Hot aerobic composting is definitely the only way to safely break down mild toxins, medications, and pathogens in any raw animal manures. You might want to try experimenting with using a little dry molasses or other forms of sugars in your composting process, or just applied directly to your soil, to get even more insurance of a rich colonization of safe, healthy, aerobic microbial activity in your garden beds.

I compost, I use boiling water instead of round up on weeds,careful around plants, I take my plastic bags to the resale shop as well as my clothes, vinegar for cleaning, eat what I grow and share some, I use left over sred paper on compost,use mulch free and given pine mulch on garden from others as well as have sorces for leaf mulch and free nabor tree sreds for mulch, I like free and usable dont got to the land field. I like to by organic food when I can. Thanks for some of the idea's to help more. never thought about unpluging things.I try and not spray in the garden and grow organiclly flowers as well by using natural sourses like growing garlic in garden area and rubbarb an other herbs to keep moles out of garden natrally, I put tansy herb in my shed to keep mice away in winter, and I use old roses to put around the house thorns keep cat's away from the house, from spraying . I cut old daffidil's of an put around the base of my house as they are naturally poision to keep insects away and hot pepper seeds around base of house in spring and around garden as well as grow daff. around veggie garden to keep rabbits out too. no sprays. works no animals but my hubby ha. I go to farmers market an take home boxes of left over produce at times while shopping like watermelon tasting area good rines for compost with my choice veggies local. and take my recycle bags with me and buy my milk there too. fresh. mm good. with cream on top. o yeh. not that store stuff. I take home any coffee grounds,saw dust,sred paper I can find I keep my eye open for freebee's.What I dont sell at resale shop, I then have garage sale. We turn done our heat at night by half what we have during the day. We eat less more quality food and less of it less waist, more veggies and fruit, and less meat. WE do eat more nuts though. I reuse my pots, and use wood sticks or used road blinds for name tags. and thing we can think of recycle always looking to use. I love to find strange things to put in our yard that people through away to decorate the flower beds. or at garage sales. WE have a antiq. section, dutch section, frog section,mexican, south west.and beach them, water can,galvinized,tea pot. area's bird houses,wind chime.

Only an idiot would let valuable animals graze on pasture sprayed with herbicides. Pastures normally are mowed, not sprayed. That's a pretty strong statement that really doesn't bear much support. Pastures are very commonly treated with herbicides - it is probably the most effective way to keep pasture lands healthy, ecouraging pasture grasses over weeds, plus it kills off a lot of weedy species that are toxic to livestock. And there's more of them than you might think. Obviously, there are some grazing restrictions on herbicide treated pastures but generally, the restricted period is very short, typically a week or less. FWIW, most commonly used pasture herbicides pose NO toxicity to livestock. As to the use of Tordon -- the active ingredient in Tordon is picloram, a very efficient systemic herbicide for woody plants and most broadleaved weeds and that most grasses are resistant to, making it an ideal herbicide for use on pasture lands. However, picloram is one of a handful of extremely persistant and compost-resistant herbicides, so even if hot composted, manure from livestock grazed on Tordon-treated pastures should be avoided. I also question the restrictions you assign to "organic" use of manures. NOP is very clear on how/when these can be used but it doesn't make distinctions regarding medications, at least none that I can find with my research. If you have documentation to support your statements, I'd be interested in seeing it. If the manure is hot composted (NOP preferred), then much of the concerns are moot. Most livestock medications as well as any potential pathogens are effectively neutralized through this process and the resultant composted manure can be used at will. Non-composted manures do have restrictions placed upon them, but these are related to the timing of the application relative to harvest, not because raw or fresh manure cannot be considered "organic" or used in an organic garden. And remember the NOP oversees certified organic farming, not what home gardeners are free to use in their own organic (or mostly so) garden.

If its one thing manures do its its ability to grow things. Community composting facilities--you know the ones that invite people to come and take what and when they want, as much they want. In such compost piles there is the ever present tomatoe seeds.....you cant kill a tomato seed and one of the best places you can rely on seeing them is in such community compost piles. Usually they have 3 or 4 piles...and each one is given a designation. Raw.....ripe....still working....and good for the garden.. Now here we have a number of persons advertising the goodness that is found in raw manure...fresh from the factory. It lays there for a couple months..these field patties. They are in the ripe category. Six months....a year...the stuff is still working. A year..two years...now the sign goes up "good for the garden". I just hope that the persons who grow and eat and give to guests such vegetables they grow in the raw, ripe and still working manure to be a good host and inform their dinner guests as to what they are partaking. Harmonyliz, I recommend you read further articles on why you SHOULD NOT use compost that is NOT FINISHED. Seems some would enjoy my child years. Mom would send me out to the road when the local trades people happened to come by. Such trades people: The kindling man; the vegetable and fruit farmer from down the street; the Coffee and TEA man; the Bread man, the milkman, the police officer; the laundryman; all used the services of horses. And many times they unloaded right in front of the house...and you could count on seeing some steam rising....winter or summer. Do you know how many shovelfuls of horseballs are made when a horse has been well fed. Ask my mother's poppies, her peonies, her pear tree and other marvellous looking flowers. But then, the manure was placed into a corner spot and used the next season. Bon appetite!