Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Spread muck on a field?

Anyone ever tried this? I'm hoping to remove muck from a 4 acre pond but I need to put it somewhere. Muck is 2-3 feet deep in most places. We've got 20 acres of farm ground adjacent to the pond. I was thinking about spreading the muck out in a thin layer over the field. I figure this would help the muck dry out and then could be tilled into the ground which would help improve the soil. Could the muck be spread with a manure spreader or something similar? Surely someone has had this idea before. Let me know your opinions.

Muck makes great soil amendment. The only caveat is if the previous owner used a lot of copper sulphate to treat algae. Maybe a soil test for heavy metals and other nasties would be appropriate if you don't know the history of the pond.

A friend has a farm that is mostly muck soil. Takes a while to dry out so they can plant, but they get great yields from it.

If the muck is the same consistency of manure, I don't see why a manure spreader wouldn't work.

I'm no expert, but when we had one of our ponds redug by the owner of a excavating firm who got me subscribed to Pond Boss, he chose to have his crews place the muck in 2 locations on our pastures. The 2 plots are about 25 x 25 yards apiece and what they dug out w/ track hoe and dozer ended up about 4 feet thick and we stopped them at the 1/2 acre point for the pond. He advised me to let it sit for a year or two to let it dry before attempting to spread it. The only way that I think it could be spread efficiently is w/ a dozer. I plan to have it tested through the county extension office before we do spread it. It seems maybe overly fertile.

We also compost horse manure and it does have a similar consistency after the manure has composted for a few years, but I think it would take us forever to spread it with a spreader.

Is the field in production of some type already? Or, are you just wanting the amendment for future use?

yes, the field is in production in a corn/soybean rotation.