burning manure

[bunnydrops]

Locally the farmers burn manure before they put in their gardens. I did a google search to see what the advantages are but found nothing. The locals tell me that if you don't it will attract termites which will eat the roots of your vegetables. I would think it would kill off worms and other insects in the manure, but I wonder what is lost? nitrogen etc.? Any one have any info about this practice?

[NeverSure]

I don't know all of the reasons they do it. Ashes make very good fertilizer. The manure would otherwise make good fertilizer only after it had been composted. Look at a pile of manure in a field. Nothing will grow around it until it decays. It has too much nitrogen in it when fresh.

When Mount St. Helens in Washington State, US blew in 1980 the winds carried the ash to the farmland to the East of it. There was a lot of it. All of the farmers and ranchers had bumper crops for the next two or three years after they plowed that ash in.

Ash also improves the tilth of the soil and its moisture absorbing and retaining properties.

Fresh manure is a nuisance which is cleaned out of barns and other areas and piled up to compost. Then of course it becomes a wonderful soil amendment.

I have no experience burning it but if I had too much of it coming on too fast from perhaps penning cattle up I would burn it.

In the early years of the US when the Great Plains were first being settled, the pioneers would gather the manure or "chips" from the vast herds of wild buffalo and dry them for winter fuel. There were few if any trees around for them to cut for firewood and the winters are very cold. They made their cabins from stacked grass sod and heated them with those chips.

[David48]

I'm guessing.

One reason could be to kill any of the viable weed seeds that have survived the animal's digestive track?

[kickstart]

We rear a few cattle,and have a not very well organized garden,but we do grow a bit , we put on manure, straight from the cattle yard, and never had problem with termites eating the roots,did have some carrots that where nibbled by some gremlin,but I put that down to being a root crop,they will get a bit nibbled,mine in the UK use to,,likes of Pac Kar-na,Chines Kale,never a problem,got some tomatoes growing, so far they are doing OK.

The majority of our manure, goes no the Napier grass,from the cattle yard,,I scrape the manure in to a heap.and leave it,for about 2 months,then load it on to a trailer and spread it on the Napier grass,while it is in the heap it produces some heat, which I think will kill off the weed seeds,as we do not have a weed problem,from weed seeds,only grass weeds that where growing in the existing field ,and seeds from the "Gratin",Leucaena,the tree legume,we feed to the cattle,those. seeds with they hard waxy coat they will grow, and take some getting rid of.

But as NeverSure said the ash would do the soil a lot of good, and the plants would readly take up the nutrients from the ash,my way I have had manure on the grass for 2-3 months,and some of it was still they,not gone in to the soil,also not a lot of rain, did not help.

Just said to the misses about burning manure,she has never heard of it before,neither have I

Makes you wonder if it is one of those things that have been doing for a long time,no one knows the real reason why they do it.

Round it is sugarcane harvest time,and burning has started,that and if they start burning manure as well,I think I would have to wear respirator,the air quality would not be very good,to say the least

[ggt]

Why are you interested in this sheeeit...has been a vital part of SE Asian agriculture for hundreds of years...a turd in time grows nine...

[cooked]

In my humble experience, too much ash can make the soil heavy. It contains potash (get it?), the P bit of the NPK spectrum. I do occasionally scatter ash mixed with charcoal in the garden, but don't have enough to make much difference.

I do have a problem with months old manure containing weed seeds, even if they have been piled in a heap for a month or two.Some seeds seem to be more resistant than others.

[NeverSure]

In my humble experience, too much ash can make the soil heavy. It contains potash (get it?), the P bit of the NPK spectrum. I do occasionally scatter ash mixed with charcoal in the garden, but don't have enough to make much difference.

I do have a problem with months old manure containing weed seeds, even if they have been piled in a heap for a month or two.Some seeds seem to be more resistant than others.

Do you turn the manure pile regularly to allow all of the manure to spend time in the center of the pile? The composting of the manure generates enough heat in the center to kill weed seeds. Turning also speeds up the process because it introduces oxygen which the microorganisms need, and of course the material at the edges won't decompose nearly as fast due to lack of heat.

Proper compost should have no viable seeds.

We used a small Kubota B6100D tractor with a loader to clean out the stalls which had concrete floors and walls. We also used the loader to turn the piles. We also added all bedding hay because it helps to break up the manure and allow oxygen in. It also decomposes.

When the compost was finished it was put on the garden and tilled in, and any excess was spread on the fields with a manure spreader.

Edited December 9, 2014 by NeverSure

[cooked]

Well no we don't turn it but it is being added to regularly. There are two basic weeds (a grass and a tree seeding, maybe mimosa) that keep appearing which is why I often dig it in or use a lot of rice straw as mulch.

[pigeonjake]

i havnt seen them burn manure,

but i have seen them burn rice husk,, maybe thats what you have seen.?

[The manic]

Well they will find plenty here.

[farangmick]

Given me an idea for a business oportunity for the family. Instead of turning all the little fish from the ponds into the worlds most foul smelling food,(pla ra), smoke some of them over a cow shit fire, but not too much so that they are still a bit raw. Could become a classic Issan dish. Who needs Arbroath smokies anyway?

[The manic]

The burning of manure is a waste of a valuable resource and a cause of cancer. Manure should be reused to fertilise the land. The sadly high incidence of cancer amongst the poorer agrarian classes in north east Thailand is attributable to among other things the burning of dung and wood to cook on in poorly ventilated rooms.