Farmyard Manure

Farmyard manure consists of excrement from farm animals that is mixed with straw or some other type of litter.

The composition and the quality of farmyard manure depends upon the type of animals producing it, their age, what foods they have been eating, how much litter is being used and what kind of litter it is, and how the manure is treated after it is made.

The quality of manure declines when it overheats and when it is exposed to a rain for a long time.

In one ton of farmyard manure, there are about 7 pounds of phosphoric acid, 11 pounds of potash and 15 pounds of nitrogen.

Organic manures can be better than artificial ones because organic manures allow plant food to be released from the soil slowly. This tends to cause plants to grow slower and probably causes crops to be of better quality and to taste better.

Farmyard manure makes sands more cohesive and helps them to retain water.

It makes clays more friable.

Farmyard manure has low levels of potash and phosphoric acid. Therefore, it is best if farmyard manure is supplemented with concentrated fertilizers that contain the proportions of these plant foods that are needed by each crop.

If you regularly give the soil a liberal application of farmyard manure, the soil will be easy to cultivate. You will be able to till it in almost all types of weather and it will yield crops early.

However, if you dress the soil heavily with manure for a few years, it will stop producing good crops

The soil will contain too much humic acids and other acids, which inhibit the activity of soil bacteria. This stops organic matter from decaying.

To solve this problem, do not manure for one season. Instead, add lime to the soil.

This makes the acid more alkaline and allows oxygen to enter the soil, enabling bacteria to become active again.

In order to prevent the soil from getting into this condition in the first place, you should supplement the farmyard manure with fertilizer and frequently apply powdered limestone (calcium carbonate.) This will ensure that the soil remains consistently fertile.