Aerated manure tea

[maupin]

Maupin here.

I have 2 acres sublet on a farm in Western Thailand, where any time is a good time to plant tomatoes.

All of the vegetable matter is fed to 60 pigs and 40 goats, so I have tons and tons of rotted pig and goat manure. I have never made teas from manure. A few questions:

1. Would aeration and the addition of sugars benefit manure tea in the same manner it benefited my veg compost pile tea? Why or why not?

2. Which of the manures (there's plenty of both, friends) would be the better input, and why?

I have over 400 tomato seeds started at this point.

[Alberta]

I may be wrong, but I think the goat manure would be the best to use for tea, and compost the pig manure. I have never used pig manure, don't have a source for it, but have used goat manure and its NOT a hot manure so it can either be composted or used for tea. Please post on the effects of it please,
Alberta

[dice]

I have not seen any references to aerating it. Manure tea
recipes basically amount to dissolving whatever nutrients
in the manure are already water solube in water and then
watering the plants with it. Unlike compost tea, where
the goal is to add beneficial bacteria and fungi to the soil
and any water soluble nutrients dissolved in it are a fringe
benefit, the goal of manure tea is to add water soluble
nutrients directly and beneficial bacteria or fungi that come
along with those nutrients in manure tea are the free bonus.

You can see this by the recommended amounts to use:
1-2 pints per plant for manure tea, depending on the
size of the plant, while you can use as much compost
tea per plant as you feel like without overdoing it.

[chris]

I've made manure tea using the "output" from my eight alpacas. I put 10 lbs of aged manure in a tea bag made from window screen into a barrel with around 20 gals of water. A fountain pump in the bottom, with the discharge pipe just above the water level, recirculates the tea for about 3 - 5 days. When the EC gets up around 1500+ I figure it's done and dump it on my fruit trees. I want to use it for hydroponic tomatoes, but I'm not sure of the NPK levels.

[maupin]

I have learned the hard way there is no compostable material in SE Asia. Anything I would compost back home is fed to pigs, goats, or cows. I built a copost bin when I first got here and it still sits empty. The idea of composting what they view as animal feed is kinda middle class to my fellow farmers here. Live and learn.

[amideutch]

I think these two definitions might answer your question.

In simple terms, compost tea is an extract of compost where the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and beneficial nematodes are increased in numbers using nutrients and oxygen provided by the gardener. In short, oxygenated tea made from compost.

Manure tea. This extract can contain soluble nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium but it also contains high levels of bacteria. In many of these bacteria, such as E. coli, are not things that you want to put on your garden. Manure tea also often contains high numbers of root feeding nematodes.

From Purdue University;

Do not put manure from dogs, cats, and pigs in your food garden. They can carry disease organisms and parasites that can be transmitted to humans. Other precautions must also be taken to use livestock manure safely. Finally, it may be difficult to locate a cheap source of manure and transport it to your garden.

Here is what the PA. organic regs read on manure for organic use.

Regulations for Raw Animal Manure
According to the National Rule §205.203(c)(1),
raw animal manure may be
(i) Applied to land used for a crop not intended
for human consumption;
(ii) Incorporated into the soil not less than 120
days prior to the harvest of a product whose edible
portion has direct contact with the soil surface or
soil particles; or
(iii) Incorporated into the soil not less than 90
days prior to the harvest of a product whose edible
portion does not have direct contact with the soil
surface or soil particles.
Pennsylvania

So bottom line is you do not want to aerate manure unless it has been composted and reached a temperature of at least 140 deg. F. Ami

PS. I remember reading at the end of WW2 when the US occupying forces came to Japan they developed dysentery after eating the local produce. What they found is the Japanese used animal and human excrement to fertilize their crops. The US military set up hydroponic farms to produce their vegetables till a new source could found. The Japanese had been doing this for centuries and their digestive systems had adapted to it.
I don't know if this practice is being done in SEA or not. I saw folks at a military base in Turkey come down with dysentery after eating at the dining facility and my daughter came down with it while on vacation to India earlier this year.