I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure had high
levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is pasture
manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the money I
save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

I use horse shit every Spring and have great results with my plants.

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure had
high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the money
I save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

SteveB wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My
wife seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least
good mulch if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure
had high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as
stall manure.

A furphy, urea is good fertiliser.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the
money I save and go fishing a few times.


Why not use it if its free and save the petrochemicals that typically go
into synthetic fertiliser.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where
I am going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

Cow pats are good for gardens. Cow and horse manure both provide beneficial
organic matter and nutrients. There is little in the way of harmful
pathogens in them and once dried out or composted briefly they are fairly
inoffensive. I would say go for it, there is much to gain and little to
lose.

David

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
SteveB wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My
wife seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least
good mulch if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure
had high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as
stall manure.

A furphy, urea is good fertiliser.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the
money I save and go fishing a few times.


Why not use it if its free and save the petrochemicals that typically go
into synthetic fertiliser.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where
I am going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

Cow pats are good for gardens. Cow and horse manure both provide
beneficial organic matter and nutrients. There is little in the way of
harmful pathogens in them and once dried out or composted briefly they are
fairly inoffensive. I would say go for it, there is much to gain and
little to lose.

David

What about pigeon poop?

In article ,
"Dan Listermann" wrote:

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
SteveB wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My
wife seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least
good mulch if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure
had high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as
stall manure.

A furphy, urea is good fertiliser.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the
money I save and go fishing a few times.


Why not use it if its free and save the petrochemicals that typically go
into synthetic fertiliser.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where
I am going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

Cow pats are good for gardens. Cow and horse manure both provide
beneficial organic matter and nutrients. There is little in the way of
harmful pathogens in them and once dried out or composted briefly they are
fairly inoffensive. I would say go for it, there is much to gain and
little to lose.

David

What about pigeon poop?

Look at chicken info here I¹d hazard a guess it is hot aka rich in N2
which can burn plants. That is why aged and composting is the way to
go. 1-1-1 or close to it.

http://the-compost-gardening-guy.com/article-on-manures.html


http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...onents/7401_02
..html

Bill

--
Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure had
high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the money
I save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve


I've been told that cow manure is full of seed ready to sprout wherever you
use it. Horse manure is a better solution.

Chicken manure is okay if you leave it exposed to the weather for one
season, and use it where the soil is high on the alkaline side. An easy
route to this is use of range chickens (not stuck in a coop all the time).
Confine them in an area to range, then move the ranging area to some other
location the followiing season.
--
Dave

CDOs are how we got here.
A modified version, new taxes in the future, is how Congress will get us
out?

On Mar 2, 6:06*pm, "SteveB" wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. *Lots of free cow patties. *My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? *I believe I once read that stall manure had high
levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. *This is pasture
manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. *But I can also take the money I
save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? *Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

All ruminant animal manures are very good organic sources of plant
nutrients. But with very few exceptions, they should never be used
fresh. They need to be aged at least 6 months or preferrably, properly
composted. This will allow the high concentrations of ammonium (urine)
to volatize and dissipate and reduce most weed and pathogen issues.
Once they achieve this state (proper aging or composting), they can be
applied as a mulch over any garden area or worked into the soil.

On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 19:06:32 -0700, "SteveB"
wrote:

I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure had high
levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is pasture
manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the money I
save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve


You are lucky to have cow patties. Used fresh, cow patties can
quickly burn a plant. Collect your patties, compost them for 6
months, then use on bedding plants, some vegetables, trees, shrubs,
roses, lawn, etc. If you can till the composted manure into the soil,
all the better. Some plants should not have any manure at all, it
can be too rich for herbs, peppers, etc. Horse manure, unlike cow
manure, can contain a lot of weed seeds. It needs hot composting to
kill the seeds. Also you can make manure tea for feeding plants.

Dan Listermann wrote:
"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
SteveB wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My
wife seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at
least good mulch if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there
any downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall
manure had high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants.
This is pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as
stall manure.

A furphy, urea is good fertiliser.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the
money I save and go fishing a few times.


Why not use it if its free and save the petrochemicals that
typically go into synthetic fertiliser.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where
I am going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

Cow pats are good for gardens. Cow and horse manure both provide
beneficial organic matter and nutrients. There is little in the way
of harmful pathogens in them and once dried out or composted briefly
they are fairly inoffensive. I would say go for it, there is much
to gain and little to lose.

David

What about pigeon poop?

It's excellent but more as a source of nutrients than organic matter. It is
quite high in nitrogen, especially when fresh, so it should be mixed in with
other material, or added to compost, or risk burning your plants.

David

Dioclese wrote:

Chicken manure is okay if you leave it exposed to the weather for one
season, and use it where the soil is high on the alkaline side.

Some of the nutrients in fresh chicken manure are quite volatile and others
are very soluble in water. Leaving it out exposed will release these into
the environment, which will indeed reduce the chance of burning plants due
to excess. However these useful substances will be wasted, unless you want
the grass downhill from the heap to be nice and green. A better solution is
to mix it in with compost where at least some of the nutrients will be
absorbed, or dig it in when preparing a bed and leave it a couple of weeks
before planting.

I am not sure why you are saying to use it where the soil is too alkaline.
I cannot see that you would be adding enough to alter the pH of soil very
much (especially clay-based soil) and I would expect it to raise rather than
lower pH.

David

gardengal wrote:
On Mar 2, 6:06 pm, "SteveB" wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My
wife seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at
least good mulch if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure
had high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants.
This is pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as
stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the
money I save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where
I am going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

All ruminant animal manures are very good organic sources of plant
nutrients. But with very few exceptions, they should never be used
fresh. They need to be aged at least 6 months or preferrably, properly
composted.

I think this is going too far, I use horse after a week or two with no ill
effects, it isn't really very strong.

This will allow the high concentrations of ammonium (urine)

I am not trying to be cantankerous but there isn't any urine in ruminant
manure. They do it separately unlike birds. There may be urine in straw
that has been used as bedding but that is another matter.

to volatize and dissipate and reduce most weed and pathogen issues.

There is not much volatile material in ruminant manure and why waste it? To
get rid of weed seeds you would need to compost it or turn it so that the
seeds are killed by heat or germinate and die in the heap.

David

In article ,
"SteveB" wrote:

I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm
--

Billy
Democrat and Republican Leaders Behind Bars
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7843430.stm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net

On Mar 2, 9:06*pm, "SteveB" wrote:
I live in the middle of pasture land. *Lots of free cow patties. *My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? *I believe I once read that stall manure had high
levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. *This is pasture
manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. *But I can also take the money I
save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? *Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve

everyone's basic information is spot on. I continually went "cow pie
pickin'" when I had a pasture right next door just over the electric
wire off my driveway at the former Faerie Holler. I loaded up a 5
gallon bucket, and carried it to my two wheel garden cart until it was
heaped up with both dry pats and fresh ones. No weed seeds because cow
heats up better than horse. Horse is weedier. I got to where I could
tell the bull's pats because they were clumps and balls of black
manure, and the girls were patties. If the pats weren't dried out and
not spanking fresh, I would find beautiful fat red worms just writhing
underneath all that poop. wonderful!! bonus worms to work my manure
pile! I'd dump the whole 6 cubic foot cart into the space beside the
working compost pile and then put two bags of scrounged leaves from
curbs on top and water the leaves in. The pile would heat up. I
added fresh if there were more pies to gather. I never turned it. It
worked better if I did this in fall and had fresh usable manure for
spring top dressing. We actually looked at a house yesterday and I
was thrilled to see cows across the lane and fresh pies in the narrow
pasture......alas, we are still looking. it WAS a perfect place.
THere will be others.

maddie (madgardener) gardening in the green bowl surrounded by the
Cherokee National Forest and Appalachian Mountains zone 7a, Sunset
zone 36 where those mountains are picturesque with snow on them right
now.........

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 09:47:33 -0600, "Dioclese" NONE wrote:

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I live in the middle of pasture land. Lots of free cow patties. My wife
seems to think that this would make good fertilizer, or at least good mulch
if tilled in.

Other than using fresh dung for the production of food, are there any
downsides to using manure? I believe I once read that stall manure had
high levels of urea, and would not be good to put on plants. This is
pasture manure, so it would not have as high urine level as stall manure.

Yeah, I know I can go buy fertilizer, too. But I can also take the money
I save and go fishing a few times.

Tips and caveats on manure use? Good/bad for flowers or areas where I am
going to put lawn?

Thanks.

Steve


I've been told that cow manure is full of seed ready to sprout wherever you
use it. Horse manure is a better solution.


Just the opposite. Cows have two stomachs, horses have one. I used
horse manure (mushroom compost) over fescue lawns--big mistake. The
piles were steaming hot, but still introduced a lot of weeds.

By all means. I use as much as I can get. You will get some weed seeds in
the manure, but if you stay on top of them, they'll eventually be gone.
It's worth it as manure is good stuff.

Robert in the hills of Tennessee