I'm Back (With Pics)

[Coon]

Hey all, 
 
  I have been away from home most of the spring working around the province of Saskatchewan.  I have been working for Big Sky Farms Inc. EMS Division.  Big Sky Farms Inc. is one of the leading and largest hog operations in Saskatchewan.  In the division I work in (EMS) we do work that would make most people cringe from the smell alone.  EMS stands for Environmental Management Specialists.  Yes, we pump s**t and  inject it into the land as fertilizer on grain land, pasture and hayland.

The EMS Division moves around from barn to barn pumping this raw sewage on to the land at a specific rate determined by soil testing and can only be injected every three years without harm.  Depending on what type of land and what is growing on the land we inject anywhere from 7000 GPA (Gallons Per Acre) to 20000 GPA.

  The EMS Division works 24/7 in order to get the needed gallons out on the land without the lagoons overflowing.  Most lagoons are pumped out of 2-3 times per year.  We do not simply just dump the sewage on the land, we inject it into the topsoil. 

 

Here we just pulled up to the lagoon behind the barn.





This is our pump that we use to pump the sewage out to the injector through a 6 inch mainline.



Hooked onto the back of the Pump Tandem is what we call a Hummer.  The hummer is a hydraulically operated pump/chopper that feeds the main pump.  The hummer is simply jack-knifed into the lagoon with the pump tandem.



Here we have some of our mainline hose laid out.



This is our large air compressor that we use for sending air through our lines to clean them out and for changing sections of the field.


At the field end of our mainline we have what we call our drag hose.  The drag hose connects to the injector which is a 3 point hitch style discer on the back of a large John Deere front wheel assist tractor.  The drag hose feeds another chopper which in turn distributes the sewage to each individual disc blade.

Often when working in wet conditions we can get stuck.  This next picture shows how bad we can get stuck.  The operator of the JD 8230 (injector tractor) got stuck to the point it took two other tractors to pull him out.  The picture shows a JD 8450 4wd  and a JD 8220 Front wheel assist tractor pulling him out.






Not only do we get the tractors stuck.  Here I got our crew truck stuck.  It's  a '99 F250 Powerstroke Deisel.

[SwampDonkey]

Looks like fun Mr Stinky  umm Coon.  ;D

[Coon]

It can be very fun at times, however it can become very hectic.  At one site we were getting stuck on average of 6 times each day.  It begins to hurt our production after a while.  We have targets that we need to meet.  This spring the crew I work on pumped out 32,362,613 gallons, which was #1 out of three crews.  We will be starting the summer run on the 22nd of June.

[WH_Conley]

Sounds like you need to give Mike Rowe at Dirty Jobs a call. :D

[pigman]

 smiley_airfreshener
Coon, those lagoons make the little lagoons I had look small. Mine only held a litttle over one million gallons. I emptied mine twice a year with a 3,000 gallon tank. The lagoons never smelled as bad as inside of the hog buildings.

Bob

[sprucebunny]

Thank you for the pictures and the write-up, Coon ;D

It's kind of amazing to have pumped 32 million gallons !!!

[leweee]

Yes Coon that job adds new meaning to the title of "S**t Disturber" 8)
Will you ever think of pork the same after this job. ???
Nothing like the smell of one of those lagoons first thing in the morning, to let you know the rest of the day has to be better than this!



PS Old hog farmer told me " that's the smell of money" ;D

[Radar67]

If that's the smell of money, I'll settle for being broke the rest of my life.  :D :D :D

Stew

[simonmeridew]

What kind of "harm" does it do if injected more often than every 3 years? Too much niitrogen??
simonmeridew

[Faron]

Interesting ,Coon.  Does that mean you are a professional s--- stirrer?  ;) What about compaction on the land from having to apply when it is so wet?  That would be a killer on our soils.  Does your soil type or freeze and thaw cycles help manage that?

[Lanier_Lurker]

I've read some horrifying articles about what uncontained and uncontrolled pig crap runoff can do to previously healthy watersheds and ecosystems.  >:( :'(

I'm happy to see that there may be some hope for managing this in the future.

Do you know if pork producers down in the States are using this option?

Also, are the lagoons in Canada engineered in such a way to minimize (or prohibit) runoff and seepage prior to a visit by your EMS Division?


P.S.: I know that smell quite well (along with the smell of rotting corn silage).  There was a decent sized pig farm in the county where I spent part of my childhood.  My dad would take us there to fish in a nearby pond.  I like to fish enough that I could tolerate the odor.  Both of these glorious odors can literally put braids into your nose hairs.

[Coon]

Well, well, well.  I am glad to read the variety of replies.  I am definately used to the smell of hog s**t for I don't even smell it anymore.  Guess that just mean I gotta reap in the money. :D 

W H Conley,  It would definately be cool to see on Dirty Jobs however I don't thick that would follow company policy.  Don't need to jeopradize my income source in any way.

leweee, I have worked in the barns before.  The smell was nothing new to me. The H2S gases are what I worry about.  I simply watch wind directions when I can.  We have monitors that show us how many parts per million of the gas is in the air.  They can kill you if they get to high.

As far as the land is concerned with the compaction, we don't worry about it too much for the fact we have duals on the back spced out as much as possible and large floatation tires on the front. 

All lagoons are designed to hold all sewage with minimal to no seepage.  No Unauthorized Person is Permitted to be on Barn site.  If someone was to fall into the lagoon that person probably wouldn't come out alive. 

simonmeridew, you have a very good question.  If injected too often, you will burn out the soil.  Depending on which type of barn it was determines the Average Nutrient Level to the Big Sky Units.

Barn Type     Total N     Total P O       Total  S
                                             2  5 

1.Breeder/Farrow    21        4              1
2.Nursery                25        5              2
3. Finisher               31        5              3

These are the Average Nutrient Levels for Big Sky Units Only from 2002-2004.   

[DoubleD]

Hey mister it's nice to have you back  with a new job too 8) 8) 8) and don't worry without people that farm there woldn't be people anymore   ;)

[Patty]

Do you know if pork producers down in the States are using this option?


Yes they use a similar proceedure around here. The ones in our area usually get cleaned out once a year in the fall, and knifed into the topsoil after the crops are out. They try to get it before the ground freezes of course. If the ground is already frozen they just spread it on top like the smaller pig farmers do. The smell is pretty awful if they just spread it on top. If they knife it in, the smell is minimal. That pig poop is more expensive to put on the fields than chemical fertilizers for thoses of us who don't raise pigs. I don't know if it is true, but someone said they make as much on the poop as they do on the piggers.  :

[Coon]

Actually in these parts the hog manure is cheaper than chemical fertilizers initially and in the end result.  Why I say in the end result is because you don't have to fertilize for two extra years on one application.  We inject until we can't get it into the ground anymore.  This is usually sometime in November and by that time we have all the lagoons dropped low enough that they will last the winter with overflowing.  It may very well be close in price in the end for the producer.  Hogs can produce alot of waste.

[tomboysawyer]

Do you know if pork producers down in the States are using this option?


Yes they use a similar proceedure around here. The ones in our area usually get cleaned out once a year in the fall, and knifed into the topsoil after the crops are out. They try to get it before the ground freezes of course. If the ground is already frozen they just spread it on top like the smaller pig farmers do. The smell is pretty awful if they just spread it on top. If they knife it in, the smell is minimal. That pig poop is more expensive to put on the fields than chemical fertilizers for thoses of us who don't raise pigs. I don't know if it is true, but someone said they make as much on the poop as they do on the piggers.  :

In Vermont it is illegal to spread over frozen soil.

Always strange, in the winter, to go over the border to New York and see the brown snow.

Doesn't make any sense to spread on frozen soil, especially early in the season. Does nothing to fertilize the land and everything to ruin precious water supplies.

For the "in the States" question - it is state by state.

[stonebroke]

Actually spreading in the winter is not such a bad idea, on pretty flat ground. It soaks in to the soil and is absorbed over a longer time period tha the farmers have in vermont. In the spring it is a mad rush to get it all done and then if you have a flood or heavy rain on all the fresh manure down the river it goes whereas the winter spread has already been absorbed.
Also farmers are busy enough in the spring without having to spread the whole winters worth of manure. This is about the only thing that NYDEC does that makes any sense. Us NY farmers had vermonts example and we do not want that to happen to us, We fight it ever year.

Stonebroke

[Coon]

When I say November it's because the barns in the southern part of the province get later frost than those up around here.  We can keep injecting the manure into the soil until we can not penetrate through the frost.  Using the method that we do there is not a whole lot of excess liquid that runs off into creeks and such.  Keep in mind for the most part we are working on farmland and injecting it on only the land that is normally in cropwhether it be grains or hay and sometimes pasture grazing land.