chicken manure for food plot?

[Hideaway Acres]

I have a source for very dry fully composted chicken manure. It's quite fine with just a few clumps here and there. Several locals are using it with great success for vegetable gardens. I can get it for $2 for a five gallon bucket and could easily get 20- 25 buckets or so. How effective would it be spread on a 1/2 acre food plot?

 

[swat1018]

If you could apply a ton, to a half acre, you'd be close to a normal rate, I believe. That being said, I guess anything helps.

 

[bigboreblr]

NPK Nutritional Values of Animal Manures & Compost Etc.

Lists and compares the typical values of NPK in animal manure and composts which is useful for judging the amount of fertiliser to apply required for a crop

www.allotment-garden.org

1.1-.8-.5 The overall theme on here is to provide nitrogen with legumes. So, phosphorus and potassium is a more need.

My local AG coop has recommended fertilizer rates for the seed they sell. They typically say 200-300lbs / acre of 12-12-12. To get the equivalent of 200lbs / acre of phosphorus you need 3000lbs chicken manure. To get 200 lbs / acre of potassium equivalent you need 4800 lbs of chicken manure.

Chicken manure is claimed to be 40lbs a cubic foot 5 gallons is .66 cubic feet. About 26lbs of manure. 115 buckets to make the 200 lbs of 12-12-12 for phosphorus, 184 buckets for potassium at the 200 lbs.

Bought my triple 12 last month for $27 a 50 lb bag. $108 plus tax for triple 12. $230 of manure to make the same phosphorus. $368to make the potassium of 200bs of triple 12. To mathc the nitrogen of 200lbs triple 12, you need 84 buckets 168 bucks.

Chicken manure can be nitrogen hot. usually you let it compost for a year or two.

42 buckets atleast for N
58 buckets for P
92 buckets for K

I like oats, so I focus on potassium. Instead of 92 buckets of manure. You can get the same potassium in 50lbs of 6-24-24. I paid $28 for a bag of that last month.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I would rather put chicken manure on my plot, then synthetics. Plus chicken manure will also increase your soil ph. The price and low quanities seem to be aimed more towards gardens then food plotters. See if you can buy some by the ton and get a better deal.

We use to buy it from a local chicken farm, but it was very cheap back then.

 

[chucker66]

I have my own chickens but not enough to supply my food plots Barely enough for the garden.

 

[MRBB]

never really used chicken, but for yrs we used turkey crap, due to we could get it free, we typically used about 70 ton of it over a 60 acre crop field for growing either corn, or clover and some times soybeans, we'd spread it a few months before planting time
I honestly don't know what all it did in exact numbers, but was very high in Nitrogen, and it smelled really bad for a week or 3 after putting it down didn;t matter if in dead of winter or spring time
and I doubt we'd of used it if it wasn;'t free(only cost was hauling it ourselves )
at the price they want for it, I don;t think its a great deal for a food plotter, but if one was just planting a small garden and wanted to think there all natural in things, OK
and ?? HAHA!
I have friends that win contests every yr with vegetables they grow, that swear by using BAT crap
they swear its the secret fertilizer that makes every thing grow bigger faster and better tasting??
but HUMM< seems like a hard product to get bulk in LOL!~

 

[Telemark]

I would rather put chicken manure on my plot, then synthetics. Plus chicken manure will also increase your soil ph. The price and low quanities seem to be aimed more towards gardens then food plotters. See if you can buy some by the ton and get a better deal.

Pretty much my thoughts as well.

 

[Hideaway Acres]

Thanks for all your thoughts. Helps me weigh the pros/cons. The source is a unique guy. He doesn't own the land but is in charge of the chicken operation. He doesn't always have a tractor/loader on hand, so most of his customers just get it in 5 gal buckets and hand shovel it right out of the chicken houses. It would eventually just be dumped out back if no one buys. If I hit him at the right time when a loader is on site, I probably could get a small dump trailer full for $40 or $50 bucks. Guessing a 5x8 or 6x10 dump trailer or similar would get me my money's worth. February is the target month when he cleans out the houses so I have time to plan.

 

[SwampCat]

The commercial chicken farmers around here said everyone calling about their chicken litter now with commercial prices so high. It isnt composted, either. Straight out of the chicken house. Ususally has a dead chicken or two in it as a bonus - and some smell to go along with it.

 

[Hideaway Acres]

The commercial chicken farmers around here said everyone calling about their chicken litter now with commercial prices so high. It isnt composted, either. Straight out of the chicken house. Ususally has a dead chicken or two in it as a bonus - and some smell to go along with it.

Hmmm, I guess I should be extra nice to my source, the little I got from him was fully dry and not terribly smelly. He uses it on his own garden and he has a great garden. On another note, I remember getting some free horse manure at a local stable about 25 years ago, and it really improved my garden. If prices keep going up on commercial fertilizer, I'd expect more folks will search out cow, horse and chicken manure and try to make it work for them, especially if they have a suitable method to spread it. Good for small gardens, but not sure it's viable for food plots. But as has been mentioned, anything is better than nothing.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

My shit preference is horse, and cow, dried of course, then chicken and pig dried for sure. Pig manure is hot, and will burn young plants if it is wet. There is down falls to horse and cows, mostly weed seeds. You pretty much need to know what they were eating, so they arent passing along a bunch of bad weeds in their manure. There is advantages of each, and disadvantages of each.

If you have larger acres, and are planting corn, and you have a hog farm near you, have them come and inject some into your field long before you plant, such as the fall before, or early spring.

 

[MRBB]

Hmmm, I guess I should be extra nice to my source, the little I got from him was fully dry and not terribly smelly. He uses it on his own garden and he has a great garden. On another note, I remember getting some free horse manure at a local stable about 25 years ago, and it really improved my garden. If prices keep going up on commercial fertilizer, I'd expect more folks will search out cow, horse and chicken manure and try to make it work for them, especially if they have a suitable method to spread it. Good for small gardens, but not sure it's viable for food plots. But as has been mentioned, anything is better than nothing.

however like anything else, if folks start to have higher demand for natural sources for fertilizer, those having it will start charging higher and higher rates!
I already know a lot of the ORGANIC farms in my area pay a premium now for cow/horse manure and have for a while, I can only imagine that the increased rates across the board have also effected them and the sellers selling it to them!
the days of things just being given away are far and few, everything has a ever increasing price tag anymore unfortunately if you ask me !

 

[swat1018]

My shit preference is horse, and cow, dried of course, then chicken and pig dried for sure. Pig manure is hot, and will burn young plants if it is wet. There is down falls to horse and cows, mostly weed seeds. You pretty much need to know what they were eating, so they arent passing along a bunch of bad weeds in their manure. There is advantages of each, and disadvantages of each.

If you have larger acres, and are planting corn, and you have a hog farm near you, have them come and inject some into your field long before you plant, such as the fall before, or early spring.

I prefer rabbit.

 

[Skeeter]

I prefer rabbit.

Best garden I've ever had was the year that I amended with a truck load of rabbit manure.