safe Horse Manure

I cannot assist with specific advice as I am not in the UK. I suggest that you contact stables and horse studs in your area. It may not be rotted as that requires storing large quantities and horse places often aim to get rid of it quickly. You may also be offered used stall bedding which is straw with manure and urine.

I am curious about the way that horse manure might be unsafe. What do you think could be wrong with it?

David

There was a problem with an herbicide in the horse manure a couple of years ago.

Is this aminopyralid? Does it actually go through horses and remain active?

David

Aminopyralid is an herbicide against broadleaf plants that is widely used on grazing pastures and grass hay fields. To minimize the risk of aminopyralid contamination in animal manure, you could seek out farms that (a) grow their own grass hay and do not use aminopyralid on their fields or (b) feed alfalfa aka lucerne grass. Alfalfa is a broadleaf legume, not a monocot grass.

For addition to a compost pile in spring to start the pile cooking, you should be using fresh ("green") manure and urine-soaked bedding. Well rotted manure will have lost most of its nitrogen.

Once you have located a source of manure, getting it delivered should be as simple as calling up a local handyman who does yard work.

Let us know how you make out.

Una

The UK has a problem with a aminopyralid residues in manures. Apparently if you spread manure which has come from animals fed on pastures where this product has been used, you can kill your plants.

Supposedly. But it could be a case like the American bee keepers who blamed Australian imported bees for CCD.

I thought that Australian bees were brought in because of CCD. Could you amplify as I know nothing about this.

Find a mushroom farm. They will sell you spent (horse) manure. If you can find it, cow manure is better and has far less weeds seeds.

This is from the Australian rural press and because it appeared some time ago now, I am giving details from memory but wikipedia gives some support to my recall of the coverage:

Eventually it was discovered that it'd been seen earlier in both US and Europe and someone must have eventually figured that Australia had e-mail and probably asked someone here if Aus had it.

Sorry love, but everyone is a suspect until they are eliminated. In this case, Australian bees arrive 2 years after the out break of CCD, sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for shining a light on something I knew nothing about.

Manure Chicken Diary cow Horse Steer Rabbit Sheep N 1.1 .257 .70 .70 2.4 .70 P .80 .15 .30 .30 1.4 .30 K .50 .25 .60 .40 .60 .90

'Supect' yes, but not as an automatic knee jerk reaction in a press driven world. It was that crappola of kneejerkness that got up my left nostril at the time. No serious analysis had been done at that time.

In this

??? Aus bees went to the US 2 years before the outbreak, not after.

This is what happens when you read up-side down ;O)

until recently it was thought possible that this is how the virus originally reached North America. Recent findings, however, reveal

the virus has been present in American bees since 2002.

If in/near a large city, perhaps the local zoo could supply manure from animals that have been fed a safer diet?

My area has a company that supplies aged manure from the zoo, but I don't live in the OP's country.

Once upon a time when circuses travelled the land as they left there would be a rush to collect the manure. Elephant was very popular. Big beasties have big turds, they must grow big tomatoes.

David

When you consider all the crap that you can find in manure, I'd say buy ORGANIC bagged fertilized.

Elephant still is very popular. I managed to get some about 2 years ago and it grew the best corn.

LOL. Perhaps you should uncross your eyes when you read:

It does indeed say that, however, it also says "recent findings". That means that just because CCD was in the US from at least 2002, it does not mean that it was recognised as being a problem FROM that time.

As I said before the press reports that I gave you, related to reporting at the time of the discovery and the kerfuffle at that time. The USDA says that reports of CCD began in 2006 which was 2 years after the import of bees from Aus began.