Sustainability and Black Gold!
/The manure that we collect from our herd throughout the winter is more valuable to us than gold. Since we feed our herd organic forage which is grown by us, we know our herd's manure is clean and full of nutrients. We partnered with our friends at Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District to receive partial funding to build our manure shelter last summer. The manure shelter prevents rain from leaching the nutrients in our manure pile and contaminating a creek that flows through our property. By keeping our manure pile dry, the composting process continues throughout our wet weather which has been substantial this winter. Once the manure is composted and the weather turns warmer, we spread the manure onto our pastures to fertilize them.
Rain water that comes in under the manure shelter and hits the manure pile is collected and pumped into our 275 gallon chubs. We store our manure water throughout the winter and spread onto our fruit trees in the spring.
We are happy with our new manure shelter and are excited that we can preserve and recycle the our herd's manure!
