Learn how stockpiling shredded manure keeps your farm clean and reduces odor and pests.
Livestock owners know manure comes with the job. On average, around twelve tons of manure and dirty bedding will be removed yearly from a horse’s stall1. If you have multiple horses, cows, or other animals, you’re probably dealing with large quantities of manure. Developing an efficient manure pile plan is critical for your farm.
A manure management plan that many livestock and horse owners practice is manure stockpiling. To start, find a location far enough away from your farm. Keeping manure piles away from farms and pastures reduces pests, odors, and the unappealing aesthetics of a crap pile. Flies and parasites flock to wet manure piles. Which is why it’s important to keep horses, livestock, and pets away from the stockpile as much as possible.
Ideally, this location will be on high enough ground, where tractors and manure spreaders can access it at any time of the year.
Place the manure pile away from areas where flood water could carry the water runoff to nearby waterways. Manure piles near waterways can pollute water and harm the environment. Before choosing a stockpile location, horse and livestock owners should consult their region’s stockpiling guidelines.
After picking your manure pile’s location, it’s time to think about adding manure to the pile. An easy way to do this is to have a short term storage pile near the barn for weekly storage. Then, each week, you can move the short term pile to your large, long-term pile location.
The best way to accomplish this task is to transfer your manure with a PTO spreader that has high quality shredding capabilities. This will allow you to take fewer trips to and from the pile. Once you reach your pile, you’ll want a manure spreader that can shred manure and soiled bedding into the stockpile.
The benefit of shredding the manure before adding it to your pile is that by breaking the clumps down it allows the manure to dry out and decompose much quicker. Future you will thank you for doing that initial shred because it will save you time later and make for a healthier pasture when you eventually spread your stockpile.
Once your stockpile is large and warm spring weather comes around, it’s time to spread the pile on your empty fields. The consistency of your stockpile can change depending on manure type, bedding material, stage of decomposition, and weather. The ideal weather to spread in is a hot sunny day. Heat and sunlight allow the finely shredded manure to decompose much quicker, getting nutrients into the ground more quickly. With more nutrient dense fields, whatever crops you plant have a better chance to flourish. Choosing a spreader with variable speed controls is extremely beneficial if your preferred manure management plan is stockpiling. Variable flow control allows the spreader to handle a broader range of manure. With an efficient manure pile system and the right spreading equipment, you get increased cleanliness, fewer pests, and more enjoyable spaces to spend time in.
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1 From “Horse Stable Manure Management,” by Agriculture Engineering Dept at Penn State.
