Not half as uncomfortable as e-coli will make you.
Contrary to common birkenstock belief, most of the stuff in Manure is not beneficial for gardening. The part that is, well you can get that in a bag and be assured of getting just the best part. Chemistry is your friend. Mankind stopped crapping in the fields a long time ago.
excellent comment
I really have to ask - do you garden, farm or ranch, like we do? Because manure is considered to be one of the BEST things for gardens, as long as it's not fresh and raw. I'm not trying to be combative, it's just that I'd love to know who told you that manure was "not good" for gardening. It sounds like something the liberals would say, because they believe anything that comes from those bad old methane-producing cows and their land-raping farmers is BAD. It's the kind of thing that obnoxious yuppies say (right after they move in next to their farming neighbors who have been there for a hundred years) right before they sue for damages from the "toxic waste" from the sheep flock in the neighbor's field...
It's not a "birkenstock" thing - it's a millions of years of farming and ranching thing. Have you all gotten so far away from farming that you no longer know how it was done just thirty years ago?
Wow, let me explain... it's not about "mankind crapping in the fields", it's about animals making fertilizer, and it has a LOT more in it than just nitrogen. Ammonia, salts, urea, and a host of other compounds are there, they're useful, and it's FREE. If manure is not used as fertilizer, it has to be hauled off. If used properly, as it has been for thousands of years, E Coli shouldn't be a problem in composted manure. The key is COMPOSTING - and once again, that's not some "hippie" thing, it' just what people in the country do with their leftover vegetable matter and animal manure.
The problems arise when RAW manure is used on vegetables, and that raw manure is considered to be inferior to composted manure by most gardeners. Not only is raw manure yucky to use, it's can also "burn" your garden if improperly applied.
And it's about more than animal fertilizers - it's about clovers and vetches and other cover crops. What I can do for my piece of land is WAY more than I could ever just pour out of a bag...
Yes, chemistry is our friend, and so is knowledge. Read "The American Farm Book" (1847) and learn more about both.
As a point of history and theology, man was commanded by Moses to bury it, not grow crops with it.
LOL, you're more militant than I am about "organic". You just have to look to who has pushed it to know that it is as much hype as global warming.
I was there a long time ago, but I doubt a whole lot has changed in the rural areas.
Not in many parts of China!