6 Unlikely Places to Find Manure for Free – Give Your Garden a Boost With a Dose of Doo

Nothing in nature is entirely yucky, not even livestock manure. While you may prefer not to have mature all over your boots, it can be the best thing that ever happened to your soil. The manure from barnyard animals like cows, horses, sheep and even chickens has many benefits for your garden.

Manure renews and renovates your garden soil, improving its texture, structure and fertility. It can also feed the soil by adding essential nutrients and organic matter. But in case you haven’t checked lately, manure can cost a pretty penny at the store. Sure, it’s already been composted and bagged up neatly, like this composted manure from Home Depot.

But if you have a big garden and will need large amounts of manure, it pays to look around for a free source of animal doo to give your soil a boost. Here are some unlikely places to find manure for free.

The Magic of Manure

Manure is a splendid thing when you add it to the soil of your vegetable garden. It’s a mess in the barnyard but it does so many positive things as a soil amendment. Composted manure supplies the big three nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, as well as a variety of micronutrients.

And when animal manure is blended into your garden as soil amendment, it ups the organic matter content. That means better soil structure, drainage, and water retention in sandy soil. Fresh manure won’t work because it contains harmful pathogens. But once it’s composted, it’s golden.

Be Careful When Using Manure

Although manure is a wonderful additive for soil, there are some precautions to keep in mind. Weigh the pros and cons of using manure before you start your search for free sources:

• Be picky about your source. Never use cat, dog, pig manure, or human waste in vegetable gardens or compost piles. These types of manure can contain parasites. Horse, cow, sheep, rabbit, chicken, goat, alpaca, and llama manure are fine.
• But if the barnyard animals were fed hay treated with pesticides or herbicides, their manure will contain those substances as well. Make sure your manure comes from animals that were not fed contaminated hay.
• Be sure the manure you collect is properly composted. Aged compost is not the same thing. People can become sick and even die if they eat produce infected by parasites and bacteria like E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria. Manure can contain these, but proper composting will kill the pathogens. You’ll need to get your compost pile to reach temperatures between 113-140°F (45-60°C) for at least a few weeks to kill these harmful pathogens. You’ll also have to turn the pile so all the manure has been exposed to these temperatures.
• Manure, particularly horse manure, may contain high amounts of viable weed seeds. This can create a weed problem in your garden. However, composting manure at 140°F (60°C) will kill weed seeds.

Shop Different Types of Manure

Where to Get Free Manure

Low-cost manure is better than pricey manure, but free manure is better yet. Though you may not find as many ads on Nextdoor offering free manure as free compost, with a little work you may be able to locate some. Here are a few ideas about where to find free manure to get you started:

1. Get Some Livestock

If you have enough space for a couple cows or horses, you probably won’t be looking far and wide for free manure. But even if you don't want to become a farmer, anyone with a relatively large backyard can welcome some chickens or rabbits into their family. Even a half dozen chickens in your backyard can, over time, provide sufficient manure to amend a small veggie garden.

2. Local Fairgrounds & Showgrounds

Have you ever been to a county fair? How about a horse show or rodeo? Both fairgrounds and showgrounds invite barnyard animals to the premises. And those animals have to heed nature’s call during their time there. The people who run these venues may be thrilled to have a third party clearing out dirty bedding or mucking out the stalls.

3. Zoos & Wildlife Parks

Remember that Simon and Garfunkel song, At the Zoo? “Something tells me it’s all happening at the zoo / I do believe it, I do believe it's true.”

Now I can’t swear that these singers were referring to obtaining free manure for the garden, but the zoo is a great place to ask. Some zoos give away composted manure from their herbivores. And if they haven’t started this program, it costs nothing to suggest it.

4. Large Animal Veterinary Clinics

Many suburban and urban gardeners may not even know that there are special veterinarians that care for only large animals. Large animal vet clinics are more common in rural areas where there are cows, horses, goats, and other domesticated animals that are bigger than your average cat or dog. If you can find a clinic near you that boards the livestock they treat, they may be happy to allow you to collect the manure for free use in your garden.

5. Mounted Police Patrol Stables

Here in San Francisco, we have a mounted police unit and have had one continuously since 1874. The officers assist patrols all over the city, with their height giving them a clear view of crowds. They also show up for city parades.

The horses are housed at the Fred C. Egan Police Stables in Golden Gate Park and they produce significant amounts of manure. Asking if you can collect some at the mounted patrol stables – in San Francisco or any other city – is a great way to get free manure for your garden.

6. Alpaca or Llama Farms

Most of us don’t include alpaca or llamas in our definition of barnyard animals, but their droppings are just as good for your garden as cow manure or rabbit manure. These animals also tend to poop in communal dung piles, making harvesting the manure faster and easier. Find out if there are any small-scale alpaca or llama farms near where you live and use this unusual, but nutritious type of manure in your garden soil.