Best deadstock removal option depends on individual farms, says Symposium guest
By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape & Lynn Redl-Huntington
When managing deadstock, pork producers are encouraged to consider their own location, management and biosecurity situations when deciding on the best option.
Prior to 2002, rendering plants picked up deadstock because it had value, but when BSE hit the material became unusable and removal became an unnecessary cost. "Alternative Methods for Deadstock Management" was a featured topic at the Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium in Saskatoon this year.
Dr. Terry Fonstad, the Associate Vice-President Research with the University of Saskatchewan, said the most appropriate choice depends on such factors where you are, how far you are from services, the geology of the site and what kind of operation it is.
“If you're going to handle them yourself, so if you’re going to deal with them on farm you can try to bury them, you can incinerate them, you can compost them. If you're going to bury, the big consideration is the geology, the fluid conductivity of the soil. The permeability of the soil is the big one. If it's low enough and water can't flow through the pores, you don't really have a problem but if water can flow through the pores and you've got any kind of ground water anywhere near then you're not going to want to use burial. The strength if the liquid that results and the amount of it is actually about four times that of manure so you want to make sure your geology if you're going to try to bury them is such that you're not going to get transport, said the University of Saskatchewan’s Dr. Terry Fonstad, whose research program has concentrated on solutions to potential environmental impact from intensive livestock production.
“If you're going to consider composting, then you're going to need a carbon source. You need wood chips or you need straw and then you need someone nearby that's going to take the compost. If you're going to burn them, you could build an incinerator but then there are quite tight restrictions on particulate matter to actually reach to meet these requirements,” added Fonstad, who is collaborating with Saskatchewan Agriculture, Sask Pork, and the Prairie Swine Centre to evaluate shallow burial composting as a potential method of mortality management in Saskatchewan..
Dr. Fonstad said, depending on your management practices, your biosecurity and where you are, there are solutions out there. He suggested that every farm is going to have their own situation so it's important to crunch the numbers.
The Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium is recognized as one of Canada’s leading pork industry conferences. It attracted nearly 300 producers, industry stakeholders and government representatives from across Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. Expert local, national, and international speakers shared the latest information and trends on hog production, animal health and welfare, new technology, and the global outlook for the North American hog industry.
For more visit farmscape.ca.