Experience says, add water, regularly. Helps keep things compressed and moisture helps the micro organisms do their work. Also, it looks like balance is out. You have mostly browns, ie: manure, straw, hay. Need to add greens, leaves, veggie scraps, coffee grounds, etc. Just remembering grandma's and it worked quickly and for the most part, odor free. Mixing a little more frequently will help too.
I LOVE to garden, and if it's relevant to what you're doing at all, spray the pile in layers with water, keeping the pile evenly moist. It will greatly speed up your composting. The microbes need water to live, and they break down the material. Otherwise, they die... they need water and oxygen. The perforated pipe mentioned below is also really helpful to get more oxygen to the middle. It will still biodegrade dry, but much, much slower. The rule of thumb is when you squeeze it, one drop of water comes out. Also, a composting thermometer (3ft long) will help you know if it is heating up. Heating up is the byproduct of the microbes breaking down the material. You should see steam coming off when you turn it. You have absolutely great materials to make wonderful compost --- the chicken and cow manure mixed with brown materials is going to give you an amazing result!!
My son has the same John Deere tractor you have. He has the same bucket loader on it, too. He also has a fork lift attachment to use, in place of the bucket loader, and a 62" mower deck, with leaf collection system for it. Greate tools.
Evan, you really alot more green yard waste to add to the bin. Also, burn the stuff you pulled out and either add the ashes to the composr, or just spread the ashes in your yard. And definitely add some water to your compost to promote the composting process. Great video! The homestead is looking good.
Just found your channel yesterday and have been binge watching. Love it! ... Compost works best with existing compost mixed in. You are still building the ecosystem needed. To help speed it up, you need more moisture, as you know, but also adding some raw dirt to help bring those soil microbs into the pile. Stir it more often to speed it up. The pile needs to "breath" for it to reach the temperature to work efficiently, so fluff it, don't compact it. Also, adding a couple dozen worms would be very helpful. Not sure how good your worm population is with that hard clay you have to work with. Keep up the great work and thanks for bring us along!
You need to add some green and keep it moist. Don’t forget to keep it turned. Once it has broken down to compost it is going to be black gold for your garden. Good luck, I like what you are doing. Keep up the good work.
I was reading all the comments and I agree with the advice you were getting! But I didn't see any comments on putting worms into the compost pile! Worms would really help to make it break down faster! Yes I know someone will say that the heat would kill the worms, but they are pretty smart if it gets to warm or to wet they move to a space that will keep them alive and healthy! I know people have seen worms come out of the ground when it gets to wet for them! So you can see they are servive in pretty much any thing!
Yeah exactly, water and air in balance do the trick otherwise you just end up turning over dusty manure and plant material or maybe worse a soggy smelly mess. This composting thing can really turn into an addiction. If your plan is to use it for your garden, fruit trees AND pasture you may need quite a few boxes as you know one of these boxes is gonna work way down.
@@gmoncrieff yep, saw that at the end. But even he said over the course of the hot summer he got distracted from keeping it wet which is understandable. With a pile directly in the sun you know if you don't add water or get decent periodic rain it will just take a long time to breakdown into usable compost.
Another homesteader, Lumnah Acres uses cattle fencing panels to make round compost enclosures that sit on the ground. They can be portable and set up in different areas. You could use more storage as you expand. Having a fork type of attachment for the tractor might help with stirring. I think I remember that the tractor is borrowed though.
I am envious. I do not have a loader (and do not have tractor access into the goat barn) on my vintage 8n, so I use a pitch fork to load a small cart and then either take that directly to the compost bin, or load it into a rear-mount carryall on the tractor to dump (which is really handy). That spring clean-out can be a half a day, easy. That being said, I really do not mind mucking things out. Not sure what that says. Lol. My wife laughs at me, but I am keeping my eye out for a cheap, refurbishable spreader too. I want to be able to spread it on the hay field, too, and right now, that is also a manual process. We have had our chickens for 10+ years, but the goats only for 3. We are still learning, to be sure. That is why I enjoy learning along with you. Take care!
Another way to speed up the composting process is to place some PVC pies with holes drilled into them to funnel more oxygen into the center of the pile. You want to place the pipes vertically to allow more oxygen into the center.
I thought the same thing, and putting down that lime is killing the ammonia, which is straight nitrogen. A little ammonia smell is actually a good thing in my opinion.
When you make new feeders or even line the one's you have with fencing like your gate is made with. This will enable the goats to get a mouthful and when they rip the hay mouthful of hay from the feeder a lot less will come out thereby saving you from having all that wasted hay. Love and Peace. Blessed Be. Doug.
You folks are really working for what you have around there. You’re getting the job done a little easier too and you’re really enjoying yourselves!! Thanks for sharing with us and keep up the good work and videos. 👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Evan, you might check out Al over at Lumnah Acres. With the addition of some wire panels in his feeder, it looks like he has reduced the goats wasted hay considerably. “DIY Hay Feeder HACK” is a great video of the modifications. He also does a lot of composting. Keep up the great work.👍
Use the weedy stems on the bottom to allow good drainage of the pile, and yes add more water (watering every three days). You should squeeze a handful and have it feel like a recently wrung out sponge.
From the looks of things you're lack of rain is hurting more than anything. The stems and stalks will breakdown and are fine for the compost but as you've said in previous videos it's been dry there. Run a hose over it and get some moisture in there and it will help a lot. Adding green will help also because ultimately you're adding moisture and a seal of sorts when you layer it in. When I clean out the goat barn I'll typically use the bagger on the mower and top the compost with fresh grass or wet leaves.
Yes, I love your concept of NICE and NEAT which is why I love watching you work your homestead. From the house to the Pond everything is always so put together. Maybe during the spring and summer months, seal the bins with plastic to trap in the heat and moisture. That will break it down quicker, I think.
Evan, as you probably know there are many ways on UA-cam illustrated to work and accelerate compost. I layer my compost using vegetation (garden, grass and table scraps but no dairy or cooked meats). Spent coffee grounds mixed with Diatomaceous Earth and brown sugar. You can make this inexpensive by buying in bulk. The spent coffee grounds can be your own or collected from restaurants or coffee shops. Plus occasionally layering dirt from your property. I wet my compost down but do not soak. A temperature gauge with long probe is necessary to monitor the compost making sure to be warm but not hot. Praying for your success and safety. ☝️🙏💪👉...
Wow love your compost setup. We have the same situation with our animal waste. We have a compost pile of wood chips and just keep adding the old animal bedding and waste. Great job!
I now have two compost areas... weeds, brush, woody stemmed material in one... manure, garden scraps, couple of collections of grass clippings and leaves in the other.... everytime I add in the chicken manure, I burn out the straw. Doesn't take long to burn it down and it really adds to the soil
Just a suggestion from a heavy equipment operator... Why didn't you use the backhoe to pull out the compost, and then use the loader bucket to push it back in? Idk if you thought of it that way, but I believe it may have mixed a little better. Keep up the good work and we enjoy watching you guys on your farm.
Agreed at least 3 bins, you can then take the top material from a full bin into the empty bin , and then add the lower composted material on top this quickens up the composting time.
Building a 9 bin in a u shape to store and mix browns and greens, my greens are grass clippings from 3 acres, water meal from the pond, manures from pigs chickens and rabbits. Water meal sets in a cover bucket for a week smells just like cow manure😊, Hogs eat the water meal to supplement their feed when they run out of grass
Love seeing all your farm equipment, brings back a lot of memories. Looks like the barn cats 🐈 were a good idea. Didn’t see any mice this time! LOL!! 😀
As most viewers think, both piles look very dry. Moisture is necessary for thing or rot and that is what composting is all about. That garden hose at the end will do little good in the time you will tolerate spraying. You should maybe run a line from the pond to a "lawn sprinkler" for 4 or 5 hours to soak it(them) good and not using the precious well water. Also may I suggest using some of it to break up that clay "lawn" and make your wife pleased with "her" lawn. I do like your videos and both understand and respect the effort and learning curve you are going through. We quit the family farm in the 1950s and I still regret it to a degree except when I think of the family I have and that would have been different had I stayed there.
As someone who experimented with all kinds of methods, I want to tell you that you don't have to do all that stuff you listed at the end. Especially since you don't have any kind of a pressing need for quick compost. But if you change just one thing, it should be this: cover the piles. The perfect green-brown balance, chopping up the materials, turning, constant watering, all help to compost quicker. But they're not necessary. You can compost without turning, and you can compost if the balance leans toward brown. It'll take longer, but it saves you a lot of effort. The quality won't suffer, if anything, it's better when it's more fungal (brown material is broken down by fungi, not bacteria, in a slower but also more nutrient efficient process). And even better if it fills up with earthworms. If it dries out completely, that's bad (the composting, both fungal and bacterial, stops almost completely and the worms all leave), but not the end of the world. It'll just slowly start back up again when it gets water (even just from ambient humidity). Still, if you have the water, it's worth watering at least enough to keep the core from drying out completely. That, by itself, reduces your time frame to a single year. Keep the center moist while it's still warm out, and it should go a long way towards breaking down. The fungi will keep working at it through the winter (it's a big pile, it won't freeze through), and it'll be finished up by worms as things warm up in the spring. Not the whole thing, but the middle of it will be usable compost for spring planting. However, there is one thing you cannot do: leave it uncovered. One big rain will wash away the nutrients, and your compost will be an empty husk, not fertile at all. This even happens when people buy in compost and then leave it out in a pile for a month. By the time they use it, it's ruined. You have to tarp it (or build a roof, but the tarp is better because it also keeps it from drying out). Also, while the rain is the main way to ruin compost, sunlight is bad too. It causes nutrients to degrade and evaporate, in the surface layer at least. Compost is not a very stable thing, especially the nitrogen in it can run off fairly easily. Exposure to the elements is not good for it, it needs to be protected.
The evolution of the editing, video quality, and music selections have been very impressive. I've watched your videos since they began (reloading), and also am interested in the farm/yard/tree work that is done. Nice job, Evan and Rebekka.
Green grass also speeds up the process, when I sweep leaves in the fall I make sure to grab a load or two of fresh green grass clippings to stir in, the heat and moisture works well
Suggestion maybe get a wood or leaf chipper, probably a wood chipper would workout better to chipp up heavier more fiborous material ex corn stalks. Chipping up any small limbs would also make good mulch or organic matter for compost piles. Also if you can get any leaves chip them up instead of leaving them whole so they will breakdown faster. Great to add to compost piles or keep separate to make leaf mold, mix in wood chips into leaves for leaf mold or pet on regular compost. Get coffee grounds if you can to add to compost will mold but that's OK. Good nitrogen source also helps loosen clay soil. Some people cover compost piles with cardboard or tarps to hold in moisture
Take a look at how Charles Douwding or Richard Perkins do this. It's not about turning it often but the green and brouwn ratio. Start throwing in more stuff weed's grass clippings, kichen waste etc etc. If your pile is moist enough you could think about adding some composting worm's (you can order them online). Putting a tarp over it should help retaining it's moisture and perhaps some perverated piping to help with the air flow. Adding a bin would be a good idea, that way you can scoop from one bin to the next one with the tractor and mix it better. Edibleacres uses chickens to speed up the composting process could also be intresting for you. Clean out the stables in to a area where the chickens have access to it that could also be the location where you throw your kichen scrap's and clean that out in to the composting bin's. That way i am sure you would have verry nice compost within a year. And a manure scoop would be a great addition, same principle of what you are using now but with prong's.
You might try using your post hole auger to poke into your compost pile and stir stuff around. It would probably go in close to horizontal. You need to get the decomposing stuff mixed in with the dry newer stuff. Also as you have mentioned many times, it has been a dry year.
He needs to keep compost pile moist to aide in breakdown. Also the smaller the pieces of material the quicker they will break down. Ex. corn stalks, cobs, leaves grind up if possible. Looks like when cleaning out barn areas you have to much have to much hay in relation to manure for it to compost without a really long periods of time. Also your need to keep it moist to aide in the breakdown. Can you get leaves to use to either add to your compost pile or keep separate to make leaf mold. Also suggest you check out I AM ORGANIC GARDENING if you want some real good advice on gardening. Marc is on organic commercial gardener in NJ. His videos go back about 10yrs on his experiences using various methods in this farm. He explains how & why he started farming like this ( his wife's health problems). I learned a lot from him! Also Gardener Scott has a lot of good information. I've learned a lot from him too!
You need to layer your compost. Fresh cut grass. Then leaves, then you straw and manure. Water it. Then layer again the same way. That way you can have your compost heat up and break down in a few months instead of the way it’s going
Check out Lumnah Acers, they have round areas, ie wire with t posts, then a couple of times a year they flip it. They have goats, chickens and pigs. The chickens actually help flip the piles, they also get coffee grounds ect from local shops as well as compost able food scraps.
You need a lot more greens and a loooota water. A pile that big and dense I'd say go to your pond and fill a few 55gal barrels to the very top and add em when you stir it every week. Head down to the bait and tackle shop and get a few pails of nightcrawlers while you're at it.
They are much too dry. They need green and or kitchen scraps to get moisture, if not just water good once or twice a month. I put the rufage like corn stalks on the very bottom to allow for air. Compost can be tricky! You and your wife have such a beautiful place and work so hard to keep it beautiful. I admire you both.
Your compost bins require oxygen, moisture, green manure, leaves & kitchen waste added to hay/straw/ woodchips. You have a good looking setup. Suggest 3/4" scrap wood shims between your slats to allow air filtration to pile. Also add a little lime 2 times per year to aid in break down of materials. Enjoy your channel
Get a piece of pipe about four foot long and adapt a hose fitting on one end. Then you can poke it into the compost pile to get water down deep. good luck with it.
Hello. I'm in southern Illinois too. I discovered your channel about a month ago & have been enjoying watching your videos. I love your barn with all of the goat & chicken stalls that you have made. I'd love to have a barn like that, so I can get some goats. You might want to look into getting a grapple attachment for your tractor, that'll scoop that hay right up. It would even scoop up any of that tree brush that you've been cutting down. You guys have a very beautiful property.
Dig some holes in the compost, pour some water to percolate to all the corners that may help compost better. Some people use drip irrigation/ water dripping around the pile.
The key to breaking down woody materials on a farm is to chip it then put it in an outdoor space the chickens can get to as they will add nitrogen rich manure and constantly mix it as they search for bugs and grain. Make yourself a cleanout wagon that you can roll into the barn and then pickup with the tractor to dump. 3 fixed sides on the wagon and a removable side so you can both load easier and unload by dumping. Some tie down spots to make chaining it to the bucket for the dumping easy and pocket for the bucket forks. put a section of field fencing into the hay feeder so they can only pull smaller bits out at a time. Just enough room to reach in and bite some of the hay in the feeder but it reduces the size they can pull at once as it is when they then set it down that it starts to become waste.
Adding a layer of earth (1-2") to every 15-20" of debris will help the decomposition with added water. If possible using a shredder on the corn stalks will also help.
I hadn't seen your new John Deere until the other day. I need to go back and look, I must have missed a video about a new tractor. That size sure is handy, but I still love the look and the sound of the old AC. Speaking of manure spreaders, this close to election, all you have to do is turn on the TV or computer and there is plenty of manure being spread.
We built are own fork on are front end loader. We made it where we could just slide the stakes into the bucket and that way we could scoop up hay or logs.
Thanks for sharing this video of your compost bins, we have a small compost pile but you have inspired me with your bins and I’m gonna try and build some similar to yours. I can see that I need a tractor with a front end loader lol I have a small tractor but it doesn’t have a loader. Be blessed.we will be watching from South Carolina. Pastor Lon Howle.
It looks like you have a good start with the compost you have. It will be good for the garden, fruit & nut orchards and yes your hay fields. With that you're going to need many bins for compost. 👍
Great job you guys, you will have so much beautiful compost. Your bins look so nice, once you throw in all your garden waste, you will definitely need a third bin. If you had a chipper/shredder will help turn that garden waste and small twigs & brush into pieces that would compost faster. Check out Charles Dowding Compost video. Your black and white billy goat is an impressive beastie looking animal, lol!
Heat is what breaks this stuff down, as a lot of folks have said green stuff is best. Try bush hogging a field to add at the same time you do your clean out , add a layer of green then brown then add water and repeat top the ben with a tarp this will hold heat in . Do this and add water and mix it up each week and it will break down in about 6 weeks time.
With that acreage you have. You need to invest in a chipper/ shredder. That you can use in your compost as I do and as bedding. You need also to through some water in there. Since you said it hasn't rained as much. We get tons of rain here in Louisiana so I have active compost piles all over the place. Microbes need that wet moist universe to do their best.
For composting action on a timely manner you need a herd of something. A dozen assorted animals will take a few yrs to get enough good compost. Right now you have organic waste storage bins
Maybe your compost isn't getting enough air....most bins I've seen don't have the boards quite so close together. Some of the east coast homesteaders have a big pile of compost in the area where their chickens are. They pick and scratch through it and have in chopped down in no time. Of course we have had a lot of rain on the east coast as well so that probably makes a difference too. It seems there are a lot of "recipes" out there for creating good compost. Good luck, Your homestead is so beautiful. Have a Blessed day.
Lack of rain is part of the problem. Lumna Acres makes circles out of cattle panels and fills the circles. As Danny says you need to add some green materials.
Needs to be wetter also, for the compost, also. Make the tines out of rebar, grind the ends in to points and weld them on to a bar and attach to the tractor bucket. Do it in layers also put cardboard on top to keep it warmer.
After a good rain add a tarp to hold the moisture in. Don't know if your close to a rel town but coffee grounds will give u alot of heat to break down alot faster.good luck
You really need to keep it damp, worms won’t come up into dry compost. Also add in some fresh grass clippings and peelings from the kitchen to feed them and encourage them. Compost making isn’t just about throwing straw into a pile, or hay. Also, get some old carpet to cover the compost bins to help stop them drying out, the dark would help encourage worms as well.
You made several good points here but I think if you followed through on turning and watering on a regular basis it’ll compost quicker and you won’t need more room.
WOW - no mouse explosion this year - cats are doing their job. Make a couple of round composters out of fence wire. Al at Lumnah Acres has a few that are easier to take care of. Use the big bins to store all that stuff and build up the smaller ones along with greens - you need the greens and water
After thinking about this - Do you have room to make a windrow and just let it sit for a few months and then turn it - sit for a few more months - turn again. Then use your bins to store it when it is done (1 year). This is how I raise worms in my cellar. I have two big cement trays that I cut the ends off and have sealed them together - comes to six foot. I just add my food mix to the end of the pile - keep going to the other end - harvesting the castings behind the feeding area (about 3 feet) until I get to the other end and then reverse and go back to the other end.
For the goats it might pay to invest into a hammer mill for grinding hay for the them. They would not waste near as much.. To compost you really need to stir and wet the compost once a month, yes manure forks on the loader tractors would be a good investment...
Experience says, add water, regularly. Helps keep things compressed and moisture helps the micro organisms do their work. Also, it looks like balance is out. You have mostly browns, ie: manure, straw, hay. Need to add greens, leaves, veggie scraps, coffee grounds, etc. Just remembering grandma's and it worked quickly and for the most part, odor free. Mixing a little more frequently will help too.
I’m 70 and really enjoy your videos reminds me of my youth and all the things that you do reminds me of trying anything and learning as you go
I LOVE to garden, and if it's relevant to what you're doing at all, spray the pile in layers with water, keeping the pile evenly moist. It will greatly speed up your composting. The microbes need water to live, and they break down the material. Otherwise, they die... they need water and oxygen. The perforated pipe mentioned below is also really helpful to get more oxygen to the middle. It will still biodegrade dry, but much, much slower. The rule of thumb is when you squeeze it, one drop of water comes out. Also, a composting thermometer (3ft long) will help you know if it is heating up. Heating up is the byproduct of the microbes breaking down the material. You should see steam coming off when you turn it. You have absolutely great materials to make wonderful compost --- the chicken and cow manure mixed with brown materials is going to give you an amazing result!!
I would also take the wasted hay up to the pig pen, let them stomp it in the mud, then take it to compost bin ,will compost alot faster
My son has the same John Deere tractor you have. He has the same bucket loader on it, too. He also has a fork lift attachment to use, in place of the bucket loader, and a 62" mower deck, with leaf collection system for it. Greate tools.
Add some green material such as grass clippings and keep it moist
Evan, you really alot more green yard waste to add to the bin. Also, burn the stuff you pulled out and either add the ashes to the composr, or just spread the ashes in your yard. And definitely add some water to your compost to promote the composting process. Great video! The homestead is looking good.
You need to add A LOT of green matter into your compost bin. You have too much brown waste. Add a crap load of lawn clippings would be ideal 👍 !!!
Not to worry, they always throw in their massive garden clean out.
agree..
We use to put table scrapes in our compose.
Layer it in 6 inch layers, green, brown, green , brown
Just found your channel yesterday and have been binge watching. Love it! ... Compost works best with existing compost mixed in. You are still building the ecosystem needed. To help speed it up, you need more moisture, as you know, but also adding some raw dirt to help bring those soil microbs into the pile. Stir it more often to speed it up. The pile needs to "breath" for it to reach the temperature to work efficiently, so fluff it, don't compact it. Also, adding a couple dozen worms would be very helpful. Not sure how good your worm population is with that hard clay you have to work with. Keep up the great work and thanks for bring us along!
You need to add some green and keep it moist. Don’t forget to keep it turned. Once it has broken down to compost it is going to be black gold for your garden. Good luck, I like what you are doing. Keep up the good work.
I was reading all the comments and I agree with the advice you were getting! But I didn't see any comments on putting worms into the compost pile! Worms would really help to make it break down faster! Yes I know someone will say that the heat would kill the worms, but they are pretty smart if it gets to warm or to wet they move to a space that will keep them alive and healthy! I know people have seen worms come out of the ground when it gets to wet for them! So you can see they are servive in pretty much any thing!
A small chipper would help on the heaver stuff.
Three bins would be nice. Always have a bin to mix into then.......😎
You need to water the compost piles to help it along. As dry as it has been up there the water will speed thing along.
Yeah exactly, water and air in balance do the trick otherwise you just end up turning over dusty manure and plant material or maybe worse a soggy smelly mess. This composting thing can really turn into an addiction. If your plan is to use it for your garden, fruit trees AND pasture you may need quite a few boxes as you know one of these boxes is gonna work way down.
@@tmorgan7939 He did water it
16:12
@@gmoncrieff yep, saw that at the end. But even he said over the course of the hot summer he got distracted from keeping it wet which is understandable. With a pile directly in the sun you know if you don't add water or get decent periodic rain it will just take a long time to breakdown into usable compost.
@@gmoncrieff ha did but he needs to water and turn on a regular basis. That way he wouldn’t need more room.
Another homesteader, Lumnah Acres uses cattle fencing panels to make round compost enclosures that sit on the ground. They can be portable and set up in different areas. You could use more storage as you expand. Having a fork type of attachment for the tractor might help with stirring. I think I remember that the tractor is borrowed though.
I am envious. I do not have a loader (and do not have tractor access into the goat barn) on my vintage 8n, so I use a pitch fork to load a small cart and then either take that directly to the compost bin, or load it into a rear-mount carryall on the tractor to dump (which is really handy). That spring clean-out can be a half a day, easy. That being said, I really do not mind mucking things out. Not sure what that says. Lol. My wife laughs at me, but I am keeping my eye out for a cheap, refurbishable spreader too. I want to be able to spread it on the hay field, too, and right now, that is also a manual process. We have had our chickens for 10+ years, but the goats only for 3. We are still learning, to be sure. That is why I enjoy learning along with you. Take care!
Another way to speed up the composting process is to place some PVC pies with holes drilled into them to funnel more oxygen into the center of the pile. You want to place the pipes vertically to allow more oxygen into the center.
Stir and add moisture, looks like you need more nitrogen and need to stir it at least once a week.
I thought the same thing, and putting down that lime is killing the ammonia, which is straight nitrogen. A little ammonia smell is actually a good thing in my opinion.
COMPOST NEEDS A LIL BIT OF COMPOST TO HELP YOUR MATERIAL TO ROT
i try to layer green and brown,,,,, then add water
@@MRcrem1 not soaked tho
@@chrispileski6640 m k k
When you make new feeders or even line the one's you have with fencing like your gate is made with. This will enable the goats to get a mouthful and when they rip the hay mouthful of hay from the feeder a lot less will come out thereby saving you from having all that wasted hay.
Love and Peace. Blessed Be. Doug.
You folks are really working for what you have around there. You’re getting the job done a little easier too and you’re really enjoying yourselves!! Thanks for sharing with us and keep up the good work and videos. 👍👍👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Evan, you might check out Al over at Lumnah Acres. With the addition of some wire panels in his feeder, it looks like he has reduced the goats wasted hay considerably. “DIY Hay Feeder HACK” is a great video of the modifications. He also does a lot of composting. Keep up the great work.👍
Use the weedy stems on the bottom to allow good drainage of the pile, and yes add more water (watering every three days). You should squeeze a handful and have it feel like a recently wrung out sponge.
From the looks of things you're lack of rain is hurting more than anything. The stems and stalks will breakdown and are fine for the compost but as you've said in previous videos it's been dry there. Run a hose over it and get some moisture in there and it will help a lot. Adding green will help also because ultimately you're adding moisture and a seal of sorts when you layer it in. When I clean out the goat barn I'll typically use the bagger on the mower and top the compost with fresh grass or wet leaves.
Yes, I love your concept of NICE and NEAT which is why I love watching you work your homestead. From the house to the Pond everything is always so put together. Maybe during the spring and summer months, seal the bins with plastic to trap in the heat and moisture. That will break it down quicker, I think.
Evan, as you probably know there are many ways on UA-cam illustrated to work and accelerate compost. I layer my compost using vegetation (garden, grass and table scraps but no dairy or cooked meats). Spent coffee grounds mixed with Diatomaceous Earth and brown sugar. You can make this inexpensive by buying in bulk. The spent coffee grounds can be your own or collected from restaurants or coffee shops. Plus occasionally layering dirt from your property. I wet my compost down but do not soak. A temperature gauge with long probe is necessary to monitor the compost making sure to be warm but not hot. Praying for your success and safety.
☝️🙏💪👉...
Hi..... Evan nice to see you, thank you for sharing your video homestead chicken farmer garden 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 👕🐔🐓🐥🐕🐖🐈🌱🐐🎥👍👍👍
ahhhhh .... the joys of pitching manure.... been there ... done that.... lol.... barns look great....
so rewarding to see the labor of your love
Wow love your compost setup. We have the same situation with our animal waste. We have a compost pile of wood chips and just keep adding the old animal bedding and waste. Great job!
I now have two compost areas... weeds, brush, woody stemmed material in one... manure, garden scraps, couple of collections of grass clippings and leaves in the other.... everytime I add in the chicken manure, I burn out the straw. Doesn't take long to burn it down and it really adds to the soil
Just a suggestion from a heavy equipment operator... Why didn't you use the backhoe to pull out the compost, and then use the loader bucket to push it back in? Idk if you thought of it that way, but I believe it may have mixed a little better. Keep up the good work and we enjoy watching you guys on your farm.
you need a third bin for the mixing of compost
Some it whith water it will help it. Compost faster
I have a 4 bin setup and always keep one empty for turning.
Agreed at least 3 bins, you can then take the top material from a full bin into the empty bin , and then add the lower composted material on top this quickens up the composting time.
Building a 9 bin in a u shape to store and mix browns and greens, my greens are grass clippings from 3 acres, water meal from the pond, manures from pigs chickens and rabbits. Water meal sets in a cover bucket for a week smells just like cow manure😊, Hogs eat the water meal to supplement their feed when they run out of grass
Love seeing all your farm equipment, brings back a lot of memories. Looks like the barn cats 🐈 were a good idea. Didn’t see any mice this time! LOL!! 😀
Good morning. 🤗
Nice video. The goats keep you busy, but then there's always something to do on a farm. 👏👏
Be well.
Yep you clean out appeared to be easier this year than last year.
As most viewers think, both piles look very dry. Moisture is necessary for thing or rot and that is what composting is all about. That garden hose at the end will do little good in the time you will tolerate spraying. You should maybe run a line from the pond to a "lawn sprinkler" for 4 or 5 hours to soak it(them) good and not using the precious well water. Also may I suggest using some of it to break up that clay "lawn" and make your wife pleased with "her" lawn. I do like your videos and both understand and respect the effort and learning curve you are going through. We quit the family farm in the 1950s and I still regret it to a degree except when I think of the family I have and that would have been different had I stayed there.
Evan I never saw a bucket look like that , and i have lots tractor in my life and I'm 73 .years old .
The allis chalmers bucket is an old trip bucket, that was converted to hydraulic.
Hey even nice tractor looks like a 1025E John deer I have a 1023E love it I got a cab for mine.
Awesome video and stay safe
As someone who experimented with all kinds of methods, I want to tell you that you don't have to do all that stuff you listed at the end. Especially since you don't have any kind of a pressing need for quick compost. But if you change just one thing, it should be this: cover the piles.
The perfect green-brown balance, chopping up the materials, turning, constant watering, all help to compost quicker. But they're not necessary. You can compost without turning, and you can compost if the balance leans toward brown. It'll take longer, but it saves you a lot of effort. The quality won't suffer, if anything, it's better when it's more fungal (brown material is broken down by fungi, not bacteria, in a slower but also more nutrient efficient process). And even better if it fills up with earthworms. If it dries out completely, that's bad (the composting, both fungal and bacterial, stops almost completely and the worms all leave), but not the end of the world. It'll just slowly start back up again when it gets water (even just from ambient humidity). Still, if you have the water, it's worth watering at least enough to keep the core from drying out completely. That, by itself, reduces your time frame to a single year. Keep the center moist while it's still warm out, and it should go a long way towards breaking down. The fungi will keep working at it through the winter (it's a big pile, it won't freeze through), and it'll be finished up by worms as things warm up in the spring. Not the whole thing, but the middle of it will be usable compost for spring planting.
However, there is one thing you cannot do: leave it uncovered. One big rain will wash away the nutrients, and your compost will be an empty husk, not fertile at all. This even happens when people buy in compost and then leave it out in a pile for a month. By the time they use it, it's ruined. You have to tarp it (or build a roof, but the tarp is better because it also keeps it from drying out). Also, while the rain is the main way to ruin compost, sunlight is bad too. It causes nutrients to degrade and evaporate, in the surface layer at least. Compost is not a very stable thing, especially the nitrogen in it can run off fairly easily. Exposure to the elements is not good for it, it needs to be protected.
The evolution of the editing, video quality, and music selections have been very impressive. I've watched your videos since they began (reloading), and also am interested in the farm/yard/tree work that is done. Nice job, Evan and Rebekka.
awesome video!. love what ur both doing. my new fav channel.
Green grass also speeds up the process, when I sweep leaves in the fall I make sure to grab a load or two of fresh green grass clippings to stir in, the heat and moisture works well
Suggestion maybe get a wood or leaf chipper, probably a wood chipper would workout better to chipp up heavier more fiborous material ex corn stalks. Chipping up any small limbs would also make good mulch or organic matter for compost piles. Also if you can get any leaves chip them up instead of leaving them whole so they will breakdown faster. Great to add to compost piles or keep separate to make leaf mold, mix in wood chips into leaves for leaf mold or pet on regular compost. Get coffee grounds if you can to add to compost will mold but that's OK. Good nitrogen source also helps loosen clay soil. Some people cover compost piles with cardboard or tarps to hold in moisture
Looking like it working good
great video Evan
Take a look at how Charles Douwding or Richard Perkins do this.
It's not about turning it often but the green and brouwn ratio.
Start throwing in more stuff weed's grass clippings, kichen waste etc etc.
If your pile is moist enough you could think about adding some composting worm's (you can order them online).
Putting a tarp over it should help retaining it's moisture and perhaps some perverated piping to help with the air flow.
Adding a bin would be a good idea, that way you can scoop from one bin to the next one with the tractor and mix it better.
Edibleacres uses chickens to speed up the composting process could also be intresting for you.
Clean out the stables in to a area where the chickens have access to it that could also be the location where you throw your kichen scrap's and clean that out in to the composting bin's.
That way i am sure you would have verry nice compost within a year.
And a manure scoop would be a great addition, same principle of what you are using now but with prong's.
You might try using your post hole auger to poke into your compost pile and stir stuff around. It would probably go in close to horizontal. You need to get the decomposing stuff mixed in with the dry newer stuff. Also as you have mentioned many times, it has been a dry year.
He needs to keep compost pile moist to aide in breakdown. Also the smaller the pieces of material the quicker they will break down. Ex. corn stalks, cobs, leaves grind up if possible. Looks like when cleaning out barn areas you have to much have to much hay in relation to manure for it to compost without a really long periods of time. Also your need to keep it moist to aide in the breakdown. Can you get leaves to use to either add to your compost pile or keep separate to make leaf mold.
Also suggest you check out I AM ORGANIC GARDENING if you want some real good advice on gardening. Marc is on organic commercial gardener in NJ. His videos go back about 10yrs on his experiences using various methods in this farm. He explains how & why he started farming like this ( his wife's health problems). I learned a lot from him!
Also Gardener Scott has a lot of good information. I've learned a lot from him too!
I would recommend a New Idea ground driven spreader. Thanks for sharing your journey!
You need to layer your compost. Fresh cut grass. Then leaves, then you straw and manure. Water it. Then layer again the same way. That way you can have your compost heat up and break down in a few months instead of the way it’s going
you guys work well together!
If you dump some water on it once a week it should decompose faster
Check out Lumnah Acers, they have round areas, ie wire with t posts, then a couple of times a year they flip it. They have goats, chickens and pigs. The chickens actually help flip the piles, they also get coffee grounds ect from local shops as well as compost able food scraps.
Great job! That's alot of work but good to have it done! You two have a beautiful homestead!!! ♡♡♡♡
Cover your compost with ground cover, the old cover from your gardens will do it will allow moisture in the compost will stay moist
You need a lot more greens and a loooota water. A pile that big and dense I'd say go to your pond and fill a few 55gal barrels to the very top and add em when you stir it every week. Head down to the bait and tackle shop and get a few pails of nightcrawlers while you're at it.
This is where you need a third bay for compost. Then you could turn it over into a fresh open bay.
I love your compost bins! If I was you just build another one at the end and have three nice compost bins!
They are much too dry. They need green and or kitchen scraps to get moisture, if not just water good once or twice a month. I put the rufage like corn stalks on the very bottom to allow for air. Compost can be tricky! You and your wife have such a beautiful place and work so hard to keep it beautiful. I admire you both.
Spray with a hose while mixing. And spray out tractor grill to prevent over heating.
Add coffee grinds to compost, rabbit poo is great too. You can ask local restaurants for their food waste to add to compost piles for free.
Your compost bins require oxygen, moisture, green manure, leaves & kitchen waste added to hay/straw/ woodchips. You have a good looking setup. Suggest 3/4" scrap wood shims between your slats to allow air filtration to pile. Also add a little lime 2 times per year to aid in break down of materials. Enjoy your channel
Get a piece of pipe about four foot long and adapt a hose
fitting on one end.
Then you can poke it into the compost pile to get water down deep.
good luck with it.
Hello. I'm in southern Illinois too. I discovered your channel about a month ago & have been enjoying watching your videos. I love your barn with all of the goat & chicken stalls that you have made. I'd love to have a barn like that, so I can get some goats. You might want to look into getting a grapple attachment for your tractor, that'll scoop that hay right up. It would even scoop up any of that tree brush that you've been cutting down. You guys have a very beautiful property.
Dig some holes in the compost, pour some water to percolate to all the corners that may help compost better. Some people use drip irrigation/ water dripping around the pile.
The key to breaking down woody materials on a farm is to chip it then put it in an outdoor space the chickens can get to as they will add nitrogen rich manure and constantly mix it as they search for bugs and grain.
Make yourself a cleanout wagon that you can roll into the barn and then pickup with the tractor to dump. 3 fixed sides on the wagon and a removable side so you can both load easier and unload by dumping. Some tie down spots to make chaining it to the bucket for the dumping easy and pocket for the bucket forks.
put a section of field fencing into the hay feeder so they can only pull smaller bits out at a time. Just enough room to reach in and bite some of the hay in the feeder but it reduces the size they can pull at once as it is when they then set it down that it starts to become waste.
A third bin Ewan. Plus, once it's composted thoroughly the piles will be a lot smaller & will probably fit in your raised beds.
Oops *Evan.
Adding a layer of earth (1-2") to every 15-20" of debris will help the decomposition with added water. If possible using a shredder on the corn stalks will also help.
I hadn't seen your new John Deere until the other day. I need to go back and look, I must have missed a video about a new tractor. That size sure is handy, but I still love the look and the sound of the old AC. Speaking of manure spreaders, this close to election, all you have to do is turn on the TV or computer and there is plenty of manure being spread.
We built are own fork on are front end loader. We made it where we could just slide the stakes into the bucket and that way we could scoop up hay or logs.
Evan next time you have two tractors with buckets use the smaller tractor to push manure ect, into bigger bucket
Thanks for sharing this video of your compost bins, we have a small compost pile but you have inspired me with your bins and I’m gonna try and build some similar to yours. I can see that I need a tractor with a front end loader lol I have a small tractor but it doesn’t have a loader. Be blessed.we will be watching from South Carolina. Pastor Lon Howle.
Great video and the compost bins do look nice and adding another one would be good since you filled those 2 that fast maybe even 2 more !!
fun to watch u try to figure it out
It looks like you have a good start with the compost you have. It will be good for the garden, fruit & nut orchards and yes your hay fields. With that you're going to need many bins for compost. 👍
We used a product called FERTO to speed the break down. You mix it and spray the layers as you fill the bin.
You could also tarp the bins to help keep moisture in.
Great job you guys, you will have so much beautiful compost. Your bins look so nice, once you throw in all your garden waste, you will definitely need a third bin. If you had a chipper/shredder will help turn that garden waste and small twigs & brush into pieces that would compost faster. Check out Charles Dowding Compost video. Your black and white billy goat is an impressive beastie looking animal, lol!
Hey even next time try moving all the goals stuff out and put your rake on the back of the tractor to pull all the hay out then scoop it up 👌
Heat is what breaks this stuff down, as a lot of folks have said green stuff is best. Try bush hogging a field to add at the same time you do your clean out , add a layer of green then brown then add water and repeat top the ben with a tarp this will hold heat in . Do this and add water and mix it up each week and it will break down in about 6 weeks time.
I had an idea about using the forklift tines to occasionally break-up the mass in the bin! Maybe not a good idea but just a thought!
With that acreage you have. You need to invest in a chipper/ shredder. That you can use in your compost as I do and as bedding. You need also to through some water in there. Since you said it hasn't rained as much. We get tons of rain here in Louisiana so I have active compost piles all over the place. Microbes need that wet moist universe to do their best.
For composting action on a timely manner you need a herd of something. A dozen assorted animals will take a few yrs to get enough good compost. Right now you have organic waste storage bins
Maybe your compost isn't getting enough air....most bins I've seen don't have the boards quite so close together. Some of the east coast homesteaders have a big pile of compost in the area where their chickens are. They pick and scratch through it and have in chopped down in no time. Of course we have had a lot of rain on the east coast as well so that probably makes a difference too. It seems there are a lot of "recipes" out there for creating good compost. Good luck, Your homestead is so beautiful. Have a Blessed day.
Lack of rain is part of the problem. Lumna Acres makes circles out of cattle panels and fills the circles. As Danny says you need to add some green materials.
Needs to be wetter also, for the compost, also. Make the tines out of rebar, grind the ends in to points and weld them on to a bar and attach to the tractor bucket. Do it in layers also put cardboard on top to keep it warmer.
Seems to me you are liking that little John Deere!
Good video
Vous avez bien travailler et tout ça sa feras un bon compost bravo quel courage vous avez super forme 😊🤗🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷bisous de France
After a good rain add a tarp to hold the moisture in. Don't know if your close to a rel town but coffee grounds will give u alot of heat to break down alot faster.good luck
Silage forks for the tractor.
You really need to keep it damp, worms won’t come up into dry compost. Also add in some fresh grass clippings and peelings from the kitchen to feed them and encourage them.
Compost making isn’t just about throwing straw into a pile, or hay.
Also, get some old carpet to cover the compost bins to help stop them drying out, the dark would help encourage worms as well.
You made several good points here but I think if you followed through on turning and watering on a regular basis it’ll compost quicker and you won’t need more room.
WOW - no mouse explosion this year - cats are doing their job. Make a couple of round composters out of fence wire. Al at Lumnah Acres has a few that are easier to take care of. Use the big bins to store all that stuff and build up the smaller ones along with greens - you need the greens and water
After thinking about this - Do you have room to make a windrow and just let it sit for a few months and then turn it - sit for a few more months - turn again. Then use your bins to store it when it is done (1 year).
This is how I raise worms in my cellar. I have two big cement trays that I cut the ends off and have sealed them together - comes to six foot. I just add my food mix to the end of the pile - keep going to the other end - harvesting the castings behind the feeding area (about 3 feet) until I get to the other end and then reverse and go back to the other end.
Goodness did he just become a farmer before turning on record? It's like watching the invention of a wheel when it's been done for thousands of years.
you need to water it as you are building it, that would speed up the process a lot. Very nice bins btw
What you need is a 3 in 1 bucket!!!! That will work for you no matter what your doing
As others have said, stir and add moisture. Without moisture it isn't going to do much.
For the goats it might pay to invest into a hammer mill for grinding hay for the them. They would not waste near as much..
To compost you really need to stir and wet the compost once a month, yes manure forks on the loader tractors would be a good investment...
Yes you definitely need the JD 2025.