Sunday, February 8, 2015

Flies, Odors & Agricultural Waste Management

By Lianne Derocco


Dealing with agricultural waste is always a big issue for all types of livestock farmers. This includes handling swine waste management issues that occur in manure pits and manure lagoons. Two common problems include excessive odors and an abundance of flies. In the following article, we take a look at these two nuisances and discuss how to improve pig manure management at your hog farm.

While hog farms and also dairy farms can be profitable, there are definitely some nuisances with which one must contend. An excess of flies are often a problem. But this isn't just a small problem; these flies also can spread many different types of harmful bacteria and disease. For instance, flies can reach hog manure that is near infected hogs, which otherwise have been separated from other livestock. These flies then can carry infection to the healthy animals. Parasites also can be spread by flies. Generally, hog and dairy farmers will encounter stable flies and the common housefly, but there may be other types of flies present.

Clearing manure quickly away from your animals can be one way to reduce the amount of flies near the animals themselves. The cleaner and drier you keep barns and stables, the less likely you are to be affected by flies. Fly traps and fly paper can be a good option as well for those on a small farm or hobby farm. Proper hog manure treatment also can reduce the amount of flies around your lagoon or waste pit.

While there always will be some level of odor from any type of livestock operation, these odors actually are gases that can be toxic to your workers and the people that live in the surrounding community. In fact, those who live near large hog farms and other types of animal farms often find that they have more colds, more bronchial infections and are afflicted with lung infections and asthma on a larger scale. When you improve your pig manure treatment plan, often you also are reducing the impact your farm has on the surrounding area.

One natural product to consider is Agra Sphere, which helps with swine waste management. This product is designed to reduce deep pit foaming and sludge, as well as to liquefy slurry and prevent issues such as crusting. Excessive sludge and crusting can increase the odors and the amount of flies around your waste pit or lagoon.

Aside from its effectiveness, Agra Sphere has several other advantages. For instance, the product uses only natural, proprietary bacteria to eat away at pig waste solids. There are no chemicals in the product. In addition, each of these spheres is biodegradable, so you need only toss in an adequate amount of spheres and the product will begin working immediately. No mixing is needed either, making this an easy to use product.




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