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Mark Poss

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Looking to put down some fertilizer on a couple of acres that I checkrow corn on for fun. Is horse manure better than steer manure or does it matter? Thanks, Mark.
 
I have used cow manure and horse manure in my gardens and both pretty much seem to do the same thing so to me it does not matter. Now days I use horse manure because I have horses and board a few horses so it is free
 
Be wary of horse manure that is 75% wood shavings bedding. The shavings will tie up a lot of N until the shavings breaks down.
 
I would avoid horse manure that has not been composted for at least a year, it can contain weed seeds and the sawdust eats nitrogen.
 
When we milked cows we free stalled and used straw and saw dust and saw dust doesn't hurt ground. We made sure that the fields were limed good.
 
Ah but see you add thing to his post. Many people who have horses do not use wood chips or shavings many do so you need to make sure what he can get. ME I never have wood chips or shavings in my manure just old used up no good hay which works just fine and had been for decades.
 

Another factor is the great difference in the digestive tract between cattle and horses. If you were converting forest into crop ground and you had just four inches of soil over sand, then any horse manure would help your soil a lot because it would increase the ability of your soil to hold moisture. When you have soil that is already good, the horse manure, as David G and Coonie Minnie said, causes the N to be tied up because of the acid produced during the decomposition of the cellulose. Sure you can overcome the horse manure with additional lime, but it is an exercise in futility. More work for no gain.
 
Yep some of the best stuff I got out of my garden last year was in a raised bed that I had filled with composted horse and hay mix. Cauliflower and broccoli bigger then an ice cream bucket gal size. Also jalapeno peppers 1.5 inches in diameter and 4 inch long. Plus sweet tater vines that where well over 30 feet long and 2 plants gave me 30 plus pounds of sweet taters and a couple the size of a foot ball
 
(quoted from post at 14:14:39 01/25/17) You fore get that any thing that rots materal helps improve soil over time.
Click to expand...

Can't really be sure what you are trying to say in your statement, but yes, poor soil can most likely be helped by putting rotted material on. You can even grow things on rotting hay if you can figure out a way to keep moisture in it during July and August. However, if you are trying to work as effectively as possible for both your time and money. You are going to do best with nitrogen that is working for you instead of being tied up in acid soil. You said yourself in your earlier post that you always added lime.
 
That is why my green beans get moved just every year so as to keep a good nitrogen supply in the garden.
 
Best - poultry manure.

Hog manure.

Cattle manure.

Horse manure is on the bottom end. They eat a lot more fiber and don't pass on as much good stuff.

Different ages of critters, liquid vs solid, the type of bedding can change all this.

Horse manure is good stuff, just not as strong. Might be best composted for a year.

Paul
 
I agree it's not going to matter which one you use if horse manure has bedding material in it as long as you're applying it on top and not incorporating into the soil you're not going to notice any nitrogen used difference. manure were is all I use on my hayfields for fertilizer and by far our use more horse manure than cattle manure you're never had a problem
 
Chicken manure is very hot and if put on at the wrong time of year can and will burn plants. I have both horse and chicken manure that I can use and have found in my case horse to be better for my needs
 
We use to put chicken manure on garden in spring but spread it very light all over garden with no problems.
 
The key is light and most of the time well tilled in. If I use chicken manure I put ti on in the late fall or winter so the rain and snows if we get snow pull it in and does it job
 
We use to put 2-3" of manure consisting of straw and saw dust on our fields and turn it under in spring. We tested and limed every 5 years
and with that much manure we could cut back on commercial fertilizer. Anything Like rotted leaves, saw dust, corn stalks, and green plow down
are putting humus into soil creating more and richer top soil over time.
 
If you have trouble with chicken manure, beware rabbit manure! But you really gotta be somebody to come up with a spreader load of pellets....


Like I said, there are lots of variables you can't count on such a simple chart, but it makes it easy to do a simple compare.

Paul
Simple manure values
 
I'm also talking about on a garden not on a field. My fields are self fertilizing with the horses I have on it
 
Garden plants can be sensitive for sure! Even just the salts that come from some manure.

Wish I could get some hog manure. Like I say I can see 4 big 5000 head hog facilities from my yard, but I'm too far away to get the mainure. My few beef graze in a cornstalk field all winter and eat round bales I put out, it fertilizes that 38 acres very inconsistently but I have little extra manure to haul and apply where needed.

Guess I should get into raising rabbits! ;)

Paul
 
I have read that horse manure will have more weed seed in it. We compost all in a big pile over the Winter and spread in the Spring. Multiple piles and turned ever once and a while. Maybe some day i will get fancy and airate the bottom.
 
I do not have much trouble with weeds from the manure but the hay I feed comes off my farm and I cut the hay so I have a min of weeds
 
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