I have access to unlimited amounts of it lol. It's good for everything. The cows eat corn silage, haylage, and a few different minerals. The silage and haylage are fermented so I imagine that helps. Next part.... what do I want? Fresh, liquid, dry, thick? There are so many different forms of manure lol
You want the old cow manure from the very back of the pile. It needs to be at the very least "aged" and even better yet, composted. It should be to the point where you cannot distinguish what it used to be. Fresh manure can burn your crops; composted manures will not. There's a very good chance if you can find the oldest section of the manure heap that it will also be loaded with the "red wigglers", ie: composting worms. For a real treat, bring up pick up truck full home and mix it with a mess of old autumn leaves. If you can, hit the woods with a rake and lightly remove the top layer from last fall and collect the "forest duff" below. Mix this in with your manure at least 50/50 and better yet 75% forest duff/25% manure. Turn the pile here and there and once it's composted you've got a super excellent humus source for your potting soil mixes. Great score! J
Follow Jerry's advice and you'll be well on your way to building a free, super soil mix. Laughing pretty hard at those autocorrect errors, jerr. I usually have to edit my posts on the computer if I make any from my phone.
Well there isn't a hint of autumn leaves around. I live in michigan so the snow did away with those lol. I'll post some pictures and see what you think.
I have a bit of access to cow manure as well but was warned by the farmer something like his cows ate seeded hay, or at least something seeded. He told me The seeds would sprout in the manure in the spring. I didn't want this so didn't pursue it.
A properly constructed compost heap will rise to temperatures high enough to kill seeds. Most herbivores eat seeded plants so there's really no worry if you build a thermal compost heap. J