"Frank" wrote in message
...
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.

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?

Ed
(South-East UK)


An organic farmer (US) that previously posted here said he was concerned
with contamination with a potent insecticide used to keep flies down. He
would not use it on his food crops.

Frank

I think that may be the bigger problem, it is common in the southern US to
use a feed
through larvacide that is usually some kind of diflubenzuron compound and
some barn
managers sprinkle the manure with Golden Malrin which is a carbamate.

Billy might be able to expand on the hazards of these products.

I have horses and goats and don't use these products in an effort to keep
the
manure clean ; ).

Chickens are the best natural fly control around barns but unfortunately
they
don't leave any manure to fertilize with.

basilisk