On Jul 15, 10:55*am, Ed ex@directory 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?

I'd wonder more about any antibiotics the horses
were given, and what effect they'd have on my
own soil's beneficial microbes.