Same here. My compost is made from mostly leaf and grass with bark or whatever I can find. I had horses right out back at one time but my neighbor had to sell them for his health reasons.
Very true, there's always a risk of contamination of feedstock finding their way into the animal's manure. Fortunately, most pesticides/herbicides rapidly degrade through the biological process that once it went through the vermiculture cycles they're completely inert. There is a persistent herbicide, but I cannot remember it's name off the top of my head. Used to be a big problem a few years ago, but I haven't heard much from it lately. It would be achieving god-status to not have to rely on questionable outside sources for the garden. Home produced compost, home produced feed for your animals, home produced garden inputs. Unfortunately as it is for a lot of city folk such as myself we have to take what's available and refrain from strict ethical principles, as buying everything superduperorganicfreetradehippywholefoods crap gets expensive quick.
Saw a listing free horse manure, 40 miles away Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I think the general synopsis is that we definitely don't want any herbicides/pesticides in our inputs... but unless you're growing those inputs yourself it's essentially impossible to guarantee they're free of them. That makes us urban gardeners at a very clear disadvantage to the more rural guys. Fuck, I hate this city. Ugh.
Great thread ElRanchoDeluxe. I'll still trust my gut feeling over the FDA or EPA. Their changing opinions about the dangers and 1/2 lives of current pesticides/herbicides is never ending. I remember when DDT was safe. Law makers are influenced by the contributions from big chemical lobbyist. Until that changes, I'll limit my exposure to anything I can.
What do you guys think about fresh horse poop? The lady said the horses haven't received dewormer since she got them so there's none in there. And didn't say anything when I asked about feed being herbicided, just gave me a thumbs up. It's fresh so I could maybe toss it in the wormbin or on the side of the compost pile hmm. She adds to the pile daily I'm fearful of pesties too, she said none but that can be hard to know. Maybe I'll toss a tomato plant in it Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
To be on the safe side and lessen the chance of pathogens I wouldn't use fresh manure in the bin. It could be as natural as wild moose poop, but you don't gain anything by using it right away..., serious bad microbes are a worry. Best to let it sit at least few weeks at least imho.
I picked up a 18ft trailer full of horse poop that had been sitting for 15 or so months last year. It hasn't moved from where I unloaded it as I'm just not sure what exactly is in it. Like @TimJ stated, I fortunately have a little slice of land that I would ideally like to try and utilize via composting and vermicomposting with dynamic accumulators to supply as much nutritional needs as possible. I would use horse manure if the horses were mine or were from a close friend or well known source. In small portions though just for diversity. I plan to use my chicken manure in small portions as they free range and get scraps no store bought feed.
As Patricia Clemons mentioned the dewormer is what we would be concerned about in horse manure. It doesn't take long for it to reach it's 1/2 life. Here is one study from Cornell University. http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/ivermectin.pdf If there are worms present in the manure your fine to use it. I'd say your good after 15 months. I'd make some huge compost piles using that, leaf mold and any dynamic accumulators I could find.
I think I remember you telling us about your trailer load of manure a while back. Has anything been growing in it? Weeds? Worms? If it looks like it's hosting healthy life I doubt you have much to worry about
Yea native weeds took over it. I covered it now its killed off somewhat depleted. They said it sat 15 months but still had a relatively fresh smell.
I'll wheel it over to the compost pile and rejuvenate the compost pile with the composted manuer and some additional greens and browns like fresh cut clovers and shredded leaves etc
I think my worm bin is going bad, kinda stinky and moldy. Wondering if I should just leave it for another two weeks or so, or dump it out. Might just forget about it until February Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Sounds like it's anaerobic and/or you accidentally overfed it and it went slightly thermophilic. If so try fluffing it up with a bunch of loose dry carbon material
I go to a lot of trouble sourcing materials that I hope are clean of pesticides. I still treat them as though they are full of them. Having the knowledge of the various means that pesticides degrade can alter the methods or cultural practices used especially for those that are using suspect materials. Light or UV degradation could be enhanced by simply placing a compost pile in the sun. Or storing hay in direct sunlight instead of in a barn. Or the hay could be spread out thinly to expose it to sunlight as much as possible before composting. Or say you want to add 4” of compost to a garden bed. (4) 1” applications over a month is a better choice than applying 4” all at once and immediately covering with mulch. These are just a few ideas to enhance degradation off the top of my head I’m sure there are others. I think the listed half life (just like the one you posted on ivermectin) is useful as a sort of rough guideline. I would want to take it well beyond what’s listed. I always conduct a bioassay on lettuce and potatoes. Then I grow a single cannabis plant in 15-20gallons and it gets sent off for testing. If I didn’t take all these precautions I run the risk of contaminating 40 yards of soil and losing my entire livelihood. RD