Pig Manure

[Cloud]

If I remember rightly my Grandad use to use pig manure on his veg patch,but you don't seem to see it mentioned much nowadays.Anyone know why and can you still get it?

[ricwiley]

You can still get it fronm pig farmers as long as they farm pigs indoors. Make sure straw has been used as a bedding source and ensure that the compost is well rotted down before use.

My local farmer (many years ago) converted to a strawless system where the manure was washed into a tank where it fermented a bit. This was sprayed direct on to the fields. Smelled a bit but not as bad as he did when his tank roof collapsed and he fell into the tank.

I always understood well rotted horse manure was better and I guess that should be a lot easier to get hold of as many pigs are now reared outside so there is not as much manure in the first place.

Cheers

[Snadger]

One of the local pig farmers around here had a bit of a disagreement with the local Nat West bank!

He parked a slurry tanker outside the bank and fired it up. It made a right mess of the front of the bank and some went in throuigh the windows as well.

Talk about dirty money!!

[sewer rat]

Most pigs that are reared indoors nowadays are raised on slats and the resultant slurry is what the farmers spread on their fields. This is okay for folk like me who have a couple or three acres to play with as we can get a local tactor driver and slurry tanker in to do the necessary for us. However, for yourself, you would need to phone round local pig farms and see what they use to bed their pigs - as mentioned previously, a pig rearing system using straw courts would be ideal.
I don't know the details for pig manure of this type but pig slurry is very high in nitrogen and gives excellent leafy growth. However in a wet year it can, some say, lead to outbreaks of common scab on potatoes, though I can't say that mine were affected in this way this year.