[Snap Dragon]

How and where do you get your manure from?

I'd like to find somewhere that can provide regular amounts of manure. Apparently there is a stable just outside our town so I might give them a ring.

I have no means of collecting it so is it cheeky to ask if they deliver?

A gardener friend can provide bags of well rotted manure but charges £5 a bag. Does that seem expensive?

I will ask my lottie neighbours (when the warmer weather brings them out of hiding!) if they can help but in the meantime I thought I'd see how you all get yours.

[crowndale]

On my site there is a local farmer who delivers it by the trailer load to individual plot holders who request it (£17 a trailer laod), probably around 1 third of us get it, he has stables and so its a years load of muck split into as many trailer loads as he can make it.  I learnt the very easy way (by ordering late) that the stuff that comes later is better as its the bottom of the heap and therefore the odlest, but it also has more weeds and and stones in it.

check with your site committee, they'll know the best sources and if they deliver or not.  failing that someone on site may be able to deliver for you.

[Snap Dragon]

check with your site committee, they'll know the best sources and if they deliver or not.  failing that someone on site may be able to deliver for you.

Hmmm... Site comittee... that'd be the old codgers that spend more time arranging their next pigeon meet than anything else. They advertise site meetings with 5 mins notice and when no one turns up agree everything their own way!  :?

I might drop in on the council clerk on Monday and see if she knows of anybody.

[iwantanallotment]

I live near to a field where horses are tethered, so walk down as and when armed with a shovel & carrier bags.
Not much use if you want lots all at once 'cos of carrying it, but they do provide plenty for subsequent visits  

[shaun]

£5 a bag seems a bit much to me, we get a 5 ton load for £15 or you can collect your own for nowt

[dereklane]

I use old compost bags and collect it myself from the stables' muckpile (for free). They said to me, 'the trouble is, they just keep sh***ing'. For that reason, I suppose, they're usually more than willing to get rid of it.

[Tinbasher]

£5 a bag seems a bit much to me, we get a 5 ton load for £15 or you can collect your own for nowt

We got approx 9 tons delivered last week for just 15 quid, but insisted he took £20.  Having said that, some of it was fresh-ish and there was also quite a bit of fresh straw, presumably from the top of the pile and bits of it had fresh grass sods growing out of it.  It was a mixture of cow and horse manure as well apparently.  Still, for 15 quid, or twenty, can you complain?  There are a couple of farms locally that are delighted for you to collect it for free - as long as you collect that is.  You need a van and loads of bags to make it worthwhile.  A couple more farms have quoted 20 quid for a trailer-load which they say will be about three tons.  Also, someone I've spoken to recently has a deal with the local Police Station where he can go and collect all theirs.  Worth ringing your local Plod to see if anyone in your area has the same deal sewn up.  I find it best to collect your own, if you can find such a farm.  Apart from being free, you can select the part of the pile you excavate from - the bottom obviously where accessible, as it's the most rotted down.

[Tinbasher]

I use old compost bags and collect it myself from the stables' muckpile (for free). They said to me, 'the trouble is, they just keep sh***ing'. For that reason, I suppose, they're usually more than willing to get rid of it.

That's how it seems to me - they're glad to get rid of it, and only seem to charge if they have to do the delivering, which is fair enough.  Not all will deliver, as they obviously are too busy doing other things.  The good thing is that nearly all farms have now got into stabling horses as it's the most profitable part of the whole farming scene.  Traditional farming is ruined I keep being told by many a farmer and but for the horses they would go under.

[matron]

We use cow muck delivered all of about 30 yards from farm to plot so farmer brings tractor bucket load, drops it over the wall on our plot and job done. It is handy living next door to a farm sometimes.  

[peterjf]

in hull we buy manure from a local farmer , he delivers within 3 days , for £30-00 we get about 3 ton of farm yard manure , mmmmmmm really good stuff , and last spring i got a load with grass snakes in it , we all thought they where adders because the young of adders are simular to grass snakes ,

[noshed]

Our council has a deal with a waste disposal outfit - we just ring up and they deliver. We tip the driver and we get as much as we want - either from the Met horses or the Royal Mews.
It needs to rot down but it is good.

[nipper31]

Is it ok to put the horse muck in a compost bin to rot down  :?:  You know the type of big plastic bin that looks like a Dalek  

[Eristic]

The easiest method of storing manure is to use the builders sandbags. It will rot down quickly, easy to fill and just as easy to empty.

[Snap Dragon]

The easiest method of storing manure is to use the builders sandbags. It will rot down quickly, easy to fill and just as easy to empty.

Now that's a good idea!  :idea:

I was wondering what would be the easiest way of keeping it tidy once I get some!

Thanks for that  

[nipper31]

Doesn't it get waterlogged in bags, or do you punch holes in for drainage  :?:  Can I get builder's sand bags free or cheaply somewhere  :?: