Wickes Farmyard Manure: Price, Bag Size and How Much

Wickes farmyard manure, as listed on 5 November 2026, is a Levington-branded organic 50-litre bag at £7 before delivery, with a listed weight of 19.67 kg. The Wickes search for farmyard manure returned six products that day, and only this one sits in the manure type filter. It suits beds, borders and allotments. It is a costly way to feed a field.

This guide covers what is in the bag, what it costs per tonne, how many bags a job needs and how much to apply. It uses the UK’s own nutrient guide and the legal limits for farmland in England. You can test bags against bulk delivery in the calculator below.

What Wickes farmyard manure actually is

The Wickes product page describes a blend of concentrated manures and composted matter, made with green compost and without peat. So it is not straight muck from one farm. Green compost brings organic matter and minerals from recycled vegetation, and the manure part brings the animal-derived nutrients.

These are the details the page gave on 5 November 2026:

Three things are worth noting before you buy. First, the page does not give an NPK figure, so you cannot work out the exact nutrient dose from the listing. Second, it does not name the animal, so it cannot be treated as cattle or horse manure. Third, the pH range is wide, and the top of it is alkaline. The RHS advises avoiding well-rotted farmyard manure around blueberries because it can raise soil pH. Apply the same caution to other acid-loving plants, and read the bag before you open it.

Other products that appear in the same search

People searching for Wickes manure bags will also see products that do a different job. The list prices below were read on 5 November 2026 and exclude delivery.

Pellets and boxed feeds are spread by the handful. They supply nutrients but very little bulk. The 50-litre bags are the opposite: they supply bulk first and nutrients second. If your question is mainly about the compost bag, see our separate page on the Wickes 50-litre compost.

Is there a Wickes horse manure?

The search on 5 November 2026 showed no product labelled as horse manure. RHS advice notes that farms and stables in rural areas often supply manure, delivered or for collection. If you take stable manure, ask how old it is and what the horses were fed. The section on weedkiller residues below explains why.

What farmyard manure contains

Bagged blends do not publish a full analysis on this listing, so the best public yardstick is farm manure itself. The AHDB Nutrient Management Guide (RB209), Section 2, updated in March 2026, gives typical values per tonne of fresh manure. Cattle manure at 25% dry matter holds about 6.0 kg of nitrogen, 3.2 kg of phosphate and 9.4 kg of potash. It also holds 2.4 kg of sulphur as SO3 and 1.8 kg of magnesium as MgO.

Chart

Typical total nitrogen by manure type

kg of nitrogen per tonne of fresh manure

Those are averages. Real heaps vary with bedding, feed, storage and rain. RB209 says potash may be lower in manure stored for long periods in the open, and that it can be worthwhile having a representative sample analysed, because real values vary from the tables.

Total nutrients are not available nutrients

A large share of the nitrogen in stacked manure is locked in organic forms. RB209 estimates that only about 5% of total nitrogen reaches the next crop when manure is left on the surface. Working old manure into the soil within 24 hours lifts that to about 10% for a spring application. The rest is released slowly over later seasons.

Phosphate and potash behave differently. RB209 credits 60% of the phosphate and 90% of the potash to the next crop. That is why well-rotted manure builds soil and supplies potash well, yet rarely satisfies a hungry crop’s nitrogen demand on its own. The RHS makes the same point for gardens: well-rotted manures are relatively poor in soluble nutrients, and some hungry plants still need fertiliser to give their best.

Chart

Total versus crop-available nutrients

kg per tonne of fresh manure; nitrogen shown for surface application at 5%

Soil benefits you can expect

The main reason to buy a bag of manure is organic matter, and the benefit depends on your soil type.

• Clay soil. The RHS says organic matter breaks clay into separate crumbs. Water and nutrients become easier for roots to reach, and the soil becomes easier to work.
• Sandy soil. Organic matter binds loose sand into crumbs that hold more water and nutrients. These soils may still need fertiliser.
• Silty soil. Added organic matter binds fine particles into more stable crumbs, which helps against compaction and washing away.
• Loam. It is already well balanced, but soil that is dug every year still benefits from regular additions.

How much water does it add?

Less than many claims suggest, though the gain is real. A University of Nebraska article cites a compilation of studies in which available water capacity in medium-textured soil rose by 1.03 percentage points for every 1 point rise in organic matter. It also reports a bigger gain on coarse soils than on loams and clays. A rise of 1% in soil organic matter takes years of steady additions.

Does it raise yields?

Often, up to a point. A global meta-analysis of maize and wheat in the journal SOIL (2019) found higher yields, on average, with more soil organic carbon, but the gains levelled off at about 2% organic carbon. Soil that is already rich will respond less. No fixed percentage applies to every plot, so be wary of any bag or web page that promises one.

The longest test of manure on wheat

Rothamsted’s Broadbalk experiment in Hertfordshire began in 1843 and is the longest-running scientific experiment in the world. Some plots receive farmyard manure at 35 t/ha each autumn, supplying about 225 kg of nitrogen per hectare. Others receive mineral fertiliser, and one control strip has had neither since 1843. It remains a useful reference rate for what a heavy annual manure dressing looks like on a field.

▶ Why soil works as a living system, and how it stores water and nutrients · 9:58

Wickes manure bags versus the farm scale

Here the numbers become plain. At £7 for 19.67 kg, the bag works out at about £356 per tonne, or 14p per litre. Those figures use the Wickes list price on 5 November 2026 and exclude delivery.

Now take the Broadbalk rate of 35 t/ha. That would need about 1,780 bags per hectare, and the bill would be about £12,450. No arable margin carries that. On a farm, the sensible sources are your own heap, a neighbour’s livestock unit or a bulk supplier.

RB209 also lets you value farm manure as fertiliser. Its worked examples assume nitrogen and phosphate at £1.10/kg and potash at 60p/kg. At those prices, the total nutrients in a tonne of typical cattle manure come to about £15.80. Counting only what the next crop can use, surface-applied, the figure is about £7.50. These are our sums from RB209’s values, and the saving is only real where the crop needs those nutrients. RB209’s own example of pig manure on oilseed rape, at 35 t/ha on a clay soil in autumn, shows a potential saving of up to £412/ha, but only £92/ha of that falls on the oilseed rape crop; the other £320/ha is surplus phosphate and potash for later crops. It warns that the saving falls where soil phosphate or potash is already above maintenance level.

Where bagged manure does make sense

• Small plots. Raised beds, borders, new fruit bushes and allotment beds, where a few bags finish the job.
• Poor access. Gardens where a lorry cannot tip and a bulk load would block the drive.
• Storage limits. Sites with no room or base for a heap.
• Trial plots. A small test strip before committing to a bulk load.

How much Wickes farmyard manure to use

Volume is easy to work out, because 50 litres spread 5 cm deep covers exactly 1 square metre. The RHS says a mulch should be at least 5 cm and ideally 7.5 cm thick. That means one bag covers 1 square metre at 5 cm, or about 0.67 square metres at 7.5 cm.

The table uses the 5 November 2026 list price. The last row borrows the Broadbalk rate by weight only, because a blended bag is lighter and has a different analysis from stacked cattle manure. Treat it as a light dressing, well below the RHS’s usual garden rate of 5 to 10 kg per square metre. Neither row is a nutrient recommendation, and the garden rate is far above what farmland limits allow.

Be careful with rates quoted by weight alone. A figure of 10 to 15 kg per square metre equals 100 to 150 t/ha. With typical cattle manure at 6.0 kg of nitrogen per tonne, that is 600 to 900 kg of total nitrogen per hectare, far above the field limit for farmland in nitrate vulnerable zones.

When and how to apply it

1. Check the soil. Look at type and pH. On a farm, use a current soil test. In a garden, a simple pH kit is a good start.
2. Pick the time. The RHS says most soils are best dug over with rotted manure in spring, in March and April in much of the UK, just before growth starts. Sandy soils are best manured from late winter. For mulching, it names late winter or early spring.
3. Choose rotted material. Only dig in material that is well rotted, because raw material can take nitrogen from the soil as it breaks down. Rotted manure looks dark and even in texture.
4. Spread evenly. Empty the bags in small heaps, then rake them out to the depth you want. Fork lightly around established fruit and shrubs, and keep mulch back from stems.
5. Protect yourself. Wear gloves, and wash your hands before eating. Wash vegetables from treated beds.
6. Record it. Note the date, area and bags used, so you can see what worked next season.

Read the bag for its own directions, as the supplier’s rate takes priority for that product.

Bags or bulk: work out your break-even

Bulk loads often look cheaper per cubic metre, but a delivery charge changes the sums on small jobs. The calculator compares both for your own area, depth and local quotes. The bag price starts at the Wickes list price of 5 November 2026. The bulk price and delivery figures are examples only, set so the two options start level. Replace them with real quotes, as prices vary by region and by load size.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

Rules for farmland in England

Garden use of a few bags is not the target of these rules. Farms and land managers are different, because manure is regulated in England whatever its source. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own rules, so check the local version. Get advice from a FACTS-qualified adviser for a full nutrient plan.

Under the Farming Rules for Water, you must plan each application. On cultivated land, you must take into account soil test results that are no more than 5 years old. You must not apply organic manure:

• on waterlogged, flooded or snow-covered soil
• when the soil has been frozen for more than 12 hours in the past 24 hours
• within 50 m of a spring, well or borehole
• within 10 m of inland freshwaters or coastal waters, with limited exceptions
• where risk factors mean there is a significant risk of pollution

The same rules bar storing manure within 10 m of inland freshwaters or coastal waters, or within 50 m of a spring, well or borehole. They list working manure into the soil within 12 hours, or as soon as possible, as one example of a reasonable precaution.

Nitrate vulnerable zones

Defra says nitrate vulnerable zones cover about 55% of land in England. Inside them, the nitrogen rules set two main limits. The field limit is 250 kg of total nitrogen per hectare from all organic manures spread in any 12 months. The holding limit is 170 kg per hectare per calendar year from livestock manure, averaged across the holding.

The chart at the end of this section turns the field limit into tonnes per hectare using RB209’s typical values. A real analysis of your own heap will give a truer number.

Temporary field heaps have rules of their own. The NVZ storage guidance says a heap must be at least 10 m from surface water or a land drain, or 30 m on land sloping at 12 degrees or more. It must be at least 50 m from a spring, well or borehole. It must move at least every 12 months, with a 2-year gap before returning to the same site, and you must keep records of sites and dates.

Chart

Manure rate that reaches the 250 kg N/ha field limit

tonnes of fresh manure per hectare, at typical nitrogen values

Risks to check first

Weedkiller residues

Some pasture weedkillers pass through livestock and stay active in manure and compost. NC State Extension describes herbicide carryover from aminopyralid, clopyralid and picloram, which can cause twisted leaves, poor germination and reduced yields in sensitive crops. It reports that breakdown can take anywhere from about 30 days to several years, and that it is particularly slow in piles. The risk applies most to stable or farm manure of unknown history. Ask what the animals grazed or ate, and what was sprayed on the hay.

Weeds and pathogens

Do not assume any manure has zero weed seeds or zero pathogens unless the supplier states and tests for it. The Wickes listing makes no such claim. For raw material offered locally, the RHS suggests that it is best stacked and covered until rotted before use. If raw manure is used, the RHS says to apply half the usual rate and keep it off ground for crops eaten raw, such as salads.

Nutrient loss

Fresh manure is rich in soluble nutrients, which can wash into ground water, ditches and drains. The RHS advises composting it first, or applying it in spring if it must go on fresh. RB209 notes that overwinter rain can wash a large share of nitrate from the soil, which is why autumn dressings of fresh manure tend to deliver less.

▶ How soil and water shape farm results · 9:40

Farmyard manure versus bagged fertiliser

These two products solve different problems, and many growers use both. RB209’s approach is to count the manure’s nutrients first, then buy only the balance.

Moving manure also moves carbon rather than creating it. Soil on the receiving plot gains organic matter, but the source land gave it up. This matters if you are claiming a climate benefit. For farm-level accounting, see the reference pages on carbon footprinting and product traceability.

▶ Why soil carbon matters for farmers · 12:15

Using field data to place manure

Satellite images cannot read the nitrogen in a heap or prove that manure caused a change. They can show which parts of a field stay weak year after year, so you know where to take soil samples first and where organic matter may repay the trip. Farmonaut offers satellite crop monitoring for this kind of field comparison. Soil tests and the rules above still decide the rate.

Related pages on our site: large farm administration, machinery fleet records, satellite and weather API documentation and crop data API access.

FAQ

How much is Wickes farmyard manure?

The 50-litre Levington bag was listed at £7, excluding delivery, on 5 November 2026. Check the Wickes site for today’s price and any multi-buy offer.

How much does a 50-litre bag cover?

About 1 square metre at a depth of 5 cm, or about 0.67 square metres at 7.5 cm, the RHS’s ideal mulch depth. A thin dressing to dig in goes further.

Is it safe for vegetable beds?

The listing names fruit and vegetables among its uses. Follow the bag directions, wear gloves, and wash your hands and your produce. For acid-loving crops such as blueberries, pick another material.

Does Wickes farmyard manure smell?

Penn State Extension explains that aerobic composting avoids the offensive odours of manure rotting without oxygen. So a well-composted blend should smell far milder than fresh manure.

Can it replace fertiliser?

Not by itself for hungry crops. The RHS notes some plants still need fertiliser, and RB209 shows little of the nitrogen reaches the next crop. Use manure for soil structure and count its nutrients, then top up only what a soil test says is missing.

Can a farm use it?

It could for a trial strip, but cost rules it out at field scale: about £12,450 per hectare at 35 t/ha, using the listed price. Local bulk manure, tested and spread within the rules, is the practical route.