Best Management Practices for

Composting Livestock Manure

Regular collection of manure from stalls, paddocks, and confinement areas is essential to the health of your animals. Wherever there is manure, there are parasite larvae. The life cycle of all livestock parasites involves leaving the host animal via manure and then re-infesting a new host. The combination of dung and urine soaked bedding is a perfect medium for the proliferation of bacteria and flies.

Composting manure is an excellent manure management technique for livestock owners. The benefits of composting include:  

• It reduces the possibility of parasite reinfestation of your animals. The heat generated in the composting process kills worm eggs.  
  
• It reduces flies by eliminating their breeding ground.
  
• It is an excellent fertilizer. Composting reduces the volume of waste, makes nutrients more available to plants and it increases organic material in soils.
  
• It reduces the chance of runoff from your property contaminating and polluting surface and ground waters of Whatcom County.
  
• It makes your property more pleasing for you and your neighbors to look at and enjoy.
  

A high, level area of your property should be selected for your compost operation. Don’t site your composting facility in a low lying area or it will turn into a soggy mess. A location that’s convenient to your stall and paddock areas will make the chore of cleaning up easier and less time consuming.

A three-pile system works best; one ready to spread, one in the process of decomposition, and one to which fresh manure is being added daily. Bins should be built to contain the piles. Landscape timbers work well for this purpose.

By following a few simple management techniques, you can greatly enhance the composting of livestock waste. Optimum composting rates can be attained by ensuring the proper moisture, carbon, and oxygen needs are met for the microorganisms, which break down the manure into a soil-like material. The compost should be moist enough that it is easy to ball up in your hand, but not so moist that it drips. Cover your compost pile with a tarp to prevent it from becoming soggy in the winter or too dried out in the summer. A tarp also prevents the valuable nutrients from being washed out and from contributing to surface and ground water contamination. A hose can be used to apply extra moisture to the pile. Regular turning of the waste pile ensures that sufficient amounts of oxygen feed the beneficial microorganisms. Without a front-end loader this is not easily accomplished. One innovative solution is to insert perforated PVC pipe into the pile while it is being built, in order to aerate the pile.

The process of decomposition of a manure pile can take anywhere from two weeks to three months or more and the quality of the resulting product will vary. This depends on management of the pile and the factors discussed above.

For more information on composting, and bin design contact us at the Whatcom Conservation District.