Ed wrote:
On 15/07/09 16:24, Bob Hobden wrote:
"Ed" wrote ...
I have a couple of large compost bins on my allotment which I
regularly fill with compostable materials from home, but this only
accounts for a few percent.

For the most part, I go to the local riding stables where they bag up
the horse manure and leave it outside for people to take for free.

In the winter time, when the horses are inside the stables, the mix
is heavy with straw and bedding. But now in the warmer months with
the horses outside , it is mainly stuff gathered straight off the
paddock areas where the horses pass their days.

The thing is this. The bins are 4'x3'x3' and I just do not have the
energy or strength to turn them. So , in effect they are cold
compost heaps. I let the contents rot down over a 2 year period.

If the bins were more like 6'x6'x6' they would probably hold enough heat
in the bulk material to become hot. I only turn mine once to put the
edges into the middle.

But is there a danger that the pathogens in the horse dung will not
die off (as they would if I were operating a hot heap) and that my
family could become seriously ill if I use this composted material on
my vegetable plot even if it is 2 years old?

Pathogens in Horse dung? Please advise what and any scientific papers
that back it up. I know it is a big carrier of Tetanus but not heard
about anything else of concern.
"No major human disease has ever been accurately attributed to the
intimate contact human beings have had with horses for thousands of
years. Veterinarians and vet students probably have the greatest
exposure to true risk from horse manure. The horse has a very
inefficient gut: it's a one-way throughput system. Horses are
physiologically incapable of vomiting or regurgitating. If something
gets stuck on the way through, the only way to get it out is by
surgery or physical intervention. As a result, you will often find
vets armpit deep under a horse's tail. Nevertheless, there has never
been a documented case of veterinarians contracting illness as a
result of this rather extreme true exposure to horse manure."

We use well rotted 1 year old stuff and have never had any trouble.


No, I not no expert scientist or nothing nor read scientific papers. I
am just a gardener. But I see a few articles on the web that says if you
maintain a hot heap then it will kill pathogens.. If you run a cold heap
then these things are not killed off with the heat. Hence my concern.

A hot heap works a bit faster and it is only really hot for a few days.
Mainly it helps to kill off weed seeds. My heaps go hot when I put a few
cubic metres of grass cuttings on them in one go. I have had one up to
smouldering. If you can add enough of anything to the heap at once with
the right amount of water you will get it hot for a while. The horse
dung will act OK as an accelerant, but if you want something that will
encourage a hot heap then the proprietory mix Garotta (sp?) seems to
work as well as anything.

I wouldn't worry about pathogens from horse dung either. And if you have
access to plenty of straw and horse manure it is worth fermenting some
to make your own mushroom compost. I might worry about that persistent
residual pesticide that has been causing trouble in winter hay though.

Regards,
Martin Brown