Is it possible to use too much manure??

I've put his topic in frugal living as we get manure delivered for free to the allotment, but is more to do with using too much of it.
Because the deliveries are irregular, it is a mad rush to get the manure and from a walk around the site it appears that some plot holders are piling the manure high on the beds. I guess they might be playing it safe in case they miss the next delivery, but if not, is it possible to use too much manure?

I piled manure in heaps ready for when the brassicas and parsnips are pulled/finished.  Will spread those areas then.

I am quite bemused by the common practice on our site of layering manure on thickly at this time of year.  The thing is that our free "manure" is mostly shavings/hay with horse droppings in, not rotted at all, and I can't see that it is going to make a good growing medium by the spring.  I guess if they're going to dig it in that's different, but I still think it would be better rotting in a nice covered heap.

Ours is exactly the same manure + loads of shavings... I love it and use it all the time. I dig it into the beds in Autumn and then finish in Spring if I dont have time to finish in Autumn. I grew over half a tonne this year... see my blog site on my profile...

does it work - Oh yeah..

I slather fresh chicken poo on my fall plot and by spring we're ready to go. No other help needed from me. The cold weather and time do enough to break it all down, and I've done this for years with huge croppings. I even do it for the carrots and I rarely get forking. My parsnips come out the size of cricket bats.

i had to pile fresh/ part rotted manure on my raised border this autumn. mainly because i can only collect when the ground is dry, and not enough space to make another heap.

the raised border is under a large conifer hedge  so is kept fairly moist, i have watered it a couple of times so it doesn't dry out. however it has been slow to rot down.

the last load i got that was a couple of weeks later that is in a carpet covered heap is look almost rotted down already from a sneaky peak.

i think that spreading it thinly on beds don't keep enough heat and moisture in to speed the rotting process up. i think in a covered heap the heat builds and moisture is retained as well as non of the goodness being washed out.

back to the original question. i would personally be heaping as much manure as i could, using shuttering to get as much in as smaller space as possible. if this means borrowing a bed over winter and plant in it last with brassicas or something. at least that way you haven't got all your eggs in one basket and imo it will produce a better growing manure and there for more nutrients at the right time for the crop.

Just been up to add some more horse manure to the heap and thought it had shrunk down a bit, so I plunged a long blade into the middle and it came out nicely warm Seems to be breaking down nicely despite the time of year. I bought a £6 car cover from lidl to cover it and that seems to be working well to keep the heat in and the rain out.