# Something Stinks.....And It Could Be You.



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

A great article from Progressive Forage Grower managing editor Lynn Jaynes.

Regards, Mike

https://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-production/fertilizing/something-stinks-and-it-could-be-you


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

When the field is fit it's fit. Due to better nutrition and pit maintenance the local guys have little odor compared with twenty years ago . I do agree with staying active if only to nip these sorts of complaints in the bud.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Around here at least, the way the "city" folk are buying up land to build, the day will come when you won't be able to do anything without pissing somebody off.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

A guy next township over applied for permits to apply human sludge boy did he stir up a hornets nest. My advice is never make trouble for yourself, think before trying to save a couple $ on fertilizer. Half the people in that township have “no sludge in my township “ signs up .


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

IN no way would I put human sludge on anything I owned.......not even a thought.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Timely article Mike. I started spreading chicken litter yesterday so it's definitely a bit smelly round here. Tilled some of it in today, and an inch of rain coming tomorrow which will help.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Golf courses all use it here on the part by the holes, shipped in from the US somewhere. Can't think of a better bunch of people to be standing in it.



somedevildawg said:


> IN no way would I put human sludge on anything I owned.......not even a thought.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Lol, We call those "greens" FYI.......I can't even imagine using it for anything, too many problems with human sludge, not me....and I'll have to remember not to play pasture pool while I visit Canada.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

My late wife put an end to any thought of using biosolids or chicken litter on our place. Just commercial fertilizer and horse manure if I wanted. However, horse manure isn't worth the fuel it takes to spread it with all the sawdust in it tying up the N. I worked with biosolids research plots back when it was lime stabilized and the odor wasn't so bad. Once they stopped adding the lime well, if you want to lose friends in a hurry, spread it next to their house on a warm day...

However, it never ceases to amaze me the number of suburbanites that buy a house to be in the country and like virtually nothing the country has to offer like-

tractors with disbines sticking out

slow moving loads of hay

tractors working late at night-noise and lights

smell of animals in the paddocks

cows and calves when weaning

hogs in any variety or condition

spreading lime

burning brush

to me, this is what living the country smells, looks, and sounds like and why I like living there...


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## StxPecans (Mar 3, 2018)

I have a neighbor with chicken houses next door to my farm. He does not live neat then. And luckly the way the prevailing wind blows the stink does not drift to me but blows right into other peoples houses. 
So i guess putting out chicken poop isnt that big of deal as i could blame it on the chicken houses. Glad I live a mile down the road, up wind.

I like the fertility of chicken poop but that is not the smeel i want associated with country air or living. It down right stinks.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Very popular in groves here.....years ago when chicken house became popular here, dead chickens were abundant. Lots of pecan farmers started farming gators.....they got the dead chickens from the plants and in turn, the litter for their groves.....was a win/win for the pecan guys.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Neighbor still spreads pelletized sludge. Tests out at 3-3-3, its not worth the time to spread it let alone haul it from Gary and Chicago. He thinks he's getting a bunch of organic matter from it which I know not to be true, they disc everything in the fall, then chisel it, half his top soil and what little OM he has ends up in our ditch eventually anyways, clean the ditches and we use his dirt to fill in our low spots.


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

Biggest problem I see with human sludge is they say they test it but don’t tell you what they don’t test it for . Heavy metals if there’s lead in the drinking water I guarantee it’s in the sludge. The next thing is drug residue be it legal stuff or illegal. I’ve worked in cities for years people put everything down the drain crap from there drug labs ,motor oil , chemicals and who knows what else.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I was happy last year when the neighbor sold all his cows tore down some corrals and moved to the other side of Colorado. Now he has rebuilt the pens and rented them out. The smell hasn't ever really bothered me. What bothers me is the flies. Dear Lord the flies! I don't know much about the penned up feeder cow business, but are there ways they can keep the flies down?

We had a break this summer from them, but I'm sure they will be back next summer. Unless the corral renters are better at managing them then the owner. Which doesn't take much I don't think.

What's interesting is the neighbor tore down his corrals, then sold off 3 acres to some couple to build a house. The whole time the lot was advertised and sold there wasn't corrals or cows. Now there is corrals and 100 cows within 50 feet of where these people had planned to build their house. I don't care if you are city and country type person. That's kind of low.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Teslan said:


> I was happy last year when the neighbor sold all his cows tore down some corrals and moved to the other side of Colorado. Now he has rebuilt the pens and rented them out. The smell hasn't ever really bothered me. What bothers me is the flies. Dear Lord the flies! I don't know much about the penned up feeder cow business, but are there ways they can keep the flies down?
> 
> We had a break this summer from them, but I'm sure they will be back next summer. Unless the corral renters are better at managing them then the owner. Which doesn't take much I don't think.
> 
> What's interesting is the neighbor tore down his corrals, then sold off 3 acres to some couple to build a house. The whole time the lot was advertised and sold there wasn't corrals or cows. Now there is corrals and 100 cows within 50 feet of where these people had planned to build their house. I don't care if you are city and country type person. That's kind of low.


Not impossible they could have legal issue with what he did if all that is true which not arguing. He will want to argue corrals had to be rebuilt but they will argue what he did implied he had stopped with animals. Let us know how this turns out. At best it is misleading on his part to me UNLESS it was made clear to the buyers what he was doing.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Just spread 4 ton/acre of turkey litter on 150 acres surrounding the house. The 1st 12 hours was “unpleasant” but got all turbo tilled in and a couple tenths of rain on it and smell is gone just like that. Worst problem was our black lab likes to roll in it and try to eat all the turkey turds, so he smelled a little. Had one landlord very hesitant to have their farm spread but I talked them into it, wind was right, and turbo till was right behind trucks so all is well.


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## haybaler101 (Nov 30, 2008)

Neighbor farmer used to get city sludge to spread. They said the biggest problem was having to clean the condoms off of the field cultivator shanks!


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

That's like our area is turning into wall-to-wall chicken houses. If you're up words of the prevailing Breeze it isn't bad but if you're down wind it's not a nice situation. On a neighboring Farm they put to hog units 800 ft upwind from The Neighbors house. The house was there before the farm not that it makes any difference but I drive by there and those people have a living hell some days it makes your eyes water. They said this year they were able to talk them into change some of the methods how they raise and feed the Hogs to get the smell down a little I believe it did help some


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Yet city people don't bitch about landfills and city lagoons stinking and they put them out of town away from them.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Palmettokat said:


> Not impossible they could have legal issue with what he did if all that is true which not arguing. He will want to argue corrals had to be rebuilt but they will argue what he did implied he had stopped with animals. Let us know how this turns out. At best it is misleading on his part to me UNLESS it was made clear to the buyers what he was doing.


I haven't talked to the guy recently that bought the lot so I don't know if he is upset. He hasn't started building his house yet so he isn't out here much yet. I do think he had no idea that the corrals would be rebuilt. He told me that he was going to ask the guy if he would be willing to sell the land the corrals were on before they were rebuilt. I'm sure he knew there had been corrals there as there was a cattle chute and loading ramp there still. And a loafing shed. I have no idea what all questions were asked of the seller by the buyer before they bought the lot. I don't know if it was misleading or not. A person can do what they want on their land. Though it would sure be aggravating. This same guy built a 400 cow dairy right next to another farm we own. Which we had been considering selling 4 acres off for a house. Low market value after the dairy was built. But it is his land and he built the dairy to the current ag zonings. KInda funny though. A couple years ago this same guy was complaining how another neighbor painted his house purple. complaining it would lower property values. I had to hold my tongue. Questionable paint colors is nothing compared to building a dairy next door. Colors can change easily.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Maine has a "Right to Farm Act", just for the purpose of city-folk neighbors who do not like tractors at 4 Am, or manure smells. It is a part of rural life...

A farm has to abide by CNMP's of course, but go by that and a farmer is legally immune from neighbor complaints.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Oh...this covers my dog as well. A Great Pyrenees, she watches the sheep and barks all night to let the coyotes know she is on duty. My town does have a barking dog ordanance, BUT the Right to Farm Act supercedes local laws, so she can bark all she wants legally.

Don't let her cute looks fool you; she has (2) coyote, and (2) fox notche on her collar, She loves us and her sheep even more!


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

Farmerbrown2 said:


> A guy next township over applied for permits to apply human sludge boy did he stir up a hornets nest. My advice is never make trouble for yourself, think before trying to save a couple $ on fertilizer. Half the people in that township have "no sludge in my township " signs up .


We had our septic tank pump here a couple years ago, and dad told them they could go spread it out on our fields, and the operator told him they could not do that. I don't know if that is company policy or state law; I am thinking it is state law.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

Got a few guys around me that spread the 'refined' biosolids. I cuss them when it's spread, I would rather wallow in poultry litter or a hog lagoon than deal with human chit.

Before having a cab tractor, while making hay, the smell of biosolids spread nearby sickened me. I was gagging and had migraines. When somebody spreads poultry litter, sure it's rank but it doesn't make me gag. Animal diets are largely natural unlike the masses of people, that has to say something.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

CowboyRam said:


> We had our septic tank pump here a couple years ago, and dad told them they could go spread it out on our fields, and the operator told him they could not do that. I don't know if that is company policy or state law; I am thinking it is state law.


It has to be an approved site and in Indiana enough lime has to be added to bring it to a certain PH. They also look at soil porosity more than anything, they don't want it shooting right down to the water table.


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