Fresh Horse Manure in Sawdust.

The Helpful Gardener · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:37 am Post subject:

Chemicals in manure is a real issue, to be sure. Animal husbandry is still in the age of better living through chemicals, and worming is just one of many issues that are "solved using pesticides. I know my sourcing well; one of my guys is USDA registered organic and the other uses drugs in curative dosing, not preventative. I feel pretty comfortable about both.

Do your homework, though. At least ask the questions. Are these animals medicated? With what?

From Dr. Ingham's Compost Tea Manual... from the section on manure tea...

Morning Light · Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 3:27 am Post subject:

Great question about how long Invermectin is active. Certainly not one I considered when working with horse manure.

IN PEOPLE, Invermectin peaks in the blood stream 4 hours after being taken. It has a half-life of 3-4 days and it is excreted in stool in humans over 12 days.

The kicker is that it is active for up to 12 months, but in very small amounts.

It makes me wonder about horses. If they are treated every two weeks they might be excreting Invermectin in manure all the time if it takes more than a week to excrete it all.

Guess the manure I get from my friend will have to sit by itself for at least a year before thinking about putting it on the garden.

It's always something, isn't it????

Emma
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Emma Elle

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." -- Aristotle

applestar · Mod Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 5730 Location: nj

I *think* the usual dosing schedule is 6~8 weeks, and good horse people rotate wormers. On the other hand, there are there are "multi" kind of wormers too, as well as the systemic kind that somebody mentioned and the kind that already comes in the feed or added as supplement to feed, so are taken daily.... Rolling Eyes

By the way, one of the "natural" alternatives for gastro-intestinal kind (as opposed to the inter/intra-muscular kind) of worms is feeding Diatomaceous Earth, another is feeding Bentonite clay. Proponents of the clay say that clay is "live" biological supplement while DE is "dead" (skeletons, really). In either case, I thought that was kind of neat. Cool

The Helpful Gardener · Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 2:34 am Post subject:

Even neater is that some animals figure the trick out for themselves...organically, of course... Laughing

We could learn a thing or two from the cousins... Cool

HG
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The Helpful Gardener
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Gary350 · Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:53 pm Post subject:

Compost it for about 3 years before you use it.

I use to get the same stuff free most people give it away free to get it hauled away for free.

Morning Light · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:23 am Post subject: