Composting mortalities on farms

This guidance demonstrates how to safely compost dead animals on farms. It will help farmers dispose of farm mortalities in a bio-secure method that can produce beneficial soil by-product.

The guideline is only for use in composting a small number of animals. It is does not apply to the management and disposal of large numbers of animal mortalities that result from a disease outbreak.

This document focuses on two composting methods to process animal carcasses weighing more than five kilograms:

• Mortality bin composting for small to medium carcasses (up to the size of a sheep or pig)
• Mortality pile composting for large carcasses (a cow or horse)