A series of catastrophes have struck three large livestock operations in Manitoba.
But luckily for the Marble Ridge Hutterite colony, there was still enough snow in its fields to dam up a 2.7 million litre manure spill on March 17.
The spill occurred when a steel manure tank ruptured, tearing two-fifths of the way up.
The colony sprang to action, implementing its disaster plan by using farm machinery to plow up big berms of snow, said Dennis Brown of Manitoba Conservation.
The berms contained the manure flood and soaked much of it up. The colony then spread the snow-manure mix onto its fields at a rate that was agronomically acceptable, Brown said.
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He praised the colony’s fast response and its decision to immediately inform the department about what had happened.
“They have been extremely co-operative,” said Brown.
Most Manitoba manure storages are clay-lined pits in the ground. This was a huge steel tank standing on the surface.
Brown said there are about 50 such tanks in Manitoba.
This one was only 11 years old. The cause of the rupture is not known yet.
This spill closely followed two other accidents at other livestock operations.
On March 11, a chicken barn east of Landmark, Man., burned down, killing 14,000 one-week-old chicks.
On the same day near Blumenort, there was $200,000 damage when a dairy barn burned. No cows died.
