Odor-altering molecules, near infrared spectroscopy, and vacuum-sealed plastic are a few of the innovations being tested on hog manure in Manitoba.
They are among nine projects receiving money from the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative Inc., a group trying to stimulate new ways of dealing with the age-old problem of what to do with the smelly byproduct of hog operations.
The group was “almost overwhelmed” when it received 34 proposals for its first competition in June, said chair Garland Laliberte.
It will spend $230,000 on nine projects and has secured matching funds from several other agencies.
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Its next competition will be early in the new year.
“It’s actually a very fun thing to be involved in,” said Laliberte, the former head of agricultural engineering at the University of Manitoba.
“I consider myself retired, and I’m a little bit annoyed with myself that I’m having so much fun here.”
Some of the projects include:
- Designing a complex molecule that encapsulates and deactivates the odor-producing molecules in hog manure. (University of Winnipeg, $35,300.)
- Investigating whether near infrared spectroscopy can determine the approximate amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus in manure. The test, which takes two minutes, could be used with other technologies to apply manure to crops at optimum rates. (PDK Projects Inc., $25,700.)
- Sucking plastic tightly over a lagoon with negative air pressure to prevent odor from escaping. (DGH Engineering Ltd., $26,500.)
- Adding lime to manure to change its pH so it doesn’t produce smelly sulfur-containing compounds. (System Ecotechnologies Inc., $35,000.)
- Measuring odor downwind from hog barns with human test panels and instruments to determine at what point and under what conditions it is tolerable. (Reid Crowther, $35,500.)
- Buying an olfactometer to measure odor in concert with human test panels in the province. (University of Manitoba, $14,000.)
- Demonstrating ways to apply manure to forages and zero-till crops. (Manitoba Forage Council, $11,000; Manitoba Zero Till Research Council, $5,150.)
