There is some evidence, and more research being done, regarding the benefit of manure composting on antibiotics. Check out a summary article from the Rodale institute at Livestock Inputs Make Manure a Concern Also Amy Pruden, PhD., a research scientist at Colorado State University, quoted in the Rodale article has a website on her work with antibiotics: Agricultural Antibiotics. In the introduction to this work there is the following sentence. "Composting animal manure prior to land application not only benefits the soil, but may allow time for antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes to attenuate." Key to reducing the residual is adequate time and temperature for the composting process. You may also want to check out the ARS work at Minimal Composting of Beef Cattle Manure Reduces Antibiotics Levels. Regarding hormones, recent research has shown that composting to maintain temperatures at 150ºF for several days may decrease hormone concentrations, but passive stacking of manure may not lead to a decrease in hormones.

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