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I have access to fresh cow manure. I'm considering this month putting several garbage cans full of it in with my compost which otherwise, is mostly leaves. I'll leave it until march or April depending on the weather and then work it into my vegetable garden. Does that sound like a good idea? Anyone?
I wouldn't recommed it because of the pathogens. It is very hard for a home gardener to get the mulch pile up to the temperature hot enough and long enough needed to kill most of the pathogens found in cow manure. I'd stick with chicken or horse manure and you still need to get the pile steaming hot. Plus horse and chicken manure has more nitrogen.
Try to add more ingredients to your compost as well such as slow release natural fertilizers, non animal product food scraps, dead plants, and even other compost mixes or dirt. Anything to diversify your nutrients and composition.
There's a very good book on this manure topic, which I've read over and over. Having been raised with the Amish, I learned and lived their life for 7-8 years of my childhood.
"What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life"
I did the book learning, the research, and the classes on gardening. But when I really want a realistic answer, I visit my Amish neighbors for a chat.
I have access to fresh cow manure. I'm considering this month putting several garbage cans full of it in with my compost which otherwise, is mostly leaves. I'll leave it until march or April depending on the weather and then work it into my vegetable garden. Does that sound like a good idea? Anyone?
Yes, that is a great idea.
Using garbage cans also allows for easy turning. Simply lay one on it's side and roll it around a bit every month.
I commonly use mixtures of cow, horse, goat, rabbit, pig and poultry manures into our composting.
The nitrogen of the manure counters the carbon of the leaves, they will work together very well.
it's good to add a percentage of horse manure to the cow manure.
I'm not sure of the mechanics of that, but our local organic compost supplier pays for the horse manure which he adds to all the free (take it away, please) cow feed lots supply to him. There's something about the enzymes/chemical reaction that is beneficial.
Composting on a small scale in garbage cans is very effective. Better still, do it in dark colored plastic ones which gain solar heat rather than shiny metal ones.
and we, too, are a certified organic small farm operation ... and I use organic compost on my hayfields in addition to our greenhouse vegetable production.
it's good to add a percentage of horse manure to the cow manure.
Good idea.
Our horse manure is loaded with oats. If it does not cook completely then we get oats sprouting. However, considering all of the various forms of weeds, oats are one of the easiest to deal with.
Quote:
... And we, too, are a certified organic small farm operation ... and I use organic compost on my hayfields in addition to our greenhouse vegetable production.
Nothing better
It would be very rare for a rancher to allow any disease to run unchecked in his herd. Such is inhumane, and against common practice.
I assume that this cow manure is local, so you must be able to see the herd it comes from. Are they openly sick or diseased? If they are healthy animals, then I do not see the need for concern over some mythical pathogen.
I compost in garbage cans until it gets a certain age and then I dump it into piles on the ground which I cover with a tarp. I have a black plastic garbage can side by side with a galvanized metal one. On hot days the metal one gets hotter and it stores the heat longer at night by a couple of hours. I've researched it and supposedly plastic ones are a no no because they leech harmful chemicals into the compost, which then go into your plants, and eventually your body. Now I use my black plastic one as a storage for dry brown matter which is usually just ground up leaves. So I would highly recommend the cheap galvanized metal trash cans for composting over plastic ones.
There's a very good book on this manure topic, which I've read over and over. Having been raised with the Amish, I learned and lived their life for 7-8 years of my childhood.
"What the Amish Can Teach Us About the Simple Life"
I did the book learning, the research, and the classes on gardening. But when I really want a realistic answer, I visit my Amish neighbors for a chat.
However, it seems the Amish oat fields are easily distinguished from the non Amish.
The Amish have the weediest oats fields around.
Evidently they haven't figured out how to control weeds .
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