George
I started a ‘fresh manure’ heap about 5 weeks ago, filling a wire cage of 1.2m * 0.7m within 10 days courtesy of about 5 trips to the stables filling ‘council green waste bags’ about 1/3 full (all I could lift). I forked it about 3 times within the heap to test whether heat was still emerging. After the third time, the heat had mostly disappeared from the top 40cm, so I’ve just topped it up again yesterday. I can already tell the difference between the lower level collected 5 weeks ago vs the new fresh stuff – the older stuff is much blacker.
Yesterday, I got some ‘older stuff’ as the stables’ dogs weren’t out in the area of the mature stuff. Digging it was an educational experience: at the top, you still had the shape of round dung pellets, a bit lower down, the material was full of worms and even further down you had a darker more uniform sludge. We’ve put the mature stuff down under the fruit trees which are all relatively young.