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Compost Heap. Horse Manure. Pathogens.
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 |
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