The correct way to compost cow manure

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by AmandaM, Apr 6, 2005.

  1. AmandaM

    AmandaM Junior Member

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    Can anyone advise me what the correct process is for composting cow manure? We have 22 young heifers that we let out to graze during the day and then we yard them at night with a bit of extra feed. The next day we generally have 2.5 - 3 wheelbarrows full of manure that we have been collecting from the yard and at present simply placing in a long heap in the garden.

    In the various literature that I have read, it says that manures should be composted, however, no instruction has been provided on how to do this. I gather that it will not magically compost under the current conditions, it appears to simply be drying out. In the paddock, the dung beatles and worms are making short work of it, but obviously we can't let it build up in the yard as that would be quite unhygenic, and may cause a worm infestation.

    Any suggestions?
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day amanda,

    don't know about it being unhygenic in the yards have you ever seen the yards at a dairy farm or a feed lot?

    i reckon just get it break it up and spread it on the garden cover with mulch the worms will move it so fast it'll make your head spin. when i have the energy or time or inclination i get manure from private cattle yards plonk it straight onto the garden no fuss or fanfare.

    you need to encourage the dung beetles so leave some for them hey.

    you can't get much more ready for use than cattle manure or sheep or goats or pigs for that matter.

    oh and out of the yards is better it has more urine in it.

    len
     
  3. AmandaM

    AmandaM Junior Member

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    Thanks Len,

    I'll give that a try then.

    Actually I have been to a feedlot once and if I am never near one again it will be too soon. The reason why those animals don't get worms or other sicknesses from wading about in their own exrement is that they are heavily medicated with antibiotics and drenches and the like - which renders their manure unsafe to put on the garden I would imagine.

    We are organic, to the extent that we use no chemicals of any sort, and once I figure out how to farm, then I'll prove it to the certifiers and then I guess I'll get a little logo as well. So for as long as the cattle go beddybies at night, the manure has to be relocated for their health and my sanity.

    Amanda
     
  4. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    ok amanda,

    i can see what you mean by feed lots and i shouldn't have used them as an example. but 40 years ago when i was 10 we used to go to a what would now be called an organic dairy (they used no chemicals then) an got yard manure, as i do now i get yard manure from people with small family herds who don't use chemicals per sey.

    so if you are running your herd as grass fed and no chemicals (i will then assume you are in a tick free or reduced tick area) then their poop will be gold in the garden.

    if things go right we will be starting our herd soon, we are in a tick free area so there will be no chemicals.

    now having said that we will be running at app' 1 head to 4 acres that is about the average of aussie grazing land if you can run better than than that then you are going to hvae ticks at the very least that is as we see and hear it. so we have something short of 70 acres and our plan is to manage our herd at around 10 or 12 taking out the requirements for house, gardens and fruit trees ok?

    you have quiet a herd there so you will be needing around the 90 or 100 acres to manage them on grass fed free of chemicals. and to promote tick resistant cattle they will need a fair shake of brahman, cebu in them or red shorthorns.

    lets keep chatting i have much to learn.

    len
     
  5. Fee

    Fee Junior Member

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    Cow manure

    In Rosemary Morrow's brilliant book Earth User's Guide to Permaculture she say on p 35:
    Ön the whole, animals which eat meat such as chickens and pigs have strong manure (ie. the manure conains more nitrogen) which should be composted before it is applied to gardens. Manure from cows and horses is weaker unless the animals have been stabled and urine (nitrogen) is mixed with the dung."
     
  6. AmandaM

    AmandaM Junior Member

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    Thanks Fee,

    So it should be OK as Len says to put it straight in the garden, as the yard the cows are in at night is several acres and not at all cramped, they won't have added too much urine to the mix.

    Len, I am also still learning about cows, but I'll tell you what I do know in case it is a help.

    We are 1 hour south-east of Canberra at an elevation of between 950 - 1100 metres, so probably not an area that is at high risk of ticks. We have 530 acres and have been advised that we have a carrying capacity of around 100 breeding cows. We are unlikely to try to run that many cattle though, as my feeling is that the land would benefit more from a mix of species, so we will be getting some boer goats and X bred ewes over the next few years to complement the cattle. If we can work out the logistics, I also hope to include some chickens and rabbits and possibly even pigs. I think that animals with different feed preferences and requirements will take different things out and put different things back over time and hopefully aid the restoration of fertility rather than further degrade the farm.

    In my area, English cattle breeds are considered to be the best, so our babies are about half Hereford X Angus (what we called Micky Mouse in NW NSW, but down here they call them Whiteface) the other half are Whiteface crossed back to an Angus bull. You are right, they are a quiet lot, we were lucky, as we bought privately from a local lady who had been hand-feeding bread to her animals to get them through the drought. We have more than adequate feed, but we have continued the practise of hand-feeding in order to retain the bond with them, although we feed them cut willow boughs or mixed chaf instead of bread. Initially, we had intended to purchase a few dairy x poddy heifers each week from the dairy sales in Mossvale and bucket feed them for a few months to establish the bond, and we may still do that while we are building the herd. The dairies sell the calves off at around 1 week old when they are not being kept for milkers - it is a pretty awful practise in my opinion but it is a way of getting them young enough to make friends with them.

    Back to ticks, I have read that external parasites seem only to attack animals who are not receiving enough sulphur in their diets, although sucking and biting insects are also attracted to animals that have molasses in their ration. Similarly, internal parasites are attracted to animals whose diets are deficient in copper. We have had our soil analysed and our copper levels are pretty respectable in the lower paddocks near the river, but a little low on the slopes. Sulphur seems to be low all over. The cause of sulphur and copper and other trace-mineral deficit in our soils is reputedly due to applications of artificials, especially super phosphate, as well as low calcium and magnesium levels.

    The long term solution to soil deficiency is to remineralise with lime-minerals based on an analysis and subsequent aeration with a yeoman's or wallace-type instrument after around 100mm of rain has fallen. Apparently once the calcium and magnesium levels have been addressed, most of the nutrients and trace elements that were previously unavailable come back into the food chain. Books to read - Natural Farming by Pat Coleby and Healthy Cattle, Naturally also by Pat Coleby. She explains all this much better than I.

    In the short term, to ensure that the animals are receiving the necessary minerals, a stock lick should be made available to them that they can take as much or as little as they like, as they have an instict to seek that which they need. The basic recipe is 25kg dolomite, 3kg Yellow Sulphur, 3kg Copper Sulphate, 3kg Urea-free seawead meal. Additional ingredients depend on the analysis of your soil.

    Another thing I have discovered about cows is that they don't just eat grass, given the chance to roam in the garden, they will eat sunflowers, sweet corn, tomatoes, snow-peas, pumpkin leaves, gerberas (believe it or not), roses, poplar trees, willow trees, silver birch and no doubt many other things that we did not have growing. Now that we have started spreading the minerals, we are going to wait to see what pasture species establish themselves first before sowing any seed, but after that, I will definitely try to add at least some of the above as they seemed to love it so much.

    Anyway, thats probably enough to begin with, definitely read the books if you can, they certainly remove some of the mysteries of farm management and animal husbandry without chemicals.

    Amanda
     
  7. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    thanks amanda,

    i'll be saving all that info, i like the white faces but up here they are prone to getting done over by ticks so people stear clear of them as a single breed they have the brahford which is the brahman hereford mix they do good but not pwerfect. we will be concentrating on mixes of brahman, droughtmaster, red shorthorns and charalais (chabrahs x's), we are tick free here. so far info from the bloke who had the property before he needed to give his cattle a copper based lick so the cows would cycle. but maybe we should do the soil test? got a neighbour running droughtmaster x's they are prime looking cattle just on grass he feed when the drought gets bad. when ther was cattle here over 2 years agao there was some buffalo fly so hoping the 2 year fallow of the pastures will have broken their breeding cycle.

    we have heaps of grass here and hope to manage both grass nad beast carrying to minimise feeding, at this point we are looking at around 1 head to 4 acres, could do 1 to 2 but don't want to affect long term grazing, and if the drought bites we'll have to consider going out to 1 to 6 ratio. intend to keep close contact so they are easier to handle. before we came 1 to 5 or 6 was all this place would carry and in the drought out to 1 to 10, so we've got some improvement.

    take care

    len
     
  8. AmandaM

    AmandaM Junior Member

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    Definitely get the soil test done Len. Go to the website https://www.swep.com.au, they are the only lab in Australia that I know of that use the Albrecht method. There are instructions on the site on how to take the sample and so on. I would advise that you read Coleby's book too. She has offered to provide independant advice to people if they ask Swep to send her a copy of the anlysis at the time that they send in the sample(s). Also on the site is a list of Swep agents in the different areas, this will be useful if you need to find a company that can supply and spread the minerals in your area. Be careful with some of the recommendations, for example, in any one year you should not spread more than around 2 tonnes/ha of lime minerals. They will also make recommendations about spreading fertilizer - don't do it, in most cases it is a waste, as the nutrients are often present already but simply unavailable due to low calcium and magnesium levels. Don't forget to ask for a total phosphorous count as part of your analysis.

    I truly believe that the only way to ensure the long-term health of your soil and the animals and plants growing on it is to see to this asap, otherwise you will always be fighting against the inherent instability that is the legacy of conventional farming.

    Amanda
     
  9. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    g'day amanda,

    got all that info saved now.

    what book(s) do you think we should read?

    at present we are running on local knowledge, but of prime importance is finishing the beast off before preperation for the freezer, after all that is waht we are about. i've heard of 'black meat' from animals under stress (high adrenilin) at the time of processing. i've also heard that they need to be finished on eg.,. bran or some grain?

    we will be feeding them some hay each week just to supplement and keep them used to us. the trick up here in drought time is to feed them mollassus so they eat the dry grass to keep them going. not into grain supplementry or pellet supplementry feeding mostly going to be grass, hay and what is need to finish for the table.

    yes i will be persuing the testing and improvement side of things but finances are going to be short.

    don't need a whole list of books just the important ones i don't do much reading so that will come down to the better half to do.

    we where thinking of going with a natural soil improver crowd uphere who use crushed rock phosphates etc in their mixes for pasture improvement over the long term, but we will have to walk around with it by the bucket and spread it that way unless we can borrow a spreader. at this stage with my knowledge would suggest we need gypsum more than lime, dolomite/lime and rock phosphates with trace elements mainly copper and calcium.

    not into goats or sheep, too many problems with dogs and fencing with dog wire, but thinking of pigs to be raised on grass and some clean kitchen scraps. would be planning on growing mass pumpkins for beefers and pigs. we will have chooks maybe ducks or turkey's for poultry and eggs.

    take care

    len
     
  10. AmandaM

    AmandaM Junior Member

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    Hi Len,

    Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I did answer this the other day, but I obviously took so long to do so, that they logged me out and when I went to submit it cleared all my hard work. Not to be caught again, I am doing this in notepad and then pasting. No flies on me!

    The best book to read to start with in my opinion is Natural Farming by Pat Coleby. I picked mine up at the local field day for $35, as it was only published last year, you probably won’t be able to get a second hand copy very easily. In any case it is a keeper, I refer to mine over and over. You can buy it online from Small Farms bookshop https://www.smallfarms.net/index.htm?Boo ... ~mainFrame, they are charging $40 plus I assume some postage. Once you have your head around that, then Healthy Cattle, Naturally also by Pat Coleby is optional, but strongly advisable. Other than that, the one that I think is really useful is Water for Every Farm, P.A. Yeomans, obtainable at https://www.keyline.com.au, you may find this one second hand, although make sure it is the 2002 edition.


    If your focus is on finishing beasts, then I assume that you average more than 750mm of rain each year and that you have a growing season of 9 months or longer. Will you be buying your cattle in as weaners, or breeding them yourself? Referring to local knowledge is a very good idea, but don’t forget that it applies mainly to land that has been farmed conventionally for many generations. I would suggest that you suspend judgement on the use of molasses as a feed supplement until after you have read the Coleby books, as the lick that she has formulated (included in previous correspondence) performs the same job of allowing the beasts to utilise the dry feed, but without making them tasty to biting insects like ticks. Finishing animals on grain is by no means mandatory, it is a fairly specialised market that demands grain-finished beasts and it is best left to the commercial feed-lotters. Grass finished animals are in strong demand and that demand will continue to grow with the international concerns about BSE and general animal welfare becoming more prevalent. A small amount of hand-fed grain ration is fine to keep them quiet and facilitate giving them their lick, but beyond that if you have sufficient feed to get you through winter, then you will already be receiving a premium for your beasts for marketing them during a time of feed shortages in southern Australia. In reference to stressed animals producing poor product, let me just say that animals in optimum health, i.e. fed on well grown pastures with any missing minerals supplied through licks while the pasture is recovering will be far less prone to stress than one that is fighting poor nutrition or parasite attack. Really transport and slaughtering practises are going to be the things that you can not control, unless you seek organic certification and make use of certified transporters and abattoirs, their standards will require them to minimise stress on the beasts.

    Drought is a bit of a misused term. Technically, Australia is in drought 6 years out of 7. By taking a soil analysis and making the recommended applications of ameliorants, you are effectively increasing the water-holding capability of your soils, if you also aerate (after about 100mm rain post spreading) and follow some of the contouring and tree-planting recommendations in Water for “Every Farm”, you will further drought-proof your property, to the extent that it will remain green and the plants will keep growing on retained water long after your neighbours fields have dried out. Your pastures will send their roots deeper into the ground and regrowth will begin much sooner after the rains come, and with much less water. If you experience a feed shortage in mid-summer, do what the Permaculture book suggests and as part of your tree planting, include fodder species that are known to thrive in your area – willow (weeping only), tagasaste, kurrajong, poplar, casurinas, silver birch and so on – I don’t really know the trees, Greening Australia will be able to provide you with a list of natives for your area, for exotic trees, refer to the Permaculture books.

    It is great that you already have a local agent for soil improvers, that makes things so much easier, but do NOT allow them to tell you what needs to be spread, you should always get advice from a company that sells only advice and not products. https://www.swep.com.au are the only company that I know of that do this, all the instructions are on their website. If you have read the Coleby book, I also recommend that you take her up on her offer of free advice on the test results, simply request when you send the sample to SWEP that they send her a copy of the results. You can then call her and she will advise you of what order to do things in and whether to stage the quantities if there is too much to spread in one year. The cost of a soil test is around $121, this is for a basic test (plus total phosphorous which you must ask for). Depending on how your block was farmed, you may need more than one test. The recommendation when it comes back will give you in tonnes per hectare the amounts of lime and/or dolomite and/or gypsum that will need to be spread. It cost me just over $10,000 to have 100 acres treated (this included the products and the spreading) – if you are just having the product delivered to spread yourself, it should cost around $50 - $70 per tonne in bulk. If you buy it in bags at the hardware store it will cost around $8 - $11 for 25kg, so try to buy the product in bulk if you can manage it. Perhaps you could afford to have 10 – 20 acres professionally done each year without stretching things too much. The analysis will also include fertilizer and trace element recommendations. Ignore these, once you have spread the lime minerals, the nutrients and trace elements will come back into the food chain all by themselves without costing you thousands of wasted dollars. There is almost no chance that you will need rock phosphates to be spread, by including a total phosphorous reading in your analysis, you will see that there is probably a huge bank of phosphorous already in your soil which is simply unavailable due to the calcium and magnesium being out of balance. Rock phosphate is VERY expensive and almost always unnecessary.

    We bought a mini spreader, the type that you push along from the hardware store for $70, we use it in the garden, but if you are adamant about doing the spreading yourself, this may be an economical way of doing it without resorting to a bucket and spade.

    Good Luck!

    Amanda
     
  11. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    thanks amanad,

    got all that now.

    len
     

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