B.C. eco-barn burns manure into money
By BRANDIE WEIKLE
An Abbotsford, B.C., hog producer has turned a pig farmer's nemesis into an asset.
Pork producer Cors de Lint markets his composted
manure to landscapers in the heavily urbanized
Fraser Valley
Cors de Lint set out to find an answer to a problem that plagues Fraser
Valley farmers: What to do with massive amounts of manure in a wet,
low-lying area where nutrient-saturated soil can't take any more
fertilizing. In some areas, ground and surface water have been
contaminated, leaving some farmers facing massive fines from the
environment ministry.
In the Fraser Valley, most pig farmers don't grow crops and face the high cost of transporting the manure to other parts of the valley. Holland-born de Lint has invested a system that turns liquid manure into a light-weight, odourless, organic fertilizer that he sells to landscapers.
It's a two-part system. The first part is the 'eco-barn' for grower-feeder pigs. The second is a large, simple, composter. De Lint, a veterinarian before he migrated to Canada to become a hog producer, used his knowledge of animal behaviour to come up with a barn design that ensures his hogs will always drop manure in the designated area. "From there, they work it actually outside that area, in a low gutter where a scraper system removes it from the barn," says de Lint. "And that works like a charm. They keep their pens always clean."
He manipulates their behaviour in several ways. First, the pens are rectangular, six metres long by three metres wide. On one end is a feeding system and the other, the dunging area beside the gutter. Since pigs prefer to drop manure as far away as possible from where they eat, they always do it in the proper place.
Secondly, the hogs like to relieve themselves while socializing with each other, explains de Lint. The only thing separating the groups of 20 hogs in the designated dunging area is an iron fence.
Finally, because pigs prefer to go near sources of fresh air, the eco-barn's ventilation system brings fresh air down the sides of the barn, right along the gutters.
While this design helps de Lint's scraper system get all the manure out of his barn, it also improves the well-being of the animals.
"Although it is designed to deal with the environmental concern, it has a very important, added benefit in that it is very animal-friendly," says de Lint, noting the long, healthy tails on his hogs. In the two-and-a-half-year experimental period, de Lint has found no need for docking tails.
The soiled bedding that the pigs push into the gutters is carried to the back of the barn by one scraper, out of the barn by another and into the composting building next door. There, a combination of oxygen, heat, mixing and time turns soggy manure and bedding into a dry, homogenous fertilizer over about 50 days.
The vessel has a book-end-like brace which is moved down the vessel as the composting machine above it picks up the manure, stirs it and moves it along the container at a rate of about two metres every six days, to allow oxygen into the mix. Meanwhile, the heaters that run along the side of the vessel warm up the manure, drying it and killing pathogens.
In the end, de Lint is left with a product he can market. He currently sells the fertilizer to a company that uses it for landscaping new subdivisions and golf courses.
De Lint was able to get a provincial-federal Green Plan grant to cover about $85,000 of the total $250,000 cost because his idea is new and environmental.
While building the barn was costly, de Lint insists the costs of production are the same, if not better, than in a conventional barn. "If you build a conventional barn system, then you have to build large manure storage, which is very expensive," says de Lint.
De Lint's barn was built for only 600 hogs because he wanted to carry out the experiment on a small scale. But it becomes most economically viable at a size of 1,200 hogs or more, he says.
The next step in his plan is to run the fertilizer through a pelleting machine and bag it for a more value-added product that can be sold for potting plants.
Rick Van Kleeck, the ministry's waste management engineer, says he thinks de Lint's system is a good solution, but other farmers in the area are not likely to change their ways soon.
"We don't have growth in the industry," says Van Kleeck. "Unless there's a new building, I don't see it being widely adapted."
De Lint says he's happy to help interested farmers. His idea has already been copied once by a farmer near Lethbridge, Alberta. "I can tell you, the next guy that's building will spend a lot less money than we did," says de Lint. "We had to rebuild things two and three times already to get it right."
back
PRRS-free, and proud of it
By ROBERT IRWIN
There are only about a dozen of the approximately 100 herds enrolled on the Ontario Swine Herd Information Plan (OSHIP) still claiming freedom from Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS).
"They could be negative today and six months from today that number will change," says Ernest Sanford, a swine specialist with vaccine manufacturer Boehringer, Ingelheim in Burlington.
Sanford says the disease exists worldwide and is probably present in most Ontario herds. Once the disease, which costs producers millions annually, shows up, it's impossible to eliminate it, he says. So how do the few remaining negative herds beat the odds and survive the OSHIP visual inspections and semi-annual blood tests?
"I think you could say it's the grace of God," says Rein Westerbaan. He and his wife, Barb, own Azar Farms, a breeding stock operation supplying Hamp, Landrace, Duroc and F1 gilts at Mount Albert near Lake Simcoe.
They originally populated their barns in 1987-88 with pigs from Quality Swine affiliated herds. Their goal was to produce their own replacements.
The Azar herd is closed, with new genetics sourced through Ontario Swine Improvement's (OSI) AI unit. Except for mycoplasma pneumonia, the herd is free of diseases monitored by OSHIP.
"We have not done anything different than anybody else but we're far away from the main swine country," Westerbaan says. Being located outside intensive swine areas is crucial in remaining negative, Sanford says.
"If you're in western Ontario, I don't see how you're going to maintain it. If you're far away from southwestern Ontario, I don't see why you shouldn't try to maintain it."
For breeders who have PRRS-positive pigs, it's not the end of the world, Sanford says.
"At the commercial level, it's probably not that wise to aim for a negative status if you are anywhere near to where pigs are being raised. I would suspect that in our commercial herds in southwestern Ontario, we just don't have too many negative herds," Sanford says. Quality Swine's 70-sow research herd near Glencoe is about 50 km from the co-operative's headquarters. "We don't encourage and we don't allow visitors," says general manager Jim Hunter. The herd was originally populated by Caesarean section and has not admitted live animals since 1986. Everybody has to shower in.
Hunter says special attention is paid to vehicles. Most production is targeted for Shamrock Genetics, an affiliated breeders group, but Hunter says the PRRS-free status allows surplus animals to be exported to countries with PRRS restrictions.
Jim and Mary Field, who own Ja-Mar Farm at Port Dover near Lake Erie, also conclude that their location is a plus. "We're not in an area where trucks would be going by loaded with problem pigs," says Mary Field. There is one neighbouring farm within three-quarters of a mile. "I make sure that I give him a good enough deal that, for the most part, he uses all our pigs other than artificial insemination," says Field. The Fields established a primary York, Landrace and Duroc herd by having Caesarean sections done at the University of Guelph. They rely on OSI's AI unit for new genetics but they try to select boars that have been on hand for a least six months to minimize the risk of the PRRS virus being shed in semen.
Like other PRRS-free breeders, they cite sales opportunities which come with the designation. "When you're small, you find yourself making alliances with bigger breeders," Field says.
They recently contributed to a large shipment bound for China which was PRRS-negative, assembled by Tavistock-based Donaldson International Livestock Ltd.
Owner and long-time exporter Jim Donaldson says Ja-Mar is one of about six Ontario herds where he consistently finds PRRS-free pigs. He says countries like China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Mexico have banned pigs which test positive, as a means of restricting imports.
Robin Carlisle at Stirling, north of Belleville, in eastern Ontario, has exported through Donaldson as well as Key Agro, owned by IP Lee, St. Marys. Carlisle pegs location as the biggest factor in his herd remaining PRRS free.
Carlisle bought his York, Landrace, Duroc herd along with the farm 11 years ago after working five years for previous owner Don Vardy. Vardy established the herd as part of the original Ontario Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) program.
The nearest swine farm is a commercial operation run by Doug and Don Farrell about 10 miles away. Carlisle depends on OSI for new genetics. Carlisle says he pays special attention to biosecurity. "Any time my truck goes off the farm, I always wash and disinfect it."
Jim Whitehouse, manager of Pureline Swine at Guelph, sees both sides of the PRRS question. The company's breeding stock operation at Guelph, originally established with animals from Van Haren Yorkshires at Ridgetown, remains negative for PRRS and all other diseases monitored under OSHIP.
Breeding stock sales are brisk and, like other PRRS-negative herds, there have been excellent export opportunities. Pureline's commercial farrow-to-finish unit at Rockwood, a 15-minute-drive from Guelph, recently tested positive. There's little risk to the negative breeding stock unit because there is separate staff for each unit.
The commercial unit has endured low-level mycoplasma pneumonia for years but shows no outward signs of PRRS, according to Whitehouse. "It might be making the mycoplasma a tad worse than it would have been," he says.
Whitehouse insists visitors shower in to the breeding stock facility and verifies that they have been away from other herds for 24 hours beforehand. "If they're coming from a potential problem herd, they will not get into the barn," he says.
Jack Nethercott insists on boots and coveralls for visitors but doesn't employ a shower-in policy. It's hard to top his results.
Nethercott says his Ja-Viv Yorkshire herd at Arkona, near the south shore of Lake Huron in Lambton county, has remained free of diseases monitored by the government since the 1950s. "We're the oldest herd now in Ontario from the Ontario SPF program.
"I have often wondered if the old conventional method of bedding and stable cleaner idea that the manure is moved out of the barn every day has a part to play," Nethercott says when asked about his success in beating PRRS.
Some breeders with negative herds offer to vaccinate out-going pigs for purchasers who may have positive herds. However, Nethercott doesn't want to take the chance of introducing the disease with the vaccine which is a modified live product.
"If they are negative and want to remain negative, they definitely should not use the vaccine on their farm," Sanford says.
One of the new PRRS-negative herds on the government program is Ag-Pine Hybrids owned by Gilbert and Agnes Isaac, Millbank, south of Stratford. The Isaacs bought an existing farrowing operation and repopulated it in the summer of 1994 with stock from Miquelon farms, Alberta.
Although Alberta has no government health monitoring program, Gilbert had worked with Miquelon stock out West and knew the herd was free of the diseases monitored in Ontario. "OMAFRA said it's always good to bring in new blood lines," he adds.
The family pays strict attention to biosecurity. They are about one km from the nearest pig farm and a heavily travelled road. Gilbert estimates that within two km there are about 2,000 pigs in neighbour's herds. Lyn Sararus began pig farming in 1977 and then repopulated his 150-sow York, Landrace, and Duroc breeding herd at New Dundee in 1988. He hasn't brought in any pigs since.
"At that time, PRRS wasn't a problem," he says. "It's probably the luck of the draw with the amount of PRRS going around the country," Lynn says of his PRRS-negative status.
He started with pigs from Ja-Mar Farm. He now brings in new genetics exclusively from the AI unit of Thames Bend Farm, for whom his operation acts as a nucleus herd.
"We try to remain free of as many things as we can," Sararus says. He theorizes that prevailing winds along with tight biosecurity have helped so far.
Freedom from PRRS has meant China and Korea are eager foreign markets. Sararus has also carried out a number of Canadian repopulations for Thames Bend.
"Up until 16 months ago, we still didn't have any means of making sure that we could stop PRRS coming through the AI system," Sanford says. Changes in the way boars and collections are managed have reduced the risk.
Sanford predicts a new DNA-based Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for semen will soon be used to check for PRRS. Currently, the test generates some false positive results but Sanford says "it should pick up even down to 10 viral particles in, let's say, your coffee cup of semen." He says millions of particles are required to transmit the disease.