Manure Disposal...

[Ambi]

Not the nicest topic in the world, I know.;) Anyway, my problem is this. I have been riding for 8 years and I have learnt various horse care and management skills as well as riding. We are moving to the country soon and are purchasing the field out the back of the house where I hope to keep my first horse. However, I don't know what I should do about the manure problem. I am not sure, as I would be keeping the one horse by itself, if there would be enough to give to farmers as fertliser. Can anyone help me? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[glitter_horse]

You could always put it in black bin liners and sell it for gardens instead of giving it to farmers ;) :D

[Murphs]

depends how big your garden willbe and howmuch you like gardening.i have two horses inthe field at the back of my house, i use 95% of themuck as compost in my garden-just built a nice concrete compost bin so all grass cuttings,leaves & muck will go here - takes about 3mths to rot well enough to put on the garden. other option is local allotments / garden societies - they may take it off your hands. you could ask the local council for suggestions -mine weren't very helpful though - i can't store it in the field (but it's okin the garden:rolleyes: ) but they couldn't provide any suggestions of where to dispose of it. my neighbour bags hers and has it for sale (never seen much taken away) - may work if it's free i guess. good luck:)

[H & Bailey]

some gardeners may take it but it wont be any good for people who are growing veggies if it has shavings in it, as it gives them club root or something.Alot of gardeners only want rotted stuff so you could either make a heap where you can leave it to rot down or burn it .If you burn it youll have to be careful because of smoke pollution rules you cant burn it if its near a road side in case it blows onto the road and causes an accident.If you can make a slabbed area to do it on with 3 sides so you dont have the risk of it speading and keep it nice and low and burn it every week you should be ok.

[lleeaannee]

Farmers won't usually just "take" it. You have to pay them to take it away and dispose of it. I'm not sure bout the rotted down stuff though.

I also would recommend getting a companion for your horse as it isn't very fair keeping it on its own. Even if the companion is just a sheep, it's better than nothing!

[lamprellsarah]

do must stables pay for it to be taken away???
i think donkeys are lovely make good companions, there is one at our stables very very noisey but sooo cute and very clean!!!

[lleeaannee]

The horse I ride absolutely refuse to go past donkeys when out!! Even though there are two in the next field - odd

[Piaffe]

we pay £150 everytime the muck man comes to take our muck away. He comes from Sussex and sells the muck on to whoever!! As the saying goes, where there's muck there's brass!! So basically, the muck man is being paid twice for stuff our horses have produced!!

I think I'm in the wrong business here!!

[lleeaannee]

That's a lot!! We have a trailer (about 12' by 6') that a farmer takes away when it's full. It usually lasts about 2 weeks (for 4 horses) and he charges £20 for removal.

[Piaffe]

That's good - unfortunately we don't really have any proper farms round here that will take it. However, we generally have the muck man about once a month and bearing in mind there are about 30 horses being mucked out each day, I don't think that's too bad! (we all share the cost which is included on the livery bill)

Obviously the system we use would not be suitable for a smaller yard.

[Jobi-Wan Kenobi]

People from the local allotments come on our yard and help themselves. They turn up at rediculous times in the morning and in all weathers, are vegetables really worth it?!!

[glitter_horse]

Well yes i suppose they are if they're carrots ;) :D