Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Cow manure delivery

Collapse

X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Cow manure delivery

    Hi everyone, I've had a delivery of cow manure which is sitting outside in a heap waiting to be spread. Do I need to cover the pile while it sits ? Theres been heavy rain for the past few days and I've noticed the pile seems to have shrunk. It's become very difficult to shift being so wet but besides this I was wondering whether there's any other reason to cover the heap while it sits ?

  • #2
    The only reason I cover mine is to prevent weeds growing.

    Comment


    • #3
      I have no proof, just what fellow allotmenters have told me....

      I am sometimes told that rain can ‘wash the nutrients out’, but in my view that’s not necessarily a reason to worry, particularly if you plan to grow stuff in the soil underneath at some point. I would also comment that I grew courgettes, squash and cucumbers this year in a pile of well rotted manure which had been left in the rain all winter. They grew brilliantly- but having never tried growing them in a muck heap which has been protected from rain, I do not know if they might have done even better. We certainly couldn’t have eaten any more!

      As for keeping the rain off, I agree a dry heap is much easier on your back. Covering to let it dry out a bit before you need to shift it seems sensible to me, but you could also just wait until the weather improves!

      Comment


      • #4
        Depends where it has been dumped, if it is on an area where the run off can enter a drain or stream cover it till the rain is off then get it onto the garden as soon as possible, if it is sitting in the garden with no potential of contaminating streams or drains, spread it at your leisure
        it may be a struggle to reach the top, but once your over the hill your problems start.

        Member of the Nutters Club but I think I am just there to make up the numbers

        Comment


        • #5
          Personally I'd always cover a manure pile, as long as I had something handy to use - apart from other considerations soggy manure is much heavier to move around.

          Comment


          • #6
            Agree, most important reason to cover is to protect the environment / water ways.

            Comment


            • #7
              Farmers chuck it outside in huge heaps and leave it open to the weather. If it wasn't totally rotted when you got it, having been disturbed will have introduced air which will have encouraged the composting process and it will shrink in size as a result.

              Comment


              • #8
                The thing with going by what farmers do is that they very often are working on a different scale - a huge heap of manure won't get that wet because of the ratio between the surface area and volume, also farmers usually have machines to move stuff round, so if it weighs 30% more it makes v little difference to them.

                I read a lot of gardening books, and very often the advice given would puzzle me. Then when I thought it over it seemed that writers had based what they did on the days when a decent veg garden was about 2 acres with a staff of 5 or 6 people to work it ie they were written from the perspective of an old head gardener - hence things like double-digging and crop rotation. That's not to say that these old practices are bad - they aren't, they worked well given the conditions they were developed for, but most people aren't able to "rotate" their cabbage bed 400 yards to another place in their garden yearly and so leave some pests behind that way - what will work well on one scale doesn't translate down to the pocket handkerchief size plots most people have.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Using a garden fork to move muck is not ideal. Invest in a mucking grape if a frequent job. Night and day experience.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by nickdub View Post
                    The thing with going by what farmers do is that they very often are working on a different scale - a huge heap of manure won't get that wet because of the ratio between the surface area and volume, also farmers usually have machines to move stuff round, so if it weighs 30% more it makes v little difference to them.

                    I read a lot of gardening books, and very often the advice given would puzzle me. Then when I thought it over it seemed that writers had based what they did on the days when a decent veg garden was about 2 acres with a staff of 5 or 6 people to work it ie they were written from the perspective of an old head gardener - hence things like double-digging and crop rotation. That's not to say that these old practices are bad - they aren't, they worked well given the conditions they were developed for, but most people aren't able to "rotate" their cabbage bed 400 yards to another place in their garden yearly and so leave some pests behind that way - what will work well on one scale doesn't translate down to the pocket handkerchief size plots most people have.
                    Of course farmers are working on a different scale but even if the muck heap is 9 ft tall, the top 3 ft doesn't get discarded because it has got wet. The wet doesn't take anything away. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make about the weight. The whole heap isn't going to be moved at once. It will be one forkful after another into a barrow and when the barrow is full, the barrow is full but it will still be possible to wheel the load around the garden to where it is needed. If one's muscles can't cope, there are two remedies. The first is to get a smaller barrow and the second and less expensive is not to fill it so full .

                    I also read a lot of gardening books and I may not agree with a lot of what is written in them but it is easier if up to date books are used as reference .

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      When I had a trailer load of horse muck, I covered it to keep it dry and to stop the dogs from playing in it and bringing dollops to play fetch with.
                      If it got wet, I didn't want the liquid manure to run off where the heap was, but to save its energies for where it was to be spread.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by 4Shoes View Post
                        Using a garden fork to move muck is not ideal. Invest in a mucking grape if a frequent job. Night and day experience.
                        Please, what's a mucking grape?
                        It sounds like a rude name for some of the Grapes on the Forum!!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Today I have learnt that I will always cover horse muck or my Effie pup will eat it all. Yum!
                          https://nodigadventures.blogspot.com/

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by veggiechicken View Post
                            Please, what's a mucking grape?
                            It sounds like a rude name for some of the Grapes on the Forum!!
                            I would have called it a muck graip but that's maybe just down to the local vernacular. But in essence a graip used for working with muck.. Unlike an ordinary garden fork, it will have curved round tapered tines

                            https://www.fanevalleystores.com/pro...t-handle-graip

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Thanks Ap. That's my new word of the day - graip.
                              Don't think I'll be slipping it into many conversations though!.

                              Comment

                              Latest Topics

                              Collapse

                              Recent Blog Posts

                              Collapse
                              Working...
                              X