Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 15:13:43 -0400
From: John R Dykers
Subject: Sludge fertilizer and corn for chickens – Myra dotson’s post 11Aug #4110
Important consideration. Lots of the reasons you mention are why we are so picky about CharLean Beef.
I confess to using sludge ONCE about 30 years ago, directly from a city wastewater treatment facility. (I’ve frogotten which city!) Neighbor Billy Fitts was kind enough to let us come in “the back door” to our hill pasture and WE WERE THANKFUL for the “free” fertilizer as the input costs are always exploding faster than the rising beef prices, even now. That is part of why the IRS complains we did not make money!
BUT we were presented a very complex analysis of the chemical content of the sludge and compared to our soil test and spelled out the time before same sludge could be applied again. WE NEVER USED SLUDGE AGAIN! Part of this decision was the complexity of some of the trace metals and more particularly the worrisome cyclic hydrocarbons, even though the ammounts were very small. Another reason was that the sludge trucks were so heavy they cut ruts in the pasture which I bounced over every time I bushhogged or cut or baled hay of any other field activity. Thank goodness we only applied to “the hill pasture”.
Thank you for the update on Mr. Ridling’s practices. It would be useful to add information about the specifics of the source and content of the sludge. As long as more and more humans are creating more and more waste, we do have a challenge about how to recycle the waste safely.
By the way, SOME of the trace minerals in the sludge replaced trace minerals that were low or absent in the soil and were actually beneficial to cows and humans alike – selenium, copper and zinc come to mind.
John Dykers