03/28/13

I recently discovered a place to buy composted manure that is literally on my way home from work. I hoped to stop by there one Tuesday, on my way home, and get a truckload. Unfortunately, however, I found out that the person selling it wasn't available on Tuesdays. So this week, since we didn't have our Gardening 101 class on Tuesday, I decided to go to the office on Wednesday instead, so I could get some manure.

I was very impressed by both the quantity of manure I was given for the price, as well as the quality. The stuff they gave me had been aged for roughly 18 months, and has a very nice texture and appearance. I had them completely load the bed of the truck, which was, in hindsight, a mistake. The weight caused the truck to ride much lower than I had ever seen, and I could see the pressure being placed on the tires. Driving at speeds above 50 mph didn't feel safe, so I tried to keep my speed down as much as I could. Thankfully I made it home without incident.

Yesterday I began the process of unloading the manure. I started at lunch, and was able to finish up after work. It normally shouldn't take that long to unload a truckload of manure, or anything else for that matter, but this was a bit different. I wanted to use the manure in the garden, but I can't get the truck over there. For this reason, I had to transfer the manure from the truck to the RTV, then haul it to the garden and unload. I opted to go ahead and spread it on the garden, rather than just unloading in a pile, because it was less work in the end.

I was able to haul the manure in five trips, with the bed being only half full for the last trip. The bed of the RTV holds approximately 1/3 of a cubic yard, which means I had roughly 1.5 cubic yards of manure. Based on the information I was able to find, manure weighs, on average, between 1200 and 1700 pounds per cubic yard. Since we've had so much rain recently I would assume that this load was in the upper range, but I'll assume 1500 pounds for my calculation. This would mean that the amount I hauled was just over one ton, which is certainly more than the rated capacity for the truck, and more than I've ever hauled before. I'll probably take the trailer the next time, which is rated for 2500 pounds.