{"id":6839,"date":"2012-08-10T04:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/?p=6839"},"modified":"2012-08-09T22:51:10","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T04:51:10","slug":"poo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2012\/08\/10\/poo\/","title":{"rendered":"Poo!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patty Wilber<\/em><\/p>\n

Seven hundred bales of hay<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Will make tons of….poo.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feed alfalfa and grass hay<\/strong> and not much else (although I just added that food grade diatomaceous earth).\u00a0 Hay is leaves and stems, so it has a lot of “fiber” (cellulose).\u00a0 A fair amount of it passes from mouth to exit incompletely digested, and comes out as…manure… lots of manure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

As soon as you pick it up, more appears!<\/p><\/div>\n

Cellulose<\/strong> is the most abundant organic molecule on Earth and it makes up cell walls of plants.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Animals do not make the enzyme necessary<\/strong> to digest cellulose, but herbivores like cows and\u00a0 horses have a wealth of microbes in their guts that DO make that enzyme (cellulase). (And so do wood eaters like termites…speaking of which, termites produce methane as a by-product of cellulose digestion, so are a significant source of air pollution…)<\/p>\n

Cows have a rumen<\/strong> (the ol’ four-parted stomach) where the major cellulose digesters live.\u00a0 Lots of cellulose is broken down into glucose there and then absorbed in the small intestine (where most nutrients are absorbed).\u00a0 This is pretty efficient, so cows can live on diets very high in cellulose.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Horses, on the other hand,<\/strong> are “hind gut digesters”.\u00a0 Most of their cellulose degrading bacteria live in their cecum which is AFTER the small intestine. Thus, horses are not as efficient and for optimal health, require a higher quality diet (i.e. less roughage)\u00a0 than cows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are many newer pelleted feeds<\/strong> on the market for horses.\u00a0 They provide nutrition that is more digestible\u00a0 and thus there is less…poo.<\/p>\n

They are also costly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, I feed lots of hay and get lots of …by-product…<\/strong>which has to be picked up every day.<\/p>\n

It is put into the compost bins,<\/strong> watered and covered.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

One nearly empty bin and one full waiting for water and then covering.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

As the manure degrades, the pile shrinks! The pile to the right is the oldest.<\/p><\/div>\n

Due to our dry weather<\/strong> and the fact that I do not re-water, we do not get total breakdown, but not bad.<\/p>\n

After a few months,<\/strong> the bins get emptied and the compost is spread around the property using the tractor!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

What is that on the tractor?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Poo!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Manure, spread around. If there'd been more rain, more would have grown here.<\/p><\/div>\n

Brings a whole new level of meaning to “crappy job!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do ya like them road apples?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patty Wilber Seven hundred bales of hay Will make tons of….poo. I feed alfalfa and grass hay and not much else (although I just added that food grade diatomaceous earth).\u00a0 Hay is leaves and stems, so it has a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[89,158],"class_list":["post-6839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-write-horse","tag-horses","tag-the-write-horse"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sb2lc3-poo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15243,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2018\/02\/16\/twenty-five-pounds-a-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":0},"title":"Twenty-five Pounds a Day","author":"BlogPatty","date":"1802.16","format":false,"excerpt":"By Patty Wilber I was listening to a Stuff You Should Know podcast called \"The Wind Cries Typhoid Mary\" and it mentioned the unsanitary conditions in New York City in the 1800's.\u00a0 They estimated the number of horses, determined the amount of poop\/horse\/day to be about 25 pounds, and concluded\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Write Horse"","block_context":{"text":"The Write Horse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-write-horse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/TSLT310780K_128537.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":833,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2010\/03\/10\/the-fine-art-of-manure-landscaping\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":1},"title":"The Fine Art of Manure Landscaping","author":"Doranna","date":"1003.10","format":false,"excerpt":"posted on Wednesday I love my new barn. I especially love my new barn on nights when I'm settling down to sleep and I suddenly think the dreaded thought: Did I close the hay stall door? And then I pad through the darkness to the office, flip on the back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DuncanHorse"","block_context":{"text":"DuncanHorse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/duncanhorse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Noble One Surveys His Domain","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/100307rained.on_.TN_.121.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17513,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2020\/02\/07\/what-to-do-with-all-this-poo\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":2},"title":"What to do with all this poo?","author":"BlogPatty","date":"2002.07","format":false,"excerpt":"By Patty Wilber Well, it is still January, and unsurprisingly, it is still cold (whine), but this obviously has had no bearing on the manure producing ability of our equines. Man, it is a lot of poo.\u00a0 So, I have been contemplating new and novel (to us) ways to use\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Write Horse"","block_context":{"text":"The Write Horse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-write-horse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/20200201_174006-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7474,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2012\/11\/30\/the-smell-of-horse\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":3},"title":"The Smell of Horse","author":"BlogPatty","date":"1211.30","format":false,"excerpt":"By Patty Wilber I left a little fold up umbrella on the counter last week and it got stuck in a sweatshirt that I took to the barn.\u00a0 I put on the sweatshirt when the wind picked up,\u00a0 but left the umbrella down there\u00a0 a day or two before I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Write Horse"","block_context":{"text":"The Write Horse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-write-horse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/t2.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQi7GsWhRbAek59cXNTKvZznfO7bl0_vhO0WEkF_uCJvqj5p8C7yA","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16673,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2019\/04\/26\/easter-weekend-in-phoenix\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":4},"title":"Easter Weekend in Phoenix","author":"BlogPatty","date":"1904.26","format":false,"excerpt":"By Patty Wilber I got Lucy's results from the Paint Pinto Palomino Buckskin All Breed show. I guess I was overly critical.\u00a0 In the all breed open stock horse pattern class where I said she was accurate but not as smooth as I would like...she got 2nd under both judges!\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Write Horse"","block_context":{"text":"The Write Horse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-write-horse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/20190411_170318-300x179.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18557,"url":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/2021\/05\/28\/landscaping\/","url_meta":{"origin":6839,"position":5},"title":"Landscaping around the place","author":"BlogPatty","date":"2105.28","format":false,"excerpt":"By Patty Wilber Horses generate something like 25 pounds of manure per day. Our composting bins had filled up.\u00a0 Since I had to use the tractor to open up a bin anyway, I had incentive to get some other dirt work done!\u00a0 I needed to fill in the sloped spots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Write Horse"","block_context":{"text":"The Write Horse","link":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/category\/the-write-horse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/20210526_191528-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/20210526_191528-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/20210526_191528-300x225.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/20210526_191528-300x225.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6839"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6860,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6839\/revisions\/6860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.changespell.com\/wordplay\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}