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I am sure most of us are familiar with Cow dung and horse dung in gardening and farming. But How to use Goat Dung or the Sheep Dung? Yes, in this episode we will look into the 10 benefits of using goat droppings for enriching your soil, and whether we can use fresh goat pellets directly on your plants without decomposing.
Many studies and research articles on goat dung as a fertilizer have been published in international journals. All of them say goat manure is one of the best animal manures for healthy soil and plants, especially for backyard organic vegetable gardening. If you have a couple of goats for their milk or whatever purpose, you should never throw away their droppings. You will learn a lot of important stuff about goat dung by the end of this video. Please watch it till the end and learn how to use it and how much to use in your home gardening or container gardening.
- If you’re struggling to start your garden and grow your own vegetables and flowers, this bag of composted cow manure has your back
- Made of composted cow manure: organic and has nutrients that are gradually released, ensuring it doesn’t burn tender roots
Why Goat Dung?
Goat or sheep pellets are very much dry compared with cow dung or horse dung. Hence, these are very easy to collect or store.
Virtually Odorless
It is virtually odorless and hence easy to work with and easy to spread on your soil directly. You cannot directly apply cow dung or horse dung without decomposing because this can burn your plants.
Relatively Free of Insects
It’s relatively free of insects and maggots unlike cow dung. However, drying in sunlight for 2 to 3 days before using or storing is always better.
Cheap and Best Organic Fertilizer
It’s a cheap and best organic fertilizer for your plants. The pellets can be used for direct applications to flower and vegetable gardens without the fear of getting your plants burnt.
Nutrient-Rich
Goat pellets contain lots of nutrients, the major NPK elements – Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium, and many trace elements like Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Manganese, and many others. The nitrogen value may be higher than cow dung or horse dung, especially when these goat pellets are mixed with goats’ urine, whether by default or by using some goat beds specially created to increase its nitrogen value. In this case, composting this prior to application is recommended.
Increases Flowering and Fruiting
This manure increases flowering and fruiting and promotes overall plant growth. Goat droppings can be used in nearly any type of garden, including that of flowering and fruiting plants.
Compost Enrichment
Use goat droppings in your compost bin. It not only enriches your final compost value, but it also decomposes very quickly. This is because pelletized droppings allow more airflow into compost piles, which speeds up composting time as well.
Low-Cost Pure Organic Fertilizer
It’s a low-cost pure organic fertilizer for your vegetable gardening. You can get it for almost free, especially when you visit any rural area, or you can also get it for free in cities. You know how I collected these pellets? These were collected during the Bakrid festival where you see a lot of sheep brought into the city and homes. You get lots of this to collect and save for the whole year. For me, this is the most important benefit because I never use any chemicals for my vegetable gardening, not even a chemical pesticide.
Excellent Soil Conditioner
Goat dung is also an excellent soil conditioner: you can mix it while making your potting mix, similar to how to add decomposed cow dung into your mix. You can watch a related video HERE.
Mulching
For beginners, a mulch is a layer of material applied to the top surface of soil to prevent moisture evaporation and reduce weed growth. Materials can include grass clippings, twigs, wood chips, bark chips, dry leaves, hay, and so on.
Caution with Fresh Sheep Droppings
One caution regarding fresh sheep droppings or any animal manure for that matter – Just because goat manure is a natural product doesn’t mean it’s completely safe. They can release disease-causing microorganisms into the food chain that can make you sick. So better always sun dry completely for 2-3 days before application or compost it and then use it.
How to Use Goat Dung and How Much to Use?
This is an organic fertilizer. You can use it similar to how you use cow dung or horse dung. A handful of this on a container once every 15 days for flowering plants or once every 30 days for your other general plants. Make sure you apply this after raking or tilling the top layer of your soil.
So, there we have it folks, that was a short article on goat or sheep dung as fertilizer in gardening.
References: https://scialert.net/fulltextmobile/?doi=ijss.2007.142.147
Please watch this video below showing you how to use goat dung for plants.
Last update on 2024-11-07 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API