Compost Fire

Who says you need coal to get a little heat, apparently a mixture of hay and sheep manure work as well.

I typically build a compost pile, which is really just hay waste and sheep manure off my HUA, and put it up into a big pile, and then in the Spring go haul it off to my fields for incorporating. It is illegal in Maine to spread manure on your fields from Dec 1st through March 15th, so I clean it up in the Spring.

Today it caught fire.

I am not that concerned about it. With all the snow we have, it will not burn anything, and it is not like it kicks off a lot of embers anyway. Just a lot of smoke and a little heat. Granted it does smell a bit from the manure, but at least this Spring the pile will be a whole lot smaller, and I will have a whole lot less mess to deal with.

Spontaneous Poop Combustion! :-O

Wow, lots of heat.

Is that really a fire or is that just to steaming heap of *censored*

Wouldn't turning it with the loader and mixing in some snow put it out and save some nitrogen?

Yeah it probably would go out pretty easily, but I will let it burn itself out as there will be a lot less mes to clean up in the Spring as it burns down.

Upon reflection of the problem though, I think I will official call it Capital Hill; why it is the same thing really; a steaming, heaping pile of over-heated...shitakkie mushrooms! (why, what did you think I was going to say anyway? )

One thing is for sure, my place now smells like Ireland where they burn peat for heat. It just has this smell to it that is not unlike burning manure piles!

NoSmoke wrote:One thing is for sure, my place now smells like Ireland where they burn peat for heat. It just has this smell to it that is not unlike burning manure piles!

Yes, that stuff does have its own unique aroma. Like burning horns off . . .

The local fire company will be on you in no time.
Neighbors will call because of that "there's a barn on fire somewhere smell".

Looks like you recently added more or moved it around etc....

How long has it been since you messed with the pile? How long did it take for it to heat up/start smoking?

I have been pushing it into a pile since October. The sheep have a hay bale in a rack and eat off that, but when they are done with a bale, I push the remainder up into a pile and grab a new bale. There is a lot there because sheep waste a lot of hay, but when they get bored they will walk over and nibble on the better parts of the hay. By November it starts steaming, enough so that any snow on top of it starts melting, so it gets pretty warm fairly quick.

You are right though, I did add more hay to it yesterday. I shoved all the snow off the HUA, being careful to shove the snow around the hay rack first, then I shoved the hay into the pile. I normally would have waited a day or so for the sheep to chew on the bale more, but with so much snow on top of it, and the sheep about ready to lamb, I did not them pawing through snow to get something to eat. So I shoved a pretty big charge of it into the pile and just gave them a fresh bale.

No one will call the fire department though, everyone around me is family, and anyone driving by just wouldn't care. I clear a lot of land and burn a lot of brush piles every year and the fire department has never showed up yet, and I have had some brush piles burning that you could see from space!

Glad it all was an outside fire NS--I've been on to many barn fires due to spontanious combustion with bales being put up to damp & WALLA--ya got fire Nothing worse then the smell of burning critters

I agree!

One thing I have found that works good is heating pads used for sore backs and stuff. I use them for chilled lambs in the winter and stay away from heat lamps which have started so many fires around here. Just place the lamb on the heating pad and they stay nice and warm, and next to momma sheep. All it takes is a few days to get that fat under their skin and they are fine, but boy those first three days are intense.

In my dream barn, the lambing jugs and chicken coops will be heated by radiant floor heating. Dry bedding, warm animals...yep that would work good.

Hell NS, I'm the same way with MY heating pad. I think I might be gettin a little to much winter fat under my skin though. The worse one I've been on was a couple Towns over a few yrs back.--He lost the barn & about 100 dairy cows--nothing we could do but keep the old farm house from burning