Green Valley Farms Hog Operation: Spreading on Frozen Ground

Green Valley Farms hog operation is a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) in York PA on Codorus Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna and Chesapeake Bay. This facility is disposing of their hog waste on frozen ground right before they are calling for snow on January 7th. This is probably legal, but is it the most efficient use of the nutrients supplied by the 6000 pigs, or is the manure being spread for the purpose of waste disposal? According to the Penn State Agronomy Guide, only 20 to 45 percent of the nitrogen will be taken up by the crops when spread on frozen ground. Although some of the nitrogen will stay in the soil, most of the rest will go into the water or air (to come back down again when it rains). Will liquid manure spread on frozen ground, then covered by snow, efficiently get those nutrients into the ground. When the temperatures warm up, the snow and liquid manure will melt before the ground thaws. An early spring rain will wash much away.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• CAFO
• Manure
• Hog
• Green
• Valley
• Farm
• Susquehanna
• River
• Chesapeake
• Bay

[cantkeepquiet09]

I wouldn't get to worried about what they were spreading. There was a lot of water in that manure. It probably came from a farrowing unit. Farrowing unit manure is mostly water. It would be a different story if it was come from a finishing unit. It was a very difficult fall to get things into the ground before it froze. Here in Iowa last fall the custom manure hauler I work for, had only a month in a half to get 65 million gallons in the ground.