. A mix will always be better than one single type.

Have you considered 'green manures'?

[briansworms]

I am not a Farmer and can only comment on what I see in my worm beds. Fresh wet cow manure seems to fire up the worms and they are all over it in no time. Fresh horse manure they are a bit slower getting onto it and not as active with it as the cow. They still get into it but you can see a noticeable difference.

You can as Grahame has suggested compost the manure then put it into your ground. You can set up runs of manure and put worms in and you just add the new manure to one end. The worms will work along the manure and as the newer stuff cools the will move into it. If you keep it damp the worms will convert it into worm castings and you use this as a slow release fertilizer.

The trick would be to have enough worms for the pile you have. There are ways to get your worm numbers up quite rapidly and once you are up and running you just need to keep up the manure. It all comes down to what Grahame also said what you want to do with the land etc.

[Grasshopper]

Have you considered 'green manures'?

This is probably the cheap,easy and effective answer