I have been working with horses since 1964. My horses range in ages of 2 years old, 5 years old, 15 years old, 20 years old and up to 25 years old. In the past 5 years, hay producers in my area have turned to using poultry litter on their hay field as fertilizer because of costs. The square bale hay looks green and great, but my horses just sniff it and walk away. They waste it. They won't eat it. Each year, I have to return the hay and buy hay that was not produced with poultry litter. Thank goodness, most hay producers are being honest when I ask if they used poultry litter in the production of their hay. Last year, when I took 100 bales home from a hay producer that I had bought from previously that season, my horses would not eat the hay. I called the hay producer. He confirmed that he had distributed poultry litter in the production of that hay. When he looked in his notes and realized that I had requested non-poultry litter fertilized hay from the start, he came to our place and removed the 100 bales of poultry litter fertilized hay and replaced it with hay that did NOT get produced with poultry litter. My horses immediately started eating the hay that did NOT have poultry litter used in the production of it. So, here is my question. Has anyone experienced this problem with their horses? If so, what did you do? This has happened to me with 4 separate hay producers. I cannot find anything on the internet that explains this problem. I understand that it is a fairly new process, but surely, someone is recognizing the problem besides me!!! I got a response: "Be careful feeding this hay to your horses. Chickens spread salmonella. I myself, would never feed my horses this type of hay." Should I be concerned??? I got another response: "Not at all uncommon. A lot of horses don't like hog manure fertilized hay either. Not new at all. A lot of farmers use manure from chickens and hogs when the price of commercial fertilizer get high. In years past it was much more common. Guess what, if that's all they have to eat for a few days, they get over it, and eat it just fine." My reply was: Have you had the experience with horses not eating their hay?...and you continued to only give them that hay AND they started eating it??? If so, what problems did you observe? Any health issues? From my experience, this behavior of not eating their hay is not natural. I have been feeding my groups of horses for 48 years. This issue with my horses not eating the hay given them has only occurred since the poultry litter has been used as fertilizer, which has been in the last 5 years. I understand the farmers' need to keep down costs, but for the end result to be that the product not be used (wasted), that seems to defeat the purpose of growing the hay. I wonder what problems have occurred that have not been registered by some agency....where would one report this anyway? It is just not natural for my horses to refuse hay. This is a BIG problem for me. My experience is that the hay producers really don't want to hear this. Yet, to be honest, they need to know this. Here was the response: "Yes, I've had experience with hay fertilized with chicken, hog, and cattle manure. Sometime they eat it without a problems and other times, a couple of days of it alone, and they eat it just fine. The smell is usually the problem. If they get hungry, they will eat. Chicken is very high in nitrogen and bad about burning if applied to heavy. It should be composted for awhile before applying. The problems associated with e coli, etc, are usually not there if the application doesn't burn up the hay crop. Seldom do they apply any of these close to harvest time, which gives mother nature plenty of time to dispose of e coli, etc. Sun and rain, will do an excellent job of decomposing. It was used a lot around here, more so, a few years back, and never heard of any problems feeding the hay to horses. When the farmers used horses for tilling it was used extensively for horse hay." Does anyone have any advice on Hay fertilized with poultry manure and the possiblitity of Salmonella risk??? Thanks

Where these good bacteria or bad bacteria? How much organic matter was in the soil?

Hi pawtails, I regularly use well rotted manure in my garden and have had no problems with weeds. Of course these come in bags and have been processed by garden soil companies. My understanding is that as the manure starts to compost, it heats up to a degree that kills off the weeds and emerging weeds that come with it. I was just puzzled when you mentioned you had trouble with 7 year old manure. My thinking is that manure is well rotted by the following year and in the succeeding years if that manure isn't used weeds could easily grow back on them. I've watched a show that seemed very informative on the processes of such manure. This however involved the use of earthworms to further process the manure. Stll, what was shown was that the poo was piled high and you could see that it was hot and heating up with the bacteria being very active there. It was watered down every now and then to continue promoting the composting process and necessary to prevent spontaneous fires. It was also turned regularly which would disturb and kill off emerging weed seedlings. Maybe too mix in your hay into the pile. Remember that hay contains seeds. when ready for use, screen the manure. You can use thermometers to ensure you get it very hot. Properly processed poo shouldn't have any odor. If you get it right, you might be able to make a side business and sell poo compost.

Hi Springrose: Your roses are healthy. Thanks for those pics of normal growth. I wasted time in the past defending myself when someone in CA accused the mail-man of giving my rose RRD. She INSISTED that the mite got blown by wind, hitch-hiked on the mail-man's truck, and then the wind blew that mite on my RRD rose !! Some folks promote scary myths without caring to check for facts. Never mind that rose is 50 feet away from the mailbox, with bunch of trees & bushes protecting it from the mailbox, plus it's right in front of a bunch of other roses (none get RRD). I know what I did wrong 4 years ago: I dumped sulfur on that RRD rose, since it's a multiflora, and multiflora is very pale in my alkaline clay. Monitor soil pH is a good idea. RRD is rare in alkaline regions like California and Chicagoland. My soil pH is near 8, only one RRD rose among the hundreds that I planted for the past 30 years. My sister is in Southern CA, none of her roses for the past 30 years have RRD. Same with Seaweed who post here, with 250+ roses, none of her roses have RRD. Both have alkaline clay like mine. None of my other roses get RRD, and Chicagoland is very windy. I get my roof fixed yearly, with shingles constantly blown off from the roof. Today I canceled one claim with State Farm, since it looks bad on my record to have so many roof-claims. Among Cantigny's park of 1,200 roses, only one RRD last year on Pink Traviata. That's ONE case out of my 30 years of frequent visit to the park. Why? Some hired worker dumped a bunch of sulfur on Traviata, without knowing that's a Romantica rose, and Romantica French Meilland roses DON'T like it acidic .. leaves & stems become thinner. Soil on the east coast is more acidic, thus more prone to RRD. More rain on the east coast, and pH of rain is 5.6, slightly acidic. Since my tap water is near 9, one summer I put some vinegar to lower my tap water, down to rain water (pH 5.6). After I water a few roses with that slightly acidic water, roses' leaves became THINNER. So I quit doing that. RRD mite doesn't have teeth, but it has fang to suck to gain entry, and when the soil is acidic, less potassium and calcium are available, thus the tissue is thinner, more susceptible for RRD-mite's invasion. People don't realize that the more rain one has (like the East coast), the more acidic the soil become, plus less potassium since potassium mobility is a 3, it leaches out with rain. Potassium's role is to strengthen plants' tissue against fungal and pests.