"Dane Bramage" WhereAmI@anyway? wrote in message
news
Ok, now you have me curious. What is the difference between steer
manure and just plain old bs? (sorry, couldn't resist
I am serious, tho. I used (once) manure from a local farm and
completely killed my patch of grass. It's starting to come back (2
years later) and looks like it needs to be fed, but I don't want to
repeat the error. Is there something specific I should ask for rather
than just grabbing my shovel and heading out by their barn?

As others have posted, the manure should be composted, or at least aged.
There is also often a high salt content in manure from barns and feed
lots so the lawn should be watered deeply after applying the manure.

As to the differences, some charts showing the nutrient content of
organic fertilizers will list cow manure and steer manure separately
with different NPK ratios. In a large, modern dairy, cows are fed a
diet to maximize milk production. Feed lot steers are fed a different
diet, usually including corn, to speed up growth and weight gain. BS
would be different from both of the others because bulls are kept as
sperm donors and the diet would emphasize sperm production. So the NPK
from might be different for all three but not likely to be enough to see
any difference on a lawn if it is composted before use and watered in
after application.

Olin