I can't see why the poo of any animal couldn't be burnt - but yes, maybe best to stick to herbivores... BH's niece did Everest Base Camp a couple of years back, she said they had great long sausages of yak poo drying on the mountainsides which they would use as fuel.
The first lot we used had just dried on the floor in the stable - bad me, never did the last muck out when I turned them out for the summer. When I wanted the stable for something else, I saw the cobs had dried on the floor, so rather than composting them I just popped 'em in a bucket and we burned 'em.
The second lot we burned I'd collected in the field when the weather was dry (when was
that?
- maybe March? or we had another few hot dry days in May I think), picked up the drier cobs and put them in a bucket. Stopped when the bucket was fulll as it was just an experiment.
The latter lot, the cobs at the bottom of the bucket weren't totally solid, you could still break them open and the insides were... not moist, but not totally dry, IYKWIM. But they burned just the same.
I don't know that people would need horse poo in briquettes, Karen - the cobs my ponies do are just about the same size and similar shape to the coal cobs you get nowadays, so we found them easy enough to have in a bucket next to the fire, and throw a few on as required.
In terms of how they burn, they have been used for the following:
- get a smouldering fire going again - they did catch easily and burn well, so they did help lift a fire from the embers. I'd want to do a bit more experimenting before saying you just throw a few horse cobs on and wait, I don't think we tried them on their own to revitalise a dying fire
- keep a fire in overnight - the evenings we used horse poo, the fire stayed warm all night and there were warm embers in the morning that could've been reignited easily. Other nights, with no horse poo, the fire is always cold by morning.
- we didn't try burning horse poo on its own - it'd be worth trying, we just didn't try it; we added it to other fuel. Both wood and wood-and-coal burned significantly better (brighter and hotter) and hours longer with horse poo added
I wish we had tried horse poo alone now - I'll try that next time. I was more excited about the way it will eke out your existing fuel - a little bit of coal will go a much longer way with horse poo added, horse poo will get wood which isn't burning too well going and keep it burning; and horse poo keeps the fire and room lovely and warm while you're out doing some work, so you come back to a much warmer house and less to do to lift the fire than without the horse poo. Similarly, if you like a fire full time, it'll keep the fire going overnight and be easier to restart in the morning.
Having proven the concept, it's the wholescale drying that's got me thinking...
I can see how to dry smallish amounts, but I think we'll allocate a bay in the wood shed, pile good poos in there and see how it does. Once you've a system going, you'd be burning last year's pile while making this year's, I suppose.
The polytunnel idea is awesome. We don't have a polytunnel, but our neighbours do, they also have poines stabled overnight year round... I don't know if they grow things in the 'tunnel through the winter
I guess we can spread poo out on the floor of cattle shed over the spring / summer, in the gap between lambing and cattle turn-out and when we start stacking hay everywhere... Yesss, I can see that working
In terms of drying 'free horse manure' - which is probably stable muckings out, including shavings, straw, etc - the mix is a compostable mix, so it would compost rather than dry unless you spread it out somewhere, like deep's fencing panels.
