Horse Manure

Through a well meaning friend I have obtained a small trailer load, probably about 12 wheelbarrows of stable litter which is a mixture of horse droppings, straw and sawdust and I would say that it is pretty fresh although it doesn't have a powerful smell.
My problem is that I'm unsure whether or not to store it somewhere or whether I could dig it all into my vegetable beds which are pretty empty at this time of year. Any advice would be grateful, I could mix it in to my general garden compost bins but this involves a great deal of material movement in a confined area?

 

Personally I always stack/"heap" Cow / Horse manure for a year before use. If you can see the straw / chippings in it then it is fresh. If the material is more like rough compost then its rotten. If it is more like "peaty soil" then it has been rotting for several years (or possibly has been rotted commercially for a shorter time, but at very high temperatures)

I buy manure every year - so, after the first year, I have some-to-use and some-to-heap

Bit like logs for the fire - local "Loverly dry logs Gov" vendors are selling logs that were split yesterday from trunks that were, maybe, stored for a while. Logs I have split and then stored under cover for 2 years are much drier and burn better, and give out more heat - you just have to buy 2 or 3 year's worth on day one :(, and then top-up each year :thumb: ...

 

Turning? Good grief ... :D

 

Thanks for advice guys. Spent the morning emptying one of my wooden slatted composters and refilling with layers of manure/compost which has at least got it out of the way for now. Going to work on emptying the adjacent compost bin so that I can turn it over.

 

Too late now, but I would have made a big pile of it around a bit of drainpipe & then pull the pipe out to let air get to the bottom of the pile.

Orse poo rots down by a fungal process as opposed to the bacterial decomposition of a compost heap.

In the end though, its all good stuff to dig in.

 

Just had a bonus .
Been up the allotment and there's a big pile of free to take horse manure .. Out with the barrow so I now have a good quantity of manure . good start to the New Year.

Dave