ANIMAL MANURE COMPOSTING

What is manure composting?

Animal manure is one of the best things we can add to the garden to create healthy soil micro-biology and give our plants a thriving ecosystem. 

The type of animal will greatly influence the 'outcome' and each manure will vary in the micro and macro nutrient present.

For most manures you will need to compost it if you collect in from the farm, which is also the best way to create the best compost. 

Horse manure

For most farms, especially with horses, they will gather and bag the manure and sell it outside for a small fee (very small fee considering someone had to collect and bag it).

Grasses grow slowly over winter. In my food garden, the last lawn mowing, along with the autumn leaves get composted in one compost bin, leaving one compost bin empty over winter. I go to a local farm on the outskirts of metropolitan Melbourne and collect five or so bags of freshly collected horse manure, then add it to the empty compost bin, add some water and forget about it until Spring.

During winter I may only cut the grass once and by that time the first winter compost has broken down and I can start another one, all while the manure slowly breaks down.

The amount of worms present in the manure is staggering.

When the compost (both of garden waste and manure) is in contact with the soil, the compost becomes a concentration of worms and micro-biology that break it all down into nutrients the plants are crying out for.  

Rabbit manure

Most animal manures will require a composting stage but if you can get a hold of rabbit droppings, which you can usually find on social media marketplaces or rabbit owner groups. Rabbit manure can go straight onto the garden as it won't burn the plants with excess nitrogen.

Cow manure

Pre-bagged manures bought from garden mega-stores can be used, I've used them in the past but now that I've composted farm-fresh I know exactly what's in it, and reduced reliance on supply chains and reduced waste.

Cow manures are usually found bagged up and ready for sale. These are usually sourced from dairy farms as there's no-one going out into the fields to collect the manure. these are usually clean of herbicides and pesticides but I'm never 100% sure.

One of the benefits of cow manure is the micro-biology it gathers when enzymes break down and ferment the grass in the four-stages of a cow's digestive system. This will add to the micro-biology of the soil that will go on to feed you plants.

Chicken manure

This is something that is very good as a fertiliser, if you can get it from a small farm who don't use anti-biotics and medicines that the large scale chicken farms use in order to keep their flocks healthy in unhealthy environments.

Sadly, this is getting harder and harder to find.

Most backyard chicken-keepers use the manure and bedding for their own gardens. However, if you decide to keep chickens at your home, these will provide composting of animal scraps, a fresh source of manure that will need to be composted before use, and of course, eggs.

There will always be ways of sourcing good quality manures for composting. 

Sometimes you have to look a little harder but it's around.