Date: Mon, 12 May 2014 10:58:51 -0400
From: “John R Dykers”
Subject: Hog farm lagoons/ponds for manure
I was one of the neighbors opposed to the hog farm being built just east of my home. At the time I told the builder that if he would live there instead of in Sanford, I would have no objections. He modified his plans, built the hog farm, and I have NEVER smelled a whiff, and have not heard complaints from any other neighbors even closer than I.
The entire hog farm industry is sitting on a gold mine of hog manure, IF processed smartly. It is an ideal substrate for composting to make methane/natural gas for running engines economically, even turbines to generate electricity. The remainder after composting is BETTER fertilizer than raw manuer.. The egg layer industry in Europe collected and dried the droppings and sold them in retail packages for gardeners and made more money off the fertilizer than they did off the eggs!
We need more knowledge and less opinion.
John Dykers
We use ash from Brookwood Farm BBQ cooking instead of lime to raise the ph of our pasture soil. We need to turn trash into treasure, e.g. Lyle Estill making diesel fuel out of old cooking oil, etc. We feed cotton seed hulls and used brewer’s yeast to cattle and turn that waste into steaks and hamburger! Dean Brooks processes all sorts of waste by composting and makes good stuff; ask him.
JRD