The Rural Voice, 1997-03, Page 14tro-x
CHRYSLER DODGE
HOME OF QUALITY
USED VEHICLES
"We only sell the best
for less and
wholesale the rest"
CHRYSLER
DODGE
JEEP
DODGE TRUCKS
Sales • Leasing
Parts • Service
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Sunset Strip,
Owen Sound
Ontario, N4K 5W9
(519) 371 -JEEP (5337)
1-800-263-9579
Fax: (519) 371-5559
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10 THE RURAL VOICE
Scrap Book
Dehydrator turns pig manure to soil
Hog farmers in Ste. Brigide, of 40 per cent of their manure
disposal.
Slurry is 80-85 per cent water
with the rest being valuable
organic matter and minerals. The
thermal dehydrator vaporizes the
water and sterilizes the remaining
organic matter, rendering it
odorless.
When farmers bring their slurry
to the plant, it is pumped into a
50,000 litre mixing tank. When it
is at the right consistency, it is fed
through the DEC 2000 in open
troughs by a series of augers. The
dehydrator is nine metres long,
weighs 20 tonnes, and operates on
propane or natural gas.
The DEC Group hopes to build
local manure dehydration centres
in areas of high hog concen-
trations. These would either be
built and operated by the
company or in partnerships with
local farmer co-ops of several hog
farmers. Each centre would have a
minimum of five machines which
would require at least 60,000
hogs.
"This is not a solution for
individual farmers unless they
have very large operations,"
Varvat said.0
— Source: Western Producer
Quebec, 45 miles southeast of
Montreal, aren't having problems
meeting increasingly tough
restrictions on disposal of manure
from their farms. They haul it to
the world's first thermal dehydra-
tor where, for about a cent a
gallon, it is turned into a dry com-
post that has 80 per cent organic
matter, and a 6-7-6 nitrogen -
phosphorus -potassium content.
The DEC 2000 dehydrator was
invented by Phillippe Varvat and
has been four years in develop-
ment. Varvat and his partners in
the DEC Group, invested millions
in developing the dehydrator. For
the past year it has been
processing about five tonnes of
hog slurry a day. This spring they
expect to open a larger plant
which will have five dehydrators
turning 40-45 tonnes of slurry into
five to six tonnes of dark, loamy
compost every day.
"The machine has great
potential, in Canada and
internationally, to deal with the
enormous environmental problem
of pollution caused by excess
manure," Varvat said. Equally
important, his calculations show
hog farmers will save a minimum
Kangaroo market has plenty of bounce
Mad cow disease has opened the door for increased European sales for a new
Australian export — kangaroo meat.
Initially seen as a passing fad, kangaroo can now be found on the menus of
some of the best restaurants from London to Amsterdam to Berlin. It's also being
sold in some supermarkets. British importers predict consumption will rise to
100 tonnes of fillets a year. Last year France became the 19th country to approve
the sale of kangaroo meat, a new market that, Australians say, has the potential
to generate $30 million (Aust.) a year.
Kangaroo meat has 10 times less fat than rump steak, is low in cholesterol,
has an appealing, gamey taste and has no link with BSE, which makes it
attractive to some consumers. It's also 15 percent cheaper than beef in Britain.
The meat comes from wild kangaroos culled by professional hunters.
Research by the Australian government has found that a cull of two million of
the population of 40 million is needed to protect agricultural areas from damage.
Though the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has said
culling is the most acceptable method of controlling kangaroo numbers, animal
rights groups in Britain claim kangaroos are an endangered animal and have
picketed and threatened British restaurants and butcher shops which sell the mcat.0
—Source: Western Producer