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[email protected]

I've seen the local farmers doing this and am wondering if it's fresh stuff they are using, and wonder that if by May when the plants hit the ground will the stuff be ready or ok to use if it's fresh manure. I've already spread some aged manure in my patch this Fall, and have a pile cooking out in our woods, but wondered anyones thoughts about laying down the fresh stuff now and let it cook for the rest of the Winter?

2/8/2009 3:28:50 PM

Menomonie, WI ([email protected])

The farmers do it now because there is no other good time to do it.. you loose a lot of nitrogen..on other nutrients do to run off caused by the melting snow

2/8/2009 7:28:37 PM

Anamosa, IA [email protected]

If you rotate your patches, fresh manure would be OK to use ahead of a summer cover crop or sweet corn. If your patch has any slope to it and has snow cover, Linus is right, a lot will run off. You might not be seeing too much winter manure applications on farms in the future. EPA and a lot of state agencies are really trying to discourage it or even ban it.

2/8/2009 8:52:06 PM

Colorado Springs.Co

They can have my pitch fork when they can pry it from my cold, dead fingers,lol

2/9/2009 1:11:34 AM

Boise City, Oklahoma, USA

Mid Oct one year I drove across Nebraska from west to east (from Colorado NE corner to Omaha then turned north). I think every field was being applied or had just been applied, it was 400 miles of brown itchy odiferous cloud. Finally just west of Omaha it ended. I almost stopped at York and got motel room just to SHOWER and that was still in the brown cloud. After that a little patch amending has not been anything. Wonder if they are still allowed to do such wholscale widespread spreading? I agree where I think fresh would burn everything, it needs composting for at least a year to mellow....

2/9/2009 2:37:58 AM

Paradise Mountain, New York

You would have to but a great deal of fresh manure on in the Spring to do a lot of harm. Right out my back door is all farm land. In the Spring farmers spread manure on even a few days before working up the soil and planting a few days later. They even spread hundreds of tons of fresh liquid manure in the Spring and plant a few days later.

2/9/2009 10:11:42 AM

Walton N.y.

a few inches of fresh manure i don't think will hurt you but when it doesn't get tilled in the nitrogen does vapor off you do still have time for it to decompose and going through the spreader does help break the manure and bedding up so it can incorperate into the soil quicker and lets face it having a tractor run across your frozen ground won't pack your soil and the spreader can put the manure down without tiring you out so what you loose in run off might be evened out by ease of application
we live in the N.Y.City watershed and manure near watershed property can only be spread by permit and at rates the city deems fit and those spreading slurry have to till in what they spread within 48hours of being applied (some of this i believe is trying to retain soil benifits) and some farmers that are nearing high levels in their soil are being told they have to find other places to spread their manure

2/9/2009 3:00:40 PM