drugs in poop

soooo…. with the poop beast pod cast… you spoke about human drugs in our poop (fish boobs, etc), then can the same be said for drugs being to animal manures…. horse manure… if the horse owners give them their horses???

Yup. Enough for some farms to lose organic status because they didn't vet their fertilizer source.

I no longer use horse manure or any other manure from any animal other than my own chickens - because I don't use chemical de-wormers on them.

I visited a local farm where on one side of the road there are cattle being dewormed with chemical dewormers and eating hay sprayed with herbicides.

On the other side of the road are pigs that are not eating food that has treated with herbicides and and are not receiving chemical dewormer.

I asked the farmer "What is growing in the pile of cow poop?" "Nothing" he said. Actually there was some grass growing in it but nothing else.

Then I asked "What is growing in the pigs poop?" "Lots of stuff"..........


All we have to do is observe.

Over 30 years ago piles of poop would be full of an amazing variety of plants from seeds that had not been digested and a whole host of earth worms and insects. Nowdays that same pile of poo at the farm just sits there with maybe a few grasses - but no broadleaf weeds growing out of it.

Many hobbyists, and most commercial operations use chemical dewormers, and often, antibiotics as well.

Even after normal composting, much of this remains in the manure, and can raise havoc with your soil food web.
The soil food web is like a chain: it is no stronger than its weakest link.
If one species is killed, or artificially reduced, the entire web becomes out of balance.
Each of the species depend on the others to do their jobs.
Without one, the nutrients may not be converted to a form useable to the plants.

One needs to be selective where they get their manures. The wrong ones can actually harm your soil.
It isn't 'free' if it costs you production.

Not necessarily about manure per se, but Paul has a good video about persistent herbicides.