Friday, January 31, 2014

Manure Storage - Knowing Your Options

By Lianne Derocco


Whether you are a farmer that raises only a few hogs each year or the owner and operating of a large-scale hog farm, dealing with manure is one of the many tasks you face. Failure to deal with agricultural waste can result in problems that can adversely affect your animal population as well as the surrounding environment in general.

Regardless of the number of hogs you have, the need to contain manure is a "must" and waste containment systems are available in several types with due consideration to the size of your farm. A small waste pit may be good for small hobby farms while a waste lagoon is best for large-scale factory farms - note the difference.

If you have a small farm, a manure pile can be built on your property. This needs to be built away from wells, ponds, streams and all other sources of water so as not to contaminate these water sources. For a small scale operation, you also will want the waste pit to be fairly far away from your own housing as well as the homes of any of your neighbors.

Lining and covering your waste pit should be observed. Unless you want to find your waste all washed out of your pit by heavy rain when it should come, and have toxins spread all around while nutrients which are helpful in producing good quality fertilizer are removed, then cover your pit. If you intend to make compost out of the manure, try Compost Plus because it comes with enzymes, natural microbial remediation isolates and composting activation factors. The rate of decomposition will then be accelerated. If this is not what you want, there is always a livestock manure recycling company you can call to collect your manure that accumulates in your waste containment system. For this, the possibility of tossing in other compostable items like egg shells, sod, grass cutting, vegetable waste and even kitty litter is present.

Aside from containment, waste lagoons should also be with a method of liquefying waste and transforming it to become useful fertilizer. There will be problems like sludge build-up, top crusting and foaming if your waste lagoon come poorly managed and this could be dangerous, even explosive. And so, in order to prevent such problems, treating your waste lagoon with a product like Agra Sphere should be considered.

Agra Sphere contains only helpful bacteria, which eat away at organic waste solids. There are no chemicals in the product and no mixing is needed in order to activate the product. In addition to eating away at sludge and crusts, Agra Sphere can help reduce the odors and flies associated with waste pits and lagoons and also improve the nutrient value of your manure so that you can use it for your own crops or sell it to increase your overall profits.




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