For those of you that garden, how hot is cow manure? I am tilling a garden and was thinking about tilling some into it, how long till it is safe for new growth? What else do you mix in? Any suggestions for a first-timer?
Hot Manure!
- Thread starter cowgal
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Cattle Rack Rancher
Well-known member
Depends on how well rotted the manure is. I put about 6" of well rotted manure on about two years ago and I plan to do it again this spring. Mind you where we live is quite sandy and we don't have much organic matter in the soil. Fresh manure is no good because it hasn't had time to build up the bacteria that turns the organic matter into nitrogen and will actually pull the existing nitrogen causing bacteria out of the soil. Rotted manure is good stuff: adds nitrogen to the soil, helps retain water and helps soil structure. At least that's what my wife who has a degree in Botany tells me anyway. :roll:
Cattle Rack Rancher
Well-known member
Should at least be dry and crumbly. You should be able to toss it like a frisbee and have it break on impact. That would be a minimum. It doesn't have to be ground right into dirt to be good.
Dave
Well-known member
Cow manure is generally not "hot enough" to burn plants. Fresh cow manure tilled into the soil will work just fine. Now you might want to wash off the carrots or other root crops real good if grown in fresh manure but that is a bacteria issue not nutrients.
The nitrogen in manure comes in three forms. Ammonium (and ammonia), nitrate, and organic nitrogen. The nitrate is the most plant available form but is in the lows concentrate being less than one percent of the total nitrogen in cow manure. Organic nitrogen needs to be broken down into nitrate or ammonia by bacteria before it is plant available. This is a slow process that takes time and proper conditions. The organic nitrogen is about 50% of the total nitrogen in cow manure. The ammonium makes up the rest of the nitrogen in cow manure and is the form which can burn plants. If it is tilled into the soil there is very little chance of it burning new plants. You would probably have to bury the plants in manure before there would be enough ammonium to burn them.
If you allow manure to rot, compost, etc you will lose most if not all of the ammonium and nitrate. This will cause you to lose half of the available nitrogen that you originally had.
Chicken manure on the other hand can burn plants. This is because it has three times the nitrogen of cow manure to start with and a much higher percentage of the nitrogen is in the form of ammunium. Just stand down wind of where chicken manure is being spread and inhale. There is a much stronger ammunium smell than cow manure.
I just cleaned off the slab at the heifer barn last weekend and put it all (18 loader scoops full) straight on my garden. It is about 3 inches thick now. I will till it into the soil in a week or two. I do this every year and I grow a great garden.
Dave
The nitrogen in manure comes in three forms. Ammonium (and ammonia), nitrate, and organic nitrogen. The nitrate is the most plant available form but is in the lows concentrate being less than one percent of the total nitrogen in cow manure. Organic nitrogen needs to be broken down into nitrate or ammonia by bacteria before it is plant available. This is a slow process that takes time and proper conditions. The organic nitrogen is about 50% of the total nitrogen in cow manure. The ammonium makes up the rest of the nitrogen in cow manure and is the form which can burn plants. If it is tilled into the soil there is very little chance of it burning new plants. You would probably have to bury the plants in manure before there would be enough ammonium to burn them.
If you allow manure to rot, compost, etc you will lose most if not all of the ammonium and nitrate. This will cause you to lose half of the available nitrogen that you originally had.
Chicken manure on the other hand can burn plants. This is because it has three times the nitrogen of cow manure to start with and a much higher percentage of the nitrogen is in the form of ammunium. Just stand down wind of where chicken manure is being spread and inhale. There is a much stronger ammunium smell than cow manure.
I just cleaned off the slab at the heifer barn last weekend and put it all (18 loader scoops full) straight on my garden. It is about 3 inches thick now. I will till it into the soil in a week or two. I do this every year and I grow a great garden.
Dave
jerry27150
Well-known member
yeaaaaahh dave, you sure hit that right :lol: 
