Best manure choice??

Seeing what everyone thinks about what the best manure is to use. Only have a few close choices.

1- Cow, used it when I was younger on the farm, but don't have a close source

2- Horse, there's a stable across from dad, and it
is a good supply, but are vet medications a
concern? Seem to be a lot more weed seeds too.

3- Sheep, What I've gotten from a cousin has been
weedy, but also in good supply

This for the veggie garden, fruit trees and blueberries and I'd like to keep as organic as possible. trying to increase the soil, since there's yellow clay under the 6"-8" of topsoil.

Sorry that I don't know where you're located.

As for manure, you're going to get weed seeds in any and all of it, especially if fresh. Composting the manure can help, especially if you can get the compost pile really heated up well. I've used manure in compost, even when I knew there would be weed problems. I figured that the enhanced fertility was worth the trade off on weeds. The only requirement is to make sure to stay on top of the weeds as soon as they germinate. Let them get going and they'll make a crop of their own.

Something you can do about the clay, to some degree, is planting cover crops. Buckwheat is known to smother weeds and I've heard that it also helps loosen up compacted soils. Sweet clover can really break up hard pans, especially if you let it get growing the second year and only till it in after full bloom. The best way to handle soil compaction in a garden is to add organic matter and then don't fool with the soil any more than necessary. The earthworms and bacteria, et al, will loosen things up in due time as long as you keep them fed.

There are some things you can add to the soil in place of manure, without all the weed problems. Mulching with grass clippings will help smother weeds and add fertility to your garden. Mulching with shredded leaves in the fall will protect the soil in winter and gradually rot into the soil, enriching it. If you don't have a shredder, just spread the leaves on the garden and till it in during the fall to keep the wind from blowing them away.

Hope this helps.

Christopher

Got any zoos near by ? Elephant is to be the best. I think I heard that somewhere ?

Horse manure mellows real easy. Whatever you use, if you can get it and pile it to compost that is the best. I clean out my horse/cattle yard twice a year. In the spring I leave enough in a pile to use on the gardens the next year. Once or twice through the summer and fall, I will re pile it to kind of stir it up. The following spring I will start over. Seems like that also helps with the weed issue.

Any bird type chicken, turkeys an so no seeds good fuel for gardens and will turn any soil in to compost in time.
Walt

I didn't mention birds, cause there are no piles of any quantity within 35 miles! I do have wild turkeys that visit the garden every morning and keep the bug population in check.

Thanks for the input!
Had a bad bout with clover seed germinating with the sheep stuff I got last year from my cousin (box garden, all throughout the lettuce, chard, spinach, etc. The horse poo I got has been aged for 3 years and there is a great supply.

I rely solely on horse manure mostly because it's free AND delivered. Nitrogen is less than cow manure but cover crops can help boost that. Weed seeds, as someone else said, are taken care of by the heat of decomposition. I also like it because no matter what it's age it's never runny!

I watched a neat program about Busch Gardens and the guy that manages all of the animal and "yard" waste there. Quite a process, especially the large tub grinder they have to grind up tree branches, leaves, etc. They call him "Captain Compost".

Good nutrients,
Bill

I'm often told that I'm full of it. Where are you at? I'm cheap and don't take medications, except when I'm locked up, but don't hold that against me.

No seriously, for me cow, but you don't have cattle. I've not heard any complaints about horse, and have used. Medications for horses? Well, I suppose that there could be some, but I don't see any of my neighbors medicating their horses, at least unless one goes ill, but not for long. Maybe I just learned something. Small things like gardens, duck by the truckload.

Mark

I have about 280 tons of breeder poultry manure a year. I now have cows and next year, or this fall, we will be mixing the manure chicken/cow and be spreading at a rate of 15 tons/ acre cow and 3 tons/acre chicken poop. That mixture should build my soils up just the way I want. Phospherous build is the only thing I will have to watch.

I wouldn't get too close to an elephant.
Elephant video

What ever it is, well rotted for at least 2-3 years works better.

Our county landfill makes compost from leaves and grass clippings and you can buy a pickup load for $10.00. I covered the garden with this last fall. I also plowed down leaves and grass clipping from my own lawn. I use Buckwheat when I can find it and till it under. I always plant barley for a cover crop and I plow that under too.
I quit using manure since it has a lot of weed seeds. You can use fertilizer spikes around your fruit trees. I use either Rapid Gro or Miracle Gro in the garden. I ran a water line out to the garden about 15 years ago since I got tired of having to carry water from the house. I have it so I can drain the water line in the Fall
to prevent freezing. I have the drain valve in the basement. Here are some of the tomatoes from the garden in 2008. Hal

We don't have a landfill that has that type of thought line in place, just dig a hole, bury it and add the next layer!

I've got quite a few large oaks and maples that I shred and fill a 4 cubic yd trailer at least 5 times in the fall. The wife has flower gardens that take the majority of it (LOTS of gardens)and the rest goes on the veggie plot.
I limed this year and just wanted to get more organic matter in, other than leaves and compost.

NICE looking tomatoes! Looking foreword to my first tomato sandwich.

Thanks to everybody's suggestions!

I live in Youngstown, OH (for those that asked!)
I grew up in the 60's and 70's on a 150a. "hobby" farm (Dad's hobby, my job)and we used more commercial fertilizer than manure, and sprayed every thing from Atrizine to Mathoxoclor(sp?)
I don't believe in it and keep as organic as possible, and the fruits may not be perfect but I feel safe eating them.

I bet that guy in the video got a new nickname (perhaps MN Joe?) after that, I've seen it before, but its still funny, cause it didn't happen to me!
Around here the most N you could get out of manure was chickencrap. We used to make watermelon and cantalope hills, by dumping a bucket full of fresh hog crap onto the ground, then covering up with an equal amount of garden dirt, then plant on top of that. That always grew the biggest melons.

We used to raise melons also! 3a. with black plastic and plenty of cow crap underneath, and it gave healthy plants.............................

But I hated every year pulling up all of that plastic! The rows went on forever (when you're 12!)