Once the weather warms up, a swarm of flies around the manure pile is a common sight. Not only is this annoying and unhygienic… but it feels like there must be another way. So what is it?
What can we do with manure?
If you have a garden, you may be familiar with composting. But have you ever considered composting your manure? While it is a relatively easy process, it requires a bit more than tossing it into the pile. But in fact, tossing the pile is exactly what you need to do. In order to effectively compost manure, you need to consistently turn the pile in order to aerate it. While the easiest way to get air into the pile is with a tractor, you can also choose to turn the pile by hand with a shovel. If that seems like too much work, consider placing a PVC pipe into the middle of the pile to provide oxygen; for additional air, you can proceed to drill holes into the pipe.
Keeping the pile moist is also key to composting. If you need to, you can water down the manure as you turn it in order to keep it damp. This will keep the microbial activity high and help to speed the composting process.
Do you use a stall refresher and are concerned about its effects on the compost pile?
Don’t be! All natural stall refreshers such as Sweet PDZ Horse Stall Refresher will continue to load up with the ammonium and decomposing odors that are released during the composting process. This retention of ammonium/ammonia and other waste generated odors is beneficial in several ways;
1) The Sweet PDZ captures ammonia and odor emissions from the compost pile, thus reducing odor pollutants to the atmosphere.
2) It also increases the conversion of these gases to nitrates, thus retaining nitrogen in the compost in a form that is more readily available to soils and plants when the compost is applied to fields, gardens, etc.
3) Having Sweet PDZ in the compost pile also enables better moisture management and microbial activity in the composting process.
This makes adding Sweet PDZ to your horse’s stall a continuously beneficial action. First reducing the amount of ammonia in your horse’s environment, and therefore increasing their respiratory health. Then it aids in the composting process… we call that a win!
Composting generally taking three to six months, and will continue through all weather (even though the most activity will happen in warm temperatures). You will know that is it composted when it is crumbly and evenly textured, resembling dirt. Use this “black gold” to enrich your lawns, gardens and even plants!
