Re[2]: Composting animal parts

lcboggs@mail.mrsars.usda.gov
Thu, 07 Oct 99 10:55:39 CST

Yes, composting livestock offal and even entire carcasses is legal in many
states and is becoming more common as rendering plants decline in number
and reliability and the number of carcasses becomes too many to bury in the
"back 40". A couple of University of Minnesota Experiment Stations
(Waseca, Morris, others?) are composting full-grown sheep, pigs, even cows.
(Composting Animal Mortality Resource notebook available from WCROC
320-589-1711.) Fat and bones can take longer to decay than meat, but will
still degrade and transform into usable compost in a couple of months. I
think meat and fat are not recommended for home composting because the
piles tend to be pretty small and do not get hot enough for long enough to
kill potential pathogens.

Lynne Carpenter-Boggs
Soil Microbiologist
USDA-ARS
803 Iowa Ave.
Morris, MN 56267
320-589-3411 x141
FAX 320-589-3787
lcboggs@mail.mrsars.usda.gov

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: RE: Composting animal parts
Author: ,"Cole, Ralph" <Rcole@theitgroup.com> at Internet
Date: 10/7/1999 10:08 AM

Composting - I'm not "Mr. Compost", but we compost all of our offal and
feathers from poultry and rabbit processing days. Composting poultry
mortalities is a NRCS subsidized recommendation. Several states have
booklets describing the procedures. Seems like I have seen precautions
against placing fat in small (home-scale) compost bins, but don't recall the
rationale.

Grace to you.

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