STARBUCK, Man. – Leonard Hofer is frank in his assessment of Manitoba’s manure management regulations, amended by the province last year.
Hofer, secretary of the Starlite Hutterite Colony, said the rules made it more expensive to raise hogs. But the regulations, introduced last year, also encouraged the colony to make better use of its hog manure.
“It’s costly, but also it’s a blessing,” Hofer said.
The colony has already spent $180,000 building a lagoon and buying equipment that injects liquid manure into the soil. The measures were needed, Hofer said, to satisfy the tighter rules.
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Those rules restrict the months when larger livestock operations can apply manure to fields. The rules also give the province a better way to monitor and control how much manure is applied.
Larger livestock operations must submit a manure management plan to the province before spreading manure. Soil testing will help decide how much manure can be applied to a particular field.
The province uses animal waste units to decide which producers must submit a manure management plan. Each unit is equivalent to the number of animals needed to produce 73 kilograms of nitrogen in a year.
Farmers with more than 400 animal waste units have to file plans and refrain from spreading manure in the winter. Older operations have until Nov. 10, 2003 to comply with the ban on winter spreading that extends from Nov. 10 to April 15.
Hofer said it was tough to swallow the costs of building the lagoon, especially with the current slump in hog prices.
But he said the upside of the rules is that his colony will now better manage the manure produced by its 600 sow operation. He believes the Starlite colony was wasting a lot of manure by applying it in the winter.
“We’re going to use the manure the way it should be used – as a fertilizer.”
There will, however, be other problems to overcome for producers such as the Starlite colony.
The colony used to store its hog manure in underground, cement storage tanks. Hofer said the shift to lagoon storage has aroused some concern among nearby neighbors.
“We’re getting complaints from neighbors about the smell, which we never had before. Some days, not always.”
The colony is trying to curb the odor using some of the most up-to-date methods available in the province. Broadcasting chopped straw onto the holding ponds has helped somewhat.
“We’d do anything to get the smell out of the way,” Hofer said.
Dennis Brown, a regional director for Manitoba Environment, said reaction to the amended waste management regulations has been mainly positive. There’s a shared sentiment that the rules can work for both farmers and the environment.
“The hog industry, for the most part, has been very positive. The beef industry is coming along, and the poultry industry is moving in that direction.”
The Manitoba Cattle Producers Association said it has not been bombarded by calls from producers opposed to the regulations. Executive director Wanda McFadyen said the program appears to be working.
“I think, generally speaking, there has been acceptance of it. I haven’t heard any frustrations from any of our people.”
