Horse or Cow

[Essexboy]

Which is best Horse or Cow manure ?

[Plot70]

I would go for horse on clay soil due to the texture.

[Nicos]

I am under the impression that cows digest their food better so there are less weeds. No idea where I got that advice from or if it’s accurate!

[Mr Bones]

Horse is lighter and easier to work with but usually carries more weed seeds (plus there's a higher chance it might contain herbicides)

Cow contains less weeds but takes longer to beak down plus it wasn't added to wattle and daub mix to build houses for nothing - it sticks to things which can make it difficult to move when fresh (sticks to fork prongs etc)

[Snoop Puss]

I had some fancy horse muck last year - well rotted, organic feed and goodness knows whatever else. I used it for growing our potatoes in, so piled it high on the bed. Ours was sold to us by cubic metre rather than by weight. I suspect it contains a lot of air (hence the lightness Mr Bones mentions). To look at the beds now, you'd hardly know I'd put any on at all.

Will go for sheep and goat next time around (easier for me to get hold of than cow muck).

[Essexboy]

Thanks guys I find cow manure hard to find so it’ll probably be horse muck and deal with the weeds !

[rary]

Fresh horse manure brings in weeds, as Nicos said cow manure has less weeds, as they have 4 stages of digestion which kills the weeds, the horse manure generally has more straw with it, which I think makes folk think it is better for the soil, personally if I had a choice I would go for cow manure all the time

[mrsbusy]

Cow manure is bought in for us by our chairman. I found that a layer of it on top of the soil set like concrete overwinter and I ended up taking it off and putting it on the compost heap well covered over and leaving it. I tried breaking it up but short of putting it through a shredder I failed. The manure was meant to be well rotted. It is now!