[theakston_uk]

I've been offered fresh manure, obviously I can't use it straight away, need to let it rot down for a year. The chap who is supplying it said the horses don't bed down on straw (maybe they have posh beds), will this manure have enough hay/straw in it, or will it just be horse poo. I know horses eat hay/straw so there will be some of it in their poo. But if the horses bedded down on straw, when they are mucked out the straw they slept on will be collected along with their poo therefore bulking the manure out. Will this neater blend of manure be OK for the veg? Hope I'm making sense.

Secondly, I've been offered some well rotted manure, but it's covered in nettles. Will this be OK to use. I'll be removing the nettles 1st before using it.

[blackisgreen]

1st lots ok but the second lot has nettle seed in it so put it at thebottom of a deep trench and not on top of the land as youll be forever weeding

[gillie]

The horses have been bedded on wood shavings.  In which case the manure will take longer to rot.  If the horses are just stood on concrete (hopefully for only a few hours a day) you will be getting pure poo and no pee so it will have a lower nitrogen content, but would still be worth having.

Cheers,

Gillie

[theakston_uk]

I've found out that the horse manure is pure 100% horse poo, no hay or straw is mixed in with it because the horses bed down on rubber matresses. I've got a piece of land that I won't be planting on until later on in the year. I'm just wondering after using round up and rotivating the land should I dig in some of this manure or should I get some with hay or straw in it. Also if I get this done by the weekend how soon will I be able to plant stuff in the ground, will I be able to get some stuff planted to grow over winter? If it's too late to manure the ground, which should I get to rot down for next year, the poo with straw/hay mixed in or the 100%pure poo?

[Yorkie]

What a lot of questions 

Manure without hay or straw is fine, after all it does contain grass that has been eaten and then digested.

Don't add it to the soil until it is rotted down (i.e. crumbly and smell-free) - in the process of rotting down it robs the soil of nitrogen.

As you said in your first post, it takes up to a year to rot down.

Don't add it to the soil where you plan to grow carrots or parsnips, unless you want to win the strangest shaped veg competition ... 

[realfood]

Remember to do the weedkiller test before you add the manure to your soil, if the horses have been fed on bought in fodder.

[Yorkie]

Sorry, but that's not quite accurate, realfood - the horses' manure can be contaminated even if the fodder wasn't bought in, if they were fed on pasture land which had been treated with a herbicide containing aminopyralid.

Theakston, there is more info on testing for contaminated manure on these pages of the forum