manure wars in New Mexico

[ensho]

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/40816


Dairy Pollution Sparks 'Manure War' in New Mexico


The picture on many milk cartons shows cows grazing on a pasture next to a country barn and a silo — but the reality is very different.

More and more milk comes from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where large herds live in feedlots, awaiting their thrice-daily trip to the milking barn. A factory farm with 2,000 cows produces as much sewage as a small city, yet there's no treatment plant.

Across the country, big dairies are coming under increased criticism for polluting the air and the water. In New Mexico, they're in the midst of a manure war.

Everyday, an average cow produces six to seven gallons of milk and 18 gallons of manure. New Mexico has 300,000 milk cows. That totals 5.4 million gallons of manure in the state every day. It's enough to fill up nine Olympic-size pools.

(good grief! that's a lot of manure)

The New Mexico Environment Department reports that two-thirds of the state's 150 dairies are contaminating groundwater with excess nitrogen from cattle excrement. Either the waste lagoons are leaking, or manure is being applied too heavily on farmland.
-snip-
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again, another source of polluted drinking water

[hedgehog]

1. And where in New Mexico does one find enough water to give to

dairy cattle to produce5.4 million gallons of manure a day?

[lapfog_1]

14. Much of New Mexico is mountainous, and the mountains have streams and creeks...

Not to mention the Rio Grande, the Pecos, and the Gila river systems.

[hedgehog]

19. I would suggest that the water to support these animals is being piped in from

reservoirs, that the local habitat could never support that density. Of course, not even here in Upstate New York with 40" of rain a year could you support that many animals in one place.

[lapfog_1]

22. Oh certainly, I thought you were referring to the "desert"

nature of the state. I'm sure that water is piped to the various farms and feedlots. I thought you were concerned about the water needed to fill the reservoirs.

[hedgehog]

23. Well, I'd say it's a fair bet that some big corporation is sucking up water that used to go to

a lot of small farms.

[lapfog_1]

2. Cow manure isn't like human feces.

Especially if they are fed mostly grass and hay, instead of corn feed.

In moderate amounts, especially broken down by bacteria and insects, it is very beneficial to the environment (not so much the flatulence that cows produce).

Spoken as someone who used to shovel it, spread it over a few acre garden, and disc it into the earth.

[ensho]

3. the bad thing is the corn feed. cows were meant to eat grasses and chew

their cud as it makes its way through all the stomaches. what comes out the other end makes wonderful fertilizer.

(I forget, is it 3 stomaches they have? and do they chew the corn cud like they do grasses? corn must really upset their insides.)

[Mopar151]

7. Are you talking about corn silage?

'Cuz it's the whole plant, stalks 'n all - plenty of good chewing there.

[ensho]

8. oh, thanks, they always say corn not corn silage

in the days when cows went to pasture, did they eat corn silage too?

[amandabeech]

10. At my uncle's farm, the cattle ate silage as part of their indoor winter diet.

The other main part of that diet was hay, which is dried pasture.

The cows were fed some corn, but not like today.

[Mopar151]

17. As far as I know, yes

You need to supplement pasture forage with silage and grain to get good production.

[doodadem]

13. Sorry--cow manure harbors a number of diseases

E. coli being the biggie that is communicable to humans. Johne's Disease is highly communicable and deadly to other cattle. I have personal experience with this.

I think a lot has to do with the moisture content in cow manure--very squishy. For sure it attracts many more flies. Horse manure is a lot safer. Its what I use on everything here, especially since I have horses and donkeys. It doesn't carry the diseases that cow manure does. And in our dry climate, it dehydrates almost immediately.

If you contact any boarding stable in your area, they're usually more than willing to let you just come haul it away. Just compost it for awhile--don't use on plants while its still "hot".

It sounds like NM is getting the same problems that Calif. has had with the big industrial dairies for awhile now. They're starting to make them clean up their act here, with the big nasty lagoons and so forth leaking into water supplies.

[lapfog_1]

15. Yes, I grew up on a horse ranch, and we had a few cattle.

Horse manure is much better, but cattle manure, when dried and "processed" by nature, it's fairly safe - cow chips.

People used to use "cow chips" as fuel for cooking food.

The real problem is crowded feed lot operations, where the chance for spreading disease is much greater, and the amount of concentrated cow manure is problematic.

[hedgehog]

18. The key words "in moderate amounts"

I live in a rural area and have a septic tank and leach field. This system uses a lot of ground to handle waste from one family. In cities and many suburbs, there are too many people per acre to allow septic systems to work. That's when a sewer system is needed. The same applies to farm animals, but our laws haven't caught up yet.

[pipi_k]

4. Well damn, they can ship some of it my way!

There are plenty of dairy farmers around, but the dirty bastards are keeping the cow manure for themselves.

I've actually considered going out some dark night to do a bit of turd-burgling...

[kestrel91316]

5. kestrel's solution >>>>

Manure lagoons >>>> biogas/energy/money >>>> lagoon sludge >>>> biochar/money >>>> return nutrients to soil where cattle feed crops are grown, sequester much CO2/make more money.

But that would make too much sense.......

[jaksavage]

6. That is new experimental money

not the old regular money they are used to.
Biodigesters are a really great technology.
I learned about them in 1979 in the Peace Corps, on my way to Tuvalu!

[kestrel91316]

11. All out sewage in Los Angeles goes to the Hyperion Treatment Plant which

has LOTS of digesters (huge domed structures) for getting biogas from the biosolids in sewage. It produces a significant amount of the city's electricity.

And they are working on a new process that involves injecting the biosolids into old, spent oil and gas wells in the LA Harbor area that will allow extraction of methane while chemically sequestering the CO2 given off in the rock structure itself. Currently, when the spent biosolids leave the digesters, they are used as fertilizer on a couple of large CA farms (after extensive testing that PROVES that they are extremely low in and much better than the standards require WRT meavy metals and other toxins).

[jaksavage]

20. Cool

some good news.

[kestrel91316]

21. It's not even news. It's "olds". The Hyperion biogas digesters were put into

service in the 1950's. Lost Angeles, for all its flaws, wins top awards for how it deals with waste and sets the standard for everybody else to follow.

[Mopar151]

9. Some research money and manufacturing capital

Would be a very good investment, with multiple payoffs. Make sure the systems are adaptable for pigshit - a lot of folks in the Carolinas will breathe better.
It's a very simple principle - when the money works, recycling works!

[dusmcj]

12. time to breed less, and eat less /nt

[madokie]

16. Chicken and hog waste has ruined our streams here in northeast oklahoma

streams that used to be crystal clear with the bottoms covered in the prettiest rocks and now the water is clouded and the rocks have algae growing on them to the point that if you do step into the streams you'll likely fall on your ass because of the slipperiness of the algae. We're having some trials concerning that right now with the poultry industry