[Janeymiddlewife]

Our local garden centre has large bags of "Organic composted horse manure" on offer at 4 bags for a tenner. If it states that it is fully organic, this should mean it's aminopyralid free as the horses should have been fed organic - ie - pesticide free feed - or does it? Am I making a huge assumption before I spread it everywhere? It was lovely and warm & steaming   But kids didn't half complain about having to sit next to it in the car 

[SG6]

Cannot see why it should be 100% aminopyralid free.

Whoever composted the manure cannot be fully sure where the manure came from and what the horse ate. 

However aminopyralid is a herbicide used by farmers and I suspect that the horse at the "production" end ate good grass, just cannot see someone spraying a field that horses are in. They should just munch whatever they can find. Why spend the money.

That leaves whatever is mixed with the manure, straw. I suspect that there is little guarantee that all the straw eaten by the, no doubt, several horses had not been sprayed.

[ceri green]

I cant see that it can possibly be guaranteed as free from anything!. As has been pointed out, the chain leading up to what the horse actually ate would be virtually impossible to monitor, particularly as horses are grazing animals you would need to know what grazing they were on, what hard feed they were given, where that came from etc etc the chain is virtually endless........
the sttraw in manure comes from the bedding, not usually eaten by the horses ( although some will eat it, and it is also the basis of chaff), so that opens up a whole new chain avenue!

and lastly  since the long gone days of the "muck man " paying for manure, most people are only too glad to get rid of the stuff for free!!! so you might as well use the petrol to go to the nearest stables ratrher than the garden centre and get it for nothing!

[Janeymiddlewife]

Thanks both - I've been "tipped off" about where to get manure for free - just the usual in a hurry mentality, so pick it up. Think I'll spread it on my "fallow" bit that I'm not going to have time to dig and leave it until next year. As I've only just started I don't yet have any homegrown compost as it hasn't rotted down yet, so needed something to improve the clay soil. I can dig inchicken manure pellets to add nutrients, but I need something bulky to help with the clay

[SG6]

If you want something to break up the clay then try your local council. They have been recycling whatever we have been throwing out for some time and making compost out of it.

As it is from household green stuff I would say that there is a very very low chance of any herbicide in it. Probably as safe as you could get.

[Rampant_Weasel]

heres a tip - when u buy in compost save all your bags - then u have plenty to fill when u make a trip to the stable.i usually borrow a trailer and fill it full of bags of manure.most of it well rotted for immediate use and a few bags of fresh for my compost heap.

[Stripey_cat]

However aminopyralid is a herbicide used by farmers and I suspect that the horse at the "production" end ate good grass, just cannot see someone spraying a field that horses are in. They should just munch whatever they can find. Why spend the money.

It's common practice to spray pasture against weeds if you have ragwort.  Since councils don't seem to care any more, lots of people let it seed on disused ground (like building lots), and the seed is wind-carried into farmland.  Ragwort poisoning can be fatal, and often leaves the horse disabled or ill even if it survives, so owners prefer to poison the land than the horse!

[woodburner]

Thanks both - I've been "tipped off" about where to get manure for free - just the usual in a hurry mentality, so pick it up. Think I'll spread it on my "fallow" bit that I'm not going to have time to dig and leave it until next year. As I've only just started I don't yet have any homegrown compost as it hasn't rotted down yet, so needed something to improve the clay soil. I can dig inchicken manure pellets to add nutrients, but I need something bulky to help with the clay

That's a good idea. If it does have pyralid, it might even kill some of the weeds!  Mwahaha!

[glallotments]

Cannot see why it should be 100% aminopyralid free.

Whoever composted the manure cannot be fully sure where the manure came from and what the horse ate. 

However aminopyralid is a herbicide used by farmers and I suspect that the horse at the "production" end ate good grass, just cannot see someone spraying a field that horses are in. They should just munch whatever they can find. Why spend the money.

That leaves whatever is mixed with the manure, straw. I suspect that there is little guarantee that all the straw eaten by the, no doubt, several horses had not been sprayed.

Manure from stables has been quoted as a source of the contamination too. Sometimes fields are contract sprayed to kill broad leaved plants such as ragwort and then the horses browse in the fields. One person even emailed me to say his supply came from an organic farm.

[Yorkie]

Manure doesn't just come from horses' poo, it can also come from their bedding - so if the bedding material had originally been treated with the herbicide, that is another route for the aminopyralid to get into the manure pile.

[oldbean]

Our local garden centre has large bags of "Organic composted horse manure" on offer at 4 bags for a tenner. ..............It was lovely and warm & steaming  

I doubt it is fully composted, if it was it would no longer be warm. It must be only part done, as at best it would be in the thermophilic stage or just cooling, or possibly hasn't reached that stage yet. It would have to cool so fungi and worms can work on it before it is completely done.