"Organic" fertilizers

[AMKuska]

Most of you here don't know me, but if you did you would know that my one, big dream is to own a small organic farm. This year as I cheerfully went out to attempt yet another garden, my husband dashed all my hopes of making my garden organic by pointing out my steer manure might not be.

There's nothing on the label of the bags that say organic and its steer manure "and compost" who knows what the compost contains?

So now I'm confused, because I didn't think there could be anything more organic than cow poo. What exactly is "organic"? I tried looking it up on the USDA website, but their explanations only made me even more confused. (It can only come from the organic list, but I can't find the list!)

Any thoughts or ideas on making sure my garden (next year anyway) really is organic?

 

[baymule]

Most steer manure comes from feedlots. The cattle are not fed an organic diet. And most likely, are fed GMO feeds and antibiotics.

The best way to get organic manure is to find someone with horses or cattle that you can go scoop the poop. But even that is no guarantee. Just about all animal feeds are GMO, the same as what's on the grocery store shelves. Box of cereal anyone?

I buy feed for my horses and for my chickens. I use their manure in compost, mixed with leaves and grass clippings. I try to be as organic as I can, but it is so hard to totally avoid herbicides and pesticides because they are in everything.

 

[AMKuska]

So it's the animal feed that makes it less desirable. I didn't know that it was GMO grain in the feed. When I looked at the ingredients of the bag of chicken feed I bought for the chickens I was really disappointed with it. I know quite a bit about dog nutrition, so when I got chickens the first thing I did was flip over the bag and take a look at the ingredients. On every generic (re: affordable) bag of chicken food I found, the ingredients were deplorable. From what I can see, most chicken feed consists of the dust they sweep up off the floor after producing real food. >_>

This year I've set aside some space in my garden for chicken food. I'm growing them corn and sunflower seeds specifically, and they can have what ever garden scraps are leftover from the things we share. I also let them out to forage in my backyard every day. It's the best I can do right now.

There's a stable right down the road from me. Maybe they'll let me pick their pastures for them

 

[baymule]

Most people have no idea what's really in their food. I applaud you for trying to grow a garden and eat better. We roll a round bale of hay out of the truck bed for our horses and drop a hay ring over it. Horses are inherently lazy, why put in more effort than necessary? They obligingly eat the hay and poop close by, making it much easier to scoop the poop! I have a 12'x8' cow panel hoop run for the chickens plus a 8'x7' coop, both of which I fill with leaves, grass clippings, corn shucks and cobs, pea hulls, garden trimmings, anything and everything vegetable. What they don't eat, they scratch to bits and poop all over, making me garden gold!

Make sure you compost the horse manure real real good. A lot of weed seeds pass through their gut and grow better in your garden then they ever grew in the pasture!

 

[AMKuska]

It's kind of unfair that there is so much in the world labeled as food, and so little of it is any good. Do you ever feel concerned about dewormer etc. in your horses manure?

 

[seedcorn]

Organic used to be a life style. Now (in my never to be humble opinion) it's a marketing tool.

My garden is not organic but I don't use herbicides but do use commercial feed for chickens and their manure goes where I plant sweet corn. I also use commercial fertilizer. My garden is more environmentally friendly than organic who use Bt, approved chemistry, and may over dose ground with P, K, and N. Not to mention the micro nutrients!

Do the best you can, avoid obvious problems, you'll be fine. If you want to sell extra, call it whatever you want (can't organic unless you get permits) and enjoy.

 

[baymule]

I am careful with the wormers. I don't over do it, especially in the summer when the dung beetles are active. I don't use the Bt either. I do the best I can to provide healthy food for us, but unless we go live in a bubble, it is too hard to avoid everything. (the bubble would be plastic and contaminate, too) LOL

AMKusa, gardening is a learning curve. We are all still learning. You might grow more cucumbers than you can eat, pickle or give away, only to have them shrivel and die the next year. Like seedcorn says, do the best you can. It will still be way better than what you buy at the store!

 

[Smart Red]

The only way you can be sure of the 'organic' steer is to know the steer and its environment. That does not mean you can't use it and grow your food in an organic way. My problem with bagged steer manure was all the rocks I brought into my yard when I used it. Until then, my soil was rock free.

I put newspapers down in the front of the house garden and covered them with "composted steer manure". Sold by weight, I found there were more small rocks than compost in the bags DH used while I was laying newspapers. I took the unopened bags back for a refund.

 

[digitS']

Gosh, I wish I could take my rocks in for cash . Actually, I could - gravel pits all around. Having rocks in bagged manure is bad business.

Here is the organization that maintains the standards, each state agency can then make their own determination. Gets a little complicated to gain & keep farm certification. OMRI (link)

They don't seem to worry much about manure and it's a little surprising since they seem to fret about everything else. I'm sure it is difficult to set standards and what I really really don't want to see happen is for the food industry to get control of its own regulations and regulation.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

It's kind of unfair that there is so much in the world labeled as food, and so little of it is any good. Do you ever feel concerned about dewormer etc. in your horses manure?

Several of us on here have very strong feelings about "food" and what passes for food now days. I could rant for hours about food additives and "natural flavors."
Use your own chicken manure/compost as much as possible. Yes, it has some GMO in it, but you can limit the amount to some extent. Just know you can't get rid of all of it. We (humans) are beyond that, I think.
I have just adopted the attitude that I do what I can, and try to not worry about what I can't change. Kind of like the Serenity Prayer.
If you have the room and are wanting to grow organically for sale, and have it labeled "organic" you will need to dig a little deeper and find out what the regs are. I think the ground has to have had no non-organic stuff put on it for 5 years or so.
If you are just doing it for yourself, you can choose your battles. I hope you have good luck. How much land do you have to work with?