Give Away Your Manure or Compost
- Posted by Alayne Blickle
If you’re not saving your manure or compost for your own use, an effective disposal option is giving it away to places that can utilize it. Make your give-away system as effective as possible by:
Making your pile easy for others to access.
If your pile is in a location where people can simply drive up and take what they want, when they want it, you’ll get rid of a lot more stall waste than if you have to arrange a meeting time.
Making your stall waste attractive to gardeners.
Many gardeners prefer stall waste with very little bedding. Others prefer composted stall waste. Ask around and do a little informal research to see what gardeners in your area prefer. The more desirable your product is, the more likely it is people will come and get it.
Advertising.
Post a “free manure” sign where people can see it from the road and make it as obvious as possible where they need to go. Advertise by word of mouth: talk to all your non-horse neighbors and gardening friends who would love some free fertilizer. Put an announcement in local gardening newsletters, listservs and on websitesÑmost places like this will advertise free products at no charge. Don’t forget Craigslist or other similar Internet sites.
Taking it to the source.
If your manure is composted and you have the equipment to load and haul your compost, check with community gardens, local garden clubs, nurseries, landscapers, tree farms and topsoil businesses for takers. You may even be able to make some money selling your compost if you’re able to deliver it!
Alayne
Written by:
Alayne Blickle
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6 Responses
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
I can second Sandra’s comment about not using some manure on gardens. At a Field and Forage day given by the Extension Service, they said that if your horses eat hay that has been treated with broad-leaf herbicide, do not put that manure on your
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
We have a really great set up at the barn I board at. All our manure goes into a pile out back and our hay/oat supplier comes along and takes it. He then spreads it on his fields. Its great because we dont have a build up and helps grow the food our ho
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
All of our manure is given to a neighbor for composting. He has the combination of the gate lock and comes periodically (he batches his compost) with his tractor and removes all of it. We’ve had this arrangement for years and it works for both of us. A
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
A friend told me to advertise on Craigs List……I did and so far have had two large loads taken and several people with bags came and took it. I did not let people just stop by…..we set an appointment and they are observed while they load….
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
If people don’t come get your "free manure", try $10 per load. They ask, how big is a load? As big as you want !
re: Give Away Your Manure or Compost
We’ve used our compost for years (and given much of it away) but when the hay growers started using weed killer on their fields, we can no longer use our compost on gardens. Plants grow well at first then they shrivel up and die. We can use