Composting horse manure

Hi,

I am getting ready to move my 2 horses to my home in Lucas, TX. This will be the first time I have housed the horses at home and I am starting to worry about dealing with the more than 50 lbs of manure a day!! Many of my neighbors cart manure off weekly but I really want to make composting work so I started doing research on worm composting and came across your website. I am wondering, though, if you think it is realistic to compost all of the manure. How quickly can worms break down that manure? I would love to come to one of your classes if you think it would be applicable to manure composting. Thank you for your help.

Bridget

Answer from BigTex Worms
Good question Bridget,
You can compost it all buy just letting it sit and wetting it down periodically, it will compost just like that in 8-12 months.
You could add worms to the piles and they will speed it up to about a 3 month breakdown but here are the caveots:
1. If you use a chemical dewormer on your horses, this will kill composting worms so the manure must be rinsed and aged for 4-6 weeks before adding worms

2. all manure must be rinsed before adding worms to remove most of the urine

3. It is best to use hay/straw as stall bedding instead of woodchips since they do not break down as fast but hay will.

4. IT is very wise to protect your pile from moles by lining the sides/bottom with hardware cloth. In other words build a compost bin for the manure.

All that being said, adding worms will work but you MUST keep the pile damp and free of dewormer.

I have an online class that is free with any purchase or my next class here in Keller will be March or April 2011 depending on the weather.

If I were you I would get the pile ready then add 2-3 pounds of worms and let them multiply on their own. By spring you would have a LOT of compost.

Liz
BigTex Worms