KIPLING, Sask. — Brian Tennant thinks he may have found a simple solution to a foul-smelling problem.
Tennant runs a 100-sow farrow-to-finish operation near this community 150 kilometres east of Regina.
He was trying to eliminate or at least minimize the smell from the open lagoon of hog waste on his property. About one year ago, he decided to give round bales a try.
He placed 23 round barley bales on the frozen surface of his 38-by-23 metre (125-by-75-foot) lagoon and unrolled them to make a 7.6-centimetre (three-inch) thick mat.
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“Then I just let it sit there until spring came,” Tennant said.
The first thing he noticed was it took approximately one month longer for the ice to thaw. After the thaw, the straw floated on the surface throughout the summer and contained the odor. The straw changed color from sitting in the liquid, but still worked.
“It was effective all the way to freeze-up,” Tennant said. “I’d say it was 95 percent effective.”
His neighbors told him they only smelled the lagoon once or twice last summer.
“This is certainly not a scientific experiment. I was looking for a cheap solution and I tried it and it worked.”
Tennant estimates the total cost of the bales, trucking them to the site and the labor of two people was $400. He thinks this simple method of odor control might be one smaller communities could use on their lagoons.
Aside from controlling odor, the straw is retaining nutrients, Tennant said. The smell that comes from lagoons is nitrogen, and maintaining it in the effluent instead of letting it evaporate means the organic matter is more beneficial when spread on the land.
Evaporation was less than usual and more liquid had to be pumped out, but the amount was not significantly higher, Tennant said. When part of the lagoon was pumped last fall, the soggy straw did not cause any problems.
“It (the pump) just chopped it up,” said Tennant. “Tumbleweed is more of a problem.”
Tennant is not putting bales on his lagoon this year. He wants to see if the straw cover will be effective over two years.
