Manure Odour Control Field
Day for Media and Regulators

W.T.(Bill) Henley P. Eng.
Agricultural Operations Section
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

The hog industry in the prairie region of Western Canada has a competitive advantage over other Provinces and areas of the world, with respect to cost, animal density, high herd health status and management expertise. This has lead to rapid expansion of the industry with an increase in the size of farms. Typical new farm size is either 600 sow farrow to finish sites which are planned to expand to 1200 sows or 2400 sow SEW operations with 2400 sow space farrowing sites, 8800 pig space nursery sites and 8000 pig space feeder sites. Saskatchewan has traditionally had a very small hog industry, which for many years has produced approximately 1 million feeder hog per year. These hogs were produced on more than 4000 farms 10 years ago and today are being produced on 2200 farms. Less than 100 of today's 2200 producers produce more than 80% of these pigs. Projections indicate that 3 million hogs will be produced in Saskatchewan in 5 years time. This small concentrated industry is not well understood by the rest of society in Saskatchewan or even by the rest of the agricultural industry in this Province. The hog industry has been negatively affected by headline grabbing "horror" stories from other jurisdictions and the odour control work that has been developed here is not well known outside the industry. Consequently the need to make people aware of these developments.

Through funding provided by the Agri-Food Innovation Fund (AFIF) a demonstration tour was set for July 29/97. The purpose of the tour was to actively demonstrate cost effective methods of odour control in the storage, agitation and application of manure that can be used on commercial hog farms today. The organizers of the tour were the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI), Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food (SAF) and the Prairie Swine Centre Inc (PSCI). This tour is part of a larger project, which has as its objectives the development of written information on odour control, the production of videos on odour control as well as the demonstration tour. It was decided that the tour would be targeted at media, municipal politicians and provincial employees. The media was targeted because of their impact on public opinion. Municipal politicians were chosen because of their involvement in site selection at the local level. Provincial regulatory employees were included because of their involvement in the approval process for the establishment of new facilities. All three of these groups can have a major impact on the growth of the industry. Personal invitations were sent to all participants and follow up was done with each invitation to ensure attendance at the event. Everyone was asked to be part of the group who traveled from site to site on the tour bus. This helped to alleviate the concern of bio security as well as encouraged discussion with resource staff and comparison among the group as the bus traveled between sites. All participants except the television media were able to comply with this request. A meal was planned for the end of the event to illustrate how well odour can be controlled. The event itself was promoted with media releases prior to and on the day of the tour.

The day started with everyone meeting at a mall in Saskatoon to board the bus. An information package was distributed to everyone in attendance. It consisted of a brochure on the AFIF project, information from PSCI on their inflated balloon cover, information from PAMI on various aspects of manure management and odour control, as well as articles of general interest on manure and odour most of which were taken from hog trade magazines. A video produced by PSCI on bio security was shown on the bus trip to the first stop of the tour

The first stop was PSCI where an inflated, balloon type cover on a 60' diameter, 12' deep circular concrete tank was demonstrated. The design and operation of the inflated cover was explained by Dr. Stephan Lemay, Engineering Research Scientist. PSCI also has an identical concrete tank that is not covered so that, participants could notice the significant difference in odour levels between the two storage vessels.

The second stop was an 8800, pig space nursery site where the manure is stored in a 200' by 400' clay lined earthen manure storage. No odour control measures were used at this site. The purpose of the stop here was for participants to determine the offensive of the site based on their own experiences, rather than relying on other people's opinions.

The third stop was a 600, sow farrow to finish site where the manure is stored in an earthen manure storage. This particular barn uses a pit additive in the barn to reduce odour and to improve the solids handling of the manure at pump out. The PAMI developed Pit Sweep was also demonstrated at this site in comparison to conventional earthen manure storage agitation methods. The Pit Sweep consists of a horizontal hydraulically driven rotating auger and shield attached at the open impeller end of a conventional lagoon pump. It can stir up solids and drag them to the impeller with very little disturbance of the liquids at the surface, thus reducing odour and fuel consumption compared with continuous conventional agitation..

The fourth stop was in a field where the PAMI developed liquid manure injection system was demonstrated. This system consists of a modified cultivator with a distribution head and shanks on 12 " row spacing so that manure can be evenly applied below the soil surface. The system has been designed to handle slurry trash such as hair, straw and other foreign materials without plugging. It also operates in fields with very heavy surface residues and long stubble.

The final stop was at a earthen manure storage where the liquid surface had been covered with barley straw approximately 30 days previously. Some of the straw surface had blackened and sunk by the time of the demonstration but participants could notice the significant reduction in odour levels caused by the straw cover. Additional straw was added to the liquid surface using a machine manufactured by Highline Manufacturing called the "TopGun". This machine consists of a large round bale processor with a centrifugal fan and nozzle attached. After new straw was added the odour level at the storage was considered to be zero.

The day was completed with a catered full course hot meal being served beside the straw covered earthen storage. This was done to drive home the point there are steps that producers can take to significantly reduce the odour level in the storage, handling and spreading of liquid hog manure. The meal was delicious, everyone ate (even those who declared at the start of the tour that they wouldn't be able to eat seated beside a manure storage site) and many people had second helpings.

One of the main objectives of the day was to have the media file stories of what they saw and smelled. Prior to the actual event and on the day of the event two media releases were put out explaining the event, and giving the name of a contact person. On the day of the event a reporter with CBC radio did a "live" broadcast on the noon hour show as the tour was in progress. In the afternoon the same reporter did another story for the 4 to 6 pm show. As well for the two following days stories were either ran again during a different part of the day or a follow up story was provided by the CBC. Two television crews covered the event. They both filed evening stories on the day of the event as well as follow up stories later in the same week. Print media ran stories in the following publications: The Western Producer which is read in all 3 prairie provinces; Ag World which is distributed free to all farmers in Saskatchewan; and in the Humboldt Journal which is the newspaper covering the area where most of the tour was held. As well SAF issued it's own press release on the event where the media in attendance at the event were quoted on their impressions regarding how well the odour reduction methods worked.

HOG INDUSTRY'S NEW ODOR-CONTROL TECHNOLOGY IMPRESSES MEDIA

As with any good journalist, CBC Saskatoon radio reporter Amy Jo Ehman approaches every news story with an open mind. Her response to the invitation to attend the Agri-Food Innovation Fund Manure Odour Control Field Day in late July, however, was slightly different.

"I expected hog manure to stink," she confesses.

And it did -- but not near as badly as she expected.

"I attended the field day because the issue of odor control in hog operations has raised a lot of public controversy, and I wanted a first-hand look," Ehman explains. "We weren't in the barns, but we were given a demonstration of a new machine that injected the swine manure directly into the ground. This produced no smell at all.

"One of the most interesting events was our lunch beside a manure pit. The pit was covered with straw, and we could eat there with no problem at all. That was a big surprise," says Ehman.

The latter included a straw-blowing demonstration with a TopGun machine by Highline Manufacturing Inc., says Denise Phipps, a summer employee of Pork Central, Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food in Saskatoon.

Phipps organized the late-July Manure Odour Control Field Day to allow members of the media and representatives from various companies and agencies, such as SaskWater and Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada, to experience the olfactory effects of various odor-control techniques emerging on Saskatchewan farms. Participants visited two commercial pork production facilities near Humboldt -- Big Sky Pork and Possberg Pork Farm 1 -- and Paul and Judy Ulrich's hog farm near Spalding.

"In addition to the TopGun demonstration we showed the effect of a pit additive product that controls odor by reducing the ammonia loss," says Phipps.

"The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) demonstrated its Pit Sweep, which will likely revolutionize the future of pit agitation in large swine operations. PAMI also demonstrated its cultivator-based, high-volume manure injection system. The main advantage of this system over the traditional broadcast methods is odor reduction, but it also retains more of the valuable crop nutrients."

Ed White, a Saskatoon reporter from The Western Producer, admits he was skeptical about the alleged benefits of these new odor-control technologies.

"I know hog manure can be horrific," White says. "But I was particularly struck by how well the straw cover over the lagoon worked. That's where we had the barbecue and there was no smell at all. I was also impressed with the comparison of the old and new lagoon agitation methods."

Marilyn Maki, a reporter with CBC Television in Saskatoon, attended the demonstrations of the Pit Sweep and PAMI's field injection system only. The odor reduction of both systems impressed her.

"It's nice to see the hog industry is addressing the odor problem with technology that seems to be effective," she concludes.

The entire field tour was attended by Murray Lyons, a Saskatoon Star Phoenix reporter who has had previous experiences on the traditional hog farm. He was most impressed by PAMI's direct-injection system.

"If this system was widely used, I don't think there would be any great objection to the distribution of hog manure," says Lyons.

"But I was kind of apprehensive about the prospect of eating lunch beside the outdoor storage pit. I was generally impressed by the straw-blowing demonstration. We were quite comfortable eating there.

"So I left this field tour with the impression that the odor from swine operations is a manageable problem. And it seems the industry is working hard to deal with it," says Lyons.

For more information, contact: (name and address of Bill Henley)

Participants in the tour were asked to formally evaluate the event. Almost all ratings were in the very good to excellent range, especially in the areas of usefulness of information and quality and content of demonstrations. Interesting comments to note were:

1. The need to do this type of field day in other parts of the province, and
2. The desire by people outside the pig industry to see, hear and touch a real pig.

Printed material as well as a video on odour reduction are in the process of being developed over the winter months in 1997/98. A tour is also tentatively being planned for the southern part of Saskatchewan for the spring of 1998. Other technology developments that will hopefully be demonstrated include the use of a pipeline direct injection system and the use of liquid manure pumping equipment that effectively handles the straw from a straw cover.

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