Ultimate Guide on Composting Cow Manure for your Garden!

Are you interested in learning about composting cow manure for your garden? Well, here is everything you will need to know about how to turn cow manure into beautiful compost. 

So you want to garden, but you don’t have any compost. You have two options: buy it or make it. In a world where everything is over commercialized, our family chose to learn the skill of making our own organic fertilizer. We take raw manure and through the composting process turn it into a large pile of cow dung compost. 

We’re gonna walk you through that same process, breaking it down into a doable step by step on how to compost cow manure from start to finish.

Our grandparents never needed the latest bags of soil amendments, and neither should we!

What is Cow Manure Compost?

Cow manure is the mostly digested food waste from a cow. It is composed of bits of hay, grain, grass and other things the cow has eaten.

Cow manure is high in nutrients and awesome for feeding plants. It has a 3-2-1 NPK ratio, meaning 3% nitrogen, 2%phosphorus, and 1% potassium. This makes it good for almost any plant.

Composting is the God made process of breaking down organic matter like cow manure, into valuable fertilizer to enrich the soil. It is often made of broken down leaves, food scraps, manure, straw, grass clippings and wood chips.

Cow manure compost is made of mostly decomposed cow manure plus a carbon, like straw or sawdust. But frequently people will add more traditional material into it, like leaves, grass clippings and food scraps. All of this just makes the end product higher quality with more nutrients.

Once broken down it makes great fertilizer for your beautiful garden, pasture or potted house plants.

Why Does Cow Manure Need to be Composted?

Cow manure is full of ammonia and can have bad bacteria and pathogens like e. coli in it. Composting kills these bad bugs by heating up to a high enough temperature for a long enough amount of time. 

Composting cow manure also breaks down the organic matter into the bioavailable nutrients so the plants are then able to take them up.

How Does Composting Break Down Cow Manure?

Cow manure is broken down by composting through thermophilic (high heat) and anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is a process where microorganisms break down manure solids, organic matter and turn it into humus

What does Cow Manure Contain?

To know exactly what a composted pile of cow manure contains, you would need to test it. But in general, cow manure compost contains several elements along with humus, carbon and water.

• The Basic – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium
• Sulfur, calcium, magnesium, and iron

Advantages and Disadvantages to Using Manure as Fertilizer

Using cow manure as fertilizer for your garden has its advantages and disadvantages, so weight them before getting started. Here is a list I have written to help you make that decision:

Advantage: Composting Cow Manure

1. Composted manure can be a free source of fertilizer if you have your own animals. 
2. Composting cow manure turns it into a valuable resource and natural fertilizer.
3. It has a perfectly balanced ratio of nutrition to meet most plants’ needs. It has high nitrogen content that garden plants love.
4. Cow manure improves the soil structure by adding nutrients. This also improves its water-holding capacity so you won’t need to water as often.
5. Composted cow manure is organic when made at home with clean manure. So you can grow your beautiful garden without chemical fertilizers.
6. Cost effective by using free cow manure for fertilizer, it saves you the expense of purchasing chemical fertilizers.
7. Composting cow manure kills most weed seeds.
8. Cow manure composted at high temperatures (160) kills parasites, fly eggs, bacteria, and dangerous pathogens.

Disadvantage: of Composting Cow Manure

1. You will usually need a large amount and sometimes that is hard to come by if you don’t already have your own supply.
2. Without a tractor, it can become messy and labor-intensive to collect, manage, and compost cow manure.
3. Smell, at first it will smell. That should quickly dissipate as it starts to heat up and decompose.
4. Large amounts not composted can contain harmful ammonia gas and release carbon dioxide.

How to Compost Cow Manure: Step by Step Process:

1. Choose a location for pile or compost bin
2. Collect manure
3. Use only clean manure
4. Transfer the manure to location
5. Follow the ratio
6. Add water when necessary
7. Mix occasionally 
8. Wait a little while and keep checking on it
9. Use to fertilize Your Garden!

First – Choose a Location for the Compost Manure Piles

Choosing The location is a pretty important step, you will want to take your time deciding and not rush. 

What are the Requirements for a Compost Location?

• Shade- During the summer months it’s easier for you to work in and it helps keep the pile from drying out too quickly.
• Access to water sources- You will need to wet down the compost pile occasionally to help it compost faster. So having a water spigot or hose that will reach is a must. 
• Plenty of space- make sure and measure if you are working with a small space, that your bin will fit. And if making a large compost pile, that it has plenty of room to grow.
• Access- room to move around and access it. Whether it be a bin on an apartment balcony or a pile in your yard, make sure you have space to approach from the front. Ideally, 2-3 feet if you have an apartment balcony and more like 3-4 feet if using a wheelbarrow and pile in the yard.
• Large Enough Bin – The easiest way to make a bin is with pallets. Start by putting 3 together and hold them upright with posts. The ideal size is 4-6 feet high and 3-5 feet wide. This easily allows enough material to be piled high enough to raise the temperature.
• Close to the garden – Placed as near as possible to the garden. We have quite a large garden, so even with the pile directly next to it, we still have to walk quite a bit.

PRO TIP: First spread a thick layer of fresh sawdust on the ground. It serves as a visible distinction between the compost and the ground. Then when you go to flip it you don’t dig too deep, possibly digging up unwanted rocks.

Second – Manure Collecting Location

If you don’t own your own animals or live in town, you can find fresh cow dung in several places. Sometimes you can find fresh manure listed on FB marketplace, offer up, Craigslist, or local FB groups. Usually, big-name garden supply centers will carry cow manure already composted. If you can’t find any to make it yourself, this might be your best option. 

• Amazon
• Black Kow
• Michigan compost and Manure
• Wholly Cow Compost and Manure

If you already own animals, it’s just a matter of finding the rhythm of collecting your manure. It’s tricky to balance time and energy, and where it’s all best put! 

What are the Basic Manure Collecting Systems?

1. Rotational Grazing: There are a lot of homesteaders and farmers who are adamant about rotational grazing. That’s great and all, but you can’t collect manure for composting this way.
2. Barn Kept/ Feedlots: Then there is the opposite like standard commercial farms, where the animals spend most of their time indoors. This makes for a 100% collectible manure system. 
3. Homesteads/ Farms: are a balance between the two. Sometimes staying in, sometimes staying out. 

We have our homestead set up with a good balance between the two systems. The beef cows stay out on pasture year round. 

The family milk cow and dairy goats come into their barn stall at night and when the weather is bad. That usually means in the winter they are kept in pretty regularly. This allows us to collect enough manure for our pile to compost for our large families’ garden uses.

We line the stall with thick layers of wood shavings to catch all that manure nutrients. That way it makes it easier to transport to the composting pile.

Start with Clean Cow Manure for Composting

If you are going to all the trouble to make your own compost, you will want it to be the cleanest best quality you possibly can. For us that means completely organic cow manure is the only type of manure we want to be using.

One of the biggest reasons to grow a garden is to have organic produce. Using chemical-laden manure for your compost will defeat that purpose, by producing chemical-laden veggies. 

We rarely use conventional medications, wormers, or antibiotics with our livestock, however, sometimes it’s necessary. When an animal gets injured or sick enough to need these chemicals, we try to separate them from the manure-collecting pens.

Examples of Clean Catching:

• beef cow on pasture- just leave them where they are. We are not collecting manure from the pasture. What little bit goes into the pasture will be greatly diluted over space and time, before it gets cycled back into food any animal will eat. This is a very minimal risk. I would compare it to having a pasture directly off a road, where the exhaust debris will be falling on the pasture also. They are both similar toxins, and it’s nearly impossible to completely prevent them. We just try our best with the time, energy, and resources we have. 
• Milk cow in stall/small pen- This is where we are collecting manure from! Put her in an entirely separate pen/stall for the withdrawal period, or simply clean out the manure and put it on the compost pile before putting her in that pen. That manure will be clean since she hasn’t had the medication during that time. But assuming she started the medication today, then today and forward for X number of days her manure will have a chemical load. Then after the withdrawal period, clean the pen and spread it directly on the pasture. Return her to the pen and continue collecting like normal.
• Rabbits and poultry manure- similar to the milk cow. Add the clean manure to the compost pile before medicating the animal. When the withdrawal period is over, clean and dispose of dirty manure in a separate area like the pasture or woodlot.

What Animal Manures Will Work on a Compost Pile?

• Livestock manure
• Horse manure
• Cattle manure
• Sheep manure
• Fresh chicken manure
• Other farm animals’ manure

Here is some information on testing your compost pile:

Transfer the Manure to the Compost Pile Location

This will need both time and tools.

Time: It will take a dedicated amount of time, similar to an appointment or time slot. We call it “chore time” which we do at 4 pm every day. Sometimes if it’s a small job, like rabbits it only requires dumping their bucket once a week. Or if the job is much too big, a tractor is necessary. In this case, it can become a weekly job. 

Tools: Pitchforks, shovel, wheelbarrow, or tractor. When we lived in Oregon, the cows were kept in the barn for 6 months out of the year due to the muddy pastures. This made it absolutely necessary to have a tractor. We had a manure shed built to hold the amount of manure we accumulated. About every Saturday, it took the tractor about 30 minutes to scoop down the whole length of the barn and muck it out.

Follow Correct Ratio 

When adding other components to the compost pile, you will need to balance out the carbon and nitrogen. Nitrogen provides nutrients and moisture. Carbon provides energy, absorbs moisture, and adds structure. The structure allows airflow through the pile. Having a proper balance between these two promotes healthy bacteria and fungi, which are the two key composters.

The ratio of Compost Browns to Greens:

3 PARTS BROWN (Carbon): 1 PART GREEN (Nitrogen)

Brown: 

Carbon-rich material that is dead and dry. For example dry leaves, straw, shredded paper, sawdust, and wood chips.

Green: 

Nitrogen-rich material that is still fresh and has a lot of moisture in it. For example manure, grass clippings, fresh leaves, and food scraps.

All that’s to say, even with an entire manure compost pile, it will require lots of carbon to break it down.

PRO TIP: For best results, and to help break down the compost faster, we suggest adding mushroom inoculant. You can get any mushrooms, even from the grocery store. Then blend it with water in a blender or with an immersion blender. Next just pour it all over the compost pile to drench it.

Add Water When Necessary 

Lightly spray the compost pile when adding more material or mixing. The material should feel like a damp sponge,  not soaking wet. Too much water will cool it down and practically bring it to a stand still.

The microbes need moisture to stay alive, and they are what are doing all the breakdown. Ideally it is best to keep a compost pile between 40-60% moisture.

You can purchase a moisture meter. To read the moisture level, just insert the probe into the center of the compost pile.

For high quality compost, you will want to make sure and protect the nutrients from washing away in heavy rain. Either keep your pile under a shed or tarp it if needed.

Occasionally Turn the Compost Pile, but Not too Often

During the decomposition process, the compost will need to heat up to 110-160* to break down the manure and matter. It’s the level of oxygen content that creates the heat. If it cools down to below 100, it’s a good idea to flip it, mix it and break up any clumps, adding more water.

Ideally, you will want the compost pile to heat up to at least 130*, then leave it there for about two weeks before turning it. It should only need to be turned about 5 times total. Turning it incorporates oxygen which it needs. However, you don’t want to turn it too often, it might cool down the temperature too much.

For more in-depth information about the temperature and when to turn read about it at North Dakota State University. 

Wait a Little While for the Manure to Compost

Fresh manure is high in ammonia which will burn your plants if applied directly. It needs a few months at the bare minimum to break the ammonia and harmful pathogens down, making it safe for your plants. Hot composting is the best way to transform fresh cow manure into the best soil amendment you can find. It just takes time and a little hard work.

Time is a key element to composting manure. You can’t make compost without it, but there are ways to speed up the process! 

This is where I suggest having and maintaining at least 2, preferably 3 compost piles. Every time you add more fresh material it is making more work for the microbes. So the quickest way to complete the breakdown process is to leave a pile to finish decomposing. While adding any new material to the next two piles only.

Use the Compost to Fertilize Your Garden and Plants

Now that the compost is done breaking down, it’s time to use it. If you are adding it to the vegetable garden, the easiest way is to spread it directly on top of your rows or raise beds. Then only work it in the top inch or two to conserve the compost. 

You can use any size rototiller and set it for about 3-4” depth or simply use a broad fork and break the soil loose a bit. Or use a shovel to chop and flip.

If you want to use it for containers, you will want to get a soil screen to remove any large or unfinished pieces. You can find easy plans for making your own homemade soil screen at Homesteading Family.

How to Screen Your Compost Pile: Step by Step

1. Place screen on a wheelbarrow
2. Scoop a shovel full from the compost pile on top of the screen
3. Shake to allow fine dirt to fall through, yet keep large chunks on the top.
4. Toss them back in the compost pile. 
5. Take your wheelbarrow load of good fine compost to your greenhouse and pot up your plants.

Composting organic materials from cow manure has a high efficiency of resources. There is no other fertilizer that has as much organic content or as much nitrogen. It’s a biological process that the Good Lord made specifically to create a close resource system right on the homestead. Follow these steps to ensure you get similar results in your compost fertilizer at the best time.

Then, don’t be surprised when your garden is overproducing an abundance of gorgeous veggies. Hopefully, you and your family will be able to enjoy growing a big beautiful garden this year. How exciting would that be for your grocery bill!

Cow manure organic waste is fantastic at adding structure to the soil, increasing needed nutrients, and improving plant growth. It is the sustainable ways of those who have gone before us to use what we have. And in this case, if we have manure… make compost!

FAQs

How can I speed up my manure compost?

1. Move it more! The more it is moved and stirred, the quicker the bacteria can reach the material
2. Make a larger pile. Composting requires heat so the larger the pile the more regular the internal temperature will maintain.
3. Use small materials. Make sure all the debris you started with is small and contains no large pieces like large wood chips for instance.
4. Wet it down. It needs moisture to break down the material.

More Related Posts:

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Once you are all done working in the garden you MUST make a batch of these Sourdough Lemon Brownies and a cool glass of iced tea for all your efforts!!

Here are two great articles for more information on composting manure from Gardening Know How and from Oregon State University.