composting horse muck with wood shavings through it?

[finglas]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a bit of advice. I have been gathering manure and composting material for a while. I have a few heaps of different things. One which is mainly leaves and chicken manure. Others which are mainly cow muck but there are some places I have visited and I have collect horse muck which has quite a bit of wood shavings in it. Some looks to be well rotted and I was told it had been lying for years, other stuff is more fresh.

Anyway, I am just posting to ask about compost made with horse muck that has wood shavings through it. Will it take longer to compost? And when it is composted, will it have less nutrients than compost without wood shavings? Will it have a low level of nitrogen?

I seem to see a lot online about how the wood shavings are basically undesirable but I am just wondering what your experiences are.

Thank you all,

Jamie

[Thelma Sanders]

It will take longer to compost, turning it will help speed up the process, as will adding some pee!
It shouldn't lose Nitrogen, especially if you add more pee to the pile Once rotted it's really lovely stuff.

[sparrow100]

As someone with a stabled horse - the wood shavings on the pile will generally be wee-soaked and from the horse's pee patch, so covered in nitrogen. They rot down within 6 months usually - sooner if your pile is big enough. They cost us enough that people don't chuck them if they are clean & dry...

[finglas]

thank you, that is great and sounds it sounds like the compost from the heaps will be promising. I have been turning them a lot so i will continue to do so.

Thank you

Jamie