Composting by tilling in?

Hello, I'm looking for some advice on an idea for composting a large area. I want to til into my sandy soil with hay, straw, and animal droppings in an attempt to turn it into a large amount of compost in that area. I've been trying to find answers to this via Google and the closest I could come up with was "in-situ" composting. Would this be an effective way of composting?

I have goats, rabbits, chickens and turkeys so plenty of access to hay, straw and droppings with the ability to bring in fresh and aged horse manure.

I have done that on small scale with large amounts of grass clippings. It could work, but I would be concerned about moisture. If the soil is too dry, things won't break down and it'll be a moldy mess. If it's too wet, it could go anaerobic and stinky. It's generally easier to manage moisture levels in a pile. My 2c.

you sometimes see this described as trench composting (there's some interesting stuff on youtube about it, although usually on a very small scale).
I do it if I have a large amount of something (orange peels, for example, and I'll throw lime on them before I fill in the hole), and I did it when I first began my garden. It can (and in my case usually does) go anaerobic, but that all breaks down eventually through soil life. It takes a while, but works out fine.
The only issue I've had is critters digging up anything good in the compost. You're not using kitchen waste so that shouldn't be a big deal. I want to say there is someone in florida growing fruit this way, with goat bedding and manure, and I've seen videos here for that very farm.

I would just spread it out on the surface and let the soil biology pull it down into the soil for you.  I'd probably put the poop on first, then hay, then straw.  Tilling in high carbon materials (like straw) may tie up nitrogen as they decompose and hinder growth of plants for a year or two.

Mike Haasl wrote:I would just spread it out on the surface and let the soil biology pull it down into the soil for you.  I'd probably put the poop on first, then hay, then straw.  Tilling in high carbon materials (like straw) may tie up nitrogen as they decompose and hinder growth of plants for a year or two.

Thank you for your input Mike. This last summer I was spreading it out along the surface and ran chicken tractors across the area to shred and til in the materials. That was definitely effective, but only for the top couple of inches or so and it's still tough for me to judge the overall quality and water holding capacity due to the weather out here still be relatively mild. I may be getting too impatient and trying to push for too much too quickly.

Kasey Kroner wrote:
I have goats, rabbits, chickens and turkeys so plenty of access to hay, straw and droppings with the ability to bring in fresh and aged horse manure.

I see you said you used a chicken tractor, why not run the goats, rabbits and turkeys in moveable pens too, kind of Joel Salatin style?

RED gardens on Youtube shows a few versions of this style of composting. He goes over trench composting, composting directly on the ground and covering with sheet mulch, and a talks in great detail about composting in general.

On a small scale Ruth Stout style composting is similar as well. Dig a hole in the garden, bury your compost, cover it up.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:

Kasey Kroner wrote:
I have goats, rabbits, chickens and turkeys so plenty of access to hay, straw and droppings with the ability to bring in fresh and aged horse manure.

I see you said you used a chicken tractor, why not run the goats, rabbits and turkeys in moveable pens too, kind of Joel Salatin style?

I guess I'm looking for a quick way to produce deep compost, but I like your thinking! I'll be fencing in the garden area so maybe setting up a shelter in there and penning the goats would work... that would actually save me the work of hauling their bedding from their pen. I planned on doing meat chickens again this year so letting them free range in that area with the goats would work as well.

L. Johnson wrote:RED gardens on Youtube shows a few versions of this style of composting. He goes over trench composting, composting directly on the ground and covering with sheet mulch, and a talks in great detail about composting in general.

On a small scale Ruth Stout style composting is similar as well. Dig a hole in the garden, bury your compost, cover it up.

Thank you for the references I'll be sure to do some more homework on these methods.

Used to use big piles then years ago started doing it in the gardens we do this on large scale gardens. We use raised rows then add all the turkey and sheep bedding in the rows between acts like mulch and feeds the crop at the same time if it is dry we fill the ditch then a layer of card board with some barn hay on top and now you have no weeding

Not sure where you are, Kasey, or what your yearly rainfall is, but I think one of the best things Permaculture has to offer is hugel trenches.  Hugelkulture is the basic mound form, but the rodents got into mine, turned it all into air tunnels, and building mounds of dirt is exhausting.

The alternative trench keeps things damp and dark, the way the soil critters like it.  

Dig a trench (approx. 18" or deeper if you have logs) where you intend to grow, in the shape and width of the beds you intend to plant in,  fill the trench with split logs, tree branches, rotted branches, the wettest branches you can find, or thoroughly wet them after filling, and fill that over with manure, put some of the soil back, wet it again to fill in any air pockets, then add leaves, mowed weeds, more manure, top it off with soil, wet it all again, and plant over the trench, thickly mulching around the plants with wood chips  (as opposed to bark chips, if you can) or whatever organic mulch you have to keep the soil damp.  

You'll be creating a fungi web structure that lasts for years.  The trench keeps the wood wet, everything composts over a long period.  It's easy to dig a quick hole to dump kitchen scraps in in the future, just keep "feeding" the trenches.

I've been retrofitting my orchard and the trees are thriving despite a drought.  I wish I'd done this years ago.