Any one composting ?

[rjbovine]

Just asking a few questioning. A little history. This is hay that is wasted around hay ring . I've piled it over the winter . I dug into it Thursday evening really wet not much composting going on . #1 How do I get the process of composting started . #2 How long should it take ? Thanks Rj

 

[Workinonit Farm]

A friend of ours does this, and where I used to work we did this. In addition to the old, wasted hay, manure is added to it. That helps it to start "cooking". Where I used to work, they would also add leaves. Exactly how long it takes, I don't recall, but I do know that as time passed, the inner part of the "piles" would be really warm!

 

[sim.-ang.king]

It needs to be stirred. Cows are really good at stirring it.

 

[SPH]

It's likely not going to compost much over the winter as you need some heat to help get that going. We pile the wasted hay and manure up from winter feeding and usually after it sits for at least a year it has composted down pretty well. Just have to make sure you have more than mostly hay in the mix. If yours is anything like ours you have plenty of manure and a sloppy mess where the cows were standing around the hay ring when it thaws then gets rained on in the spring. When it's piled up it's inevitable a little bit of the dirt underneath all of it gets mixed in and scooped ups in the pile as well which helps add some "brown" material to the "green" material to help compost it down.

 

[Nesikep]

To get a nice compost for gardening, etc, expect it to take a year, and it MUST get turned to get anything happening.
I do a lot of composting, and over winter, you'll never get anything happening.. in the spring, I re-pile it and it'll heat up REALLY hot (and I turn it every couple days during that time to prevent it from overheating, it's also CRITICAL to keep it moist (in our climate it's hard to do), because once it dries out, it's impossible to get wet again, it'll shed the water as if it was coated in oil.
Spreading a little hydrated lime over the manure before piling it helps with the breakdown, and with water absorption/retention as well...
I still haven't got it down-pat, but when I look at how some neighbors are trying to compost I just shake my head.

 

[greybeard]

I had the power line trimmers dump 3 loads of their shredded stuff on my access lane in a big pile 2 years ago. I never stirred it or anything. Dug into it yesterday, and wow, that's some really good stuff! And some of the biggest earthworms I ever saw.

 

[kjonesel]

If you have it in a pile sprinkle some urea (46-0-0) before a rain. The nitrogen feeds the bacteria which aid in the composting process. Years ago a neighbor would put a bag (paper wrapped) of nitrogen on a stump he wanted to get rid of and in a year the stump would be rotted.

 

[M-5]

I'm not a composter aficionado however I have composted waste hay for several yrs. Conventional wisdom and I presume science says it has to be turned. I Disagree and if it you have time it will compost on its own. This year I did not have the waste of yrs past so I did not have very much to add to the pile. Last spring I piled everything as high as I could get it atleat 6 feet tall pile. It heated up in a matter of days and cooked all yr this spring it is maybe a 2' tall and perfect. It was never turned so while turning it may make it cook faster it is not necessary.

 

[M.Magis]

As mentioned, it won't compost much over winter.

I haven't had a lot of luck without turning it. I piled some up about 10' high a couple years ago, then never turned it. Now it's no more than 2' tall, but a few inches down it's just compacted hay. It's so tight I can barely get a pitchfork in it.
Usually, I pile it in the spring and turn every couple months. The following spring I can use it in the garden.

 

[slick4591]

I also push my hay waste in a pile to compost. We get better temps so after turning it 3 or 4 times it's really good stuff about August.