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16 THE RURAL VOICE
Guest Column
Manure handling can be a win-win situation
By J. Willems
Liquid manure — the bad side:
It is not difficult to find a subject
on many people's minds more and
around which so much time is spent
at meetings problem solving.
Livestock production seems the
biggest troublemaker in food
production right now. Animal
waste, or liquid manure in this case,
causes a pain in the neck.
Farmers try to apply new
technology to saveliabour, using
more slatted floor area, until the
bam becomes a total slatted interior.
It seems "normal" now to make the
pit underneath the slats deeper, to
create more manure -storage
capacity. Here is where the problem
starts. It can give us as human
beings a very frustrated feeling to
discover that we have forgotten
what we have learned at high school
and/or agriculture college about
biology and chemistry. Studying
different bacteria was maybe not the
most interesting subject, although
we can not live without them. If I
can remember what I learned 50
years ago, there are two different
groups of bacteria which play a
different role with manure. We call
them aerobe bacteria, which need
free oxygen to live and grow, and
an -aerobe bacteria which are
microorganisms that grow in the
absence of free oxygen. The last
one is the culprit which breaks down
the manure and causes the formation
of ammonia, a colourless gas with
pungent odour and acrid taste. It is
also one of the causes of the
formation of acid rain.
Sometimes solids settle down in
inside manure storage and need to
be agitated to empty the pit (gutter).
During this process more gases are
freed (some of which can be toxic),
killing pigs and in some serious
circumstances human beings. We
call this instant killing, but what will
it do to the human beings who live
in the environment of big livestock
facilities or have to work eight or
ten hours a day in such places?
What can we expect from our
neighbours?
Liquid manure — the good side:
If liquid manure is handled well,
it can become the most valuable
fertilizer for our crops. Aeration
reduces nitrogen losses at the time
of storage as well as during
spreading since much of the
nitrogen is in the form of bacterial
protcin rather than ammonium
compounds. First we have to bring
air (oxygen) into the manure
storage. The oxygen will enhance
the growth of the aerobe bacteria
who build up their body protein
from the ammonia, and avoid having
the ammonia go up into the air
loaded with odours.
A fairly high efficiency of
nitrogen cycling to crop plants can
be achieved.
When liquid manure is not
aerated, nitrate tends to be
denitrified in the anaerobic
conditions and considerable
quantities of nitrogen are lost.
Without aeration, anaerobic
decomposition takes place, forming
noxious chemical compounds such
as butyric acids which, along with
ammonia, are responsible for the
bad odours and damage to crops and
soil fauna. Untreated liquid manure
applied on the land, creates an acid
environment in the upper layer of
the top soil, and in an acid
environment, weeds will grow much
faster and heavier. Because we have
made the soil sick, the weeds will
come to help to make the soil
healthier, especially in the spring
time.
Which system works best?
In the past many different
systems have been tried out, but a
method has been found to keep the
value of the manure as nutritious for
the plants as possible and make the
system financially affordable. A
simple pump (compressor) can bring
in air gradually via a pvc pipe or
other material in which small (.5
mm) holes are made. A handy
farmer can build it using an old
vacuum system from milking
equipment combined with a small
windmill. The pipes to bring in the
air should be close to the bottom of