BRANDON – Livestock producers have a new tool in their efforts to manage manure.
It’s an airtight, retractable poly-canvas that can enclose a manure pit nine metres wide by 210 metres long, or almost half an acre.
Mike Curry, manager of Curry Industries, says an airtight seal is vital when dealing with manure composting, odour control and recovering manure’s nutrient and energy value. Manure management is no longer the simple task it was for the previous generation of farmers, he added.
“When a guy decides to go farming, he thinks he’s signed up to grow food,” Curry said.
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“Now all of a sudden, he’s supposed to become a waste management specialist on top of everything. But that’s not what he signed up for.”
Curry Industries specializes in developing airtight and watertight portable poly-canvas cover systems for lagoon and pond liners, greenhouses, silage bags, algae biofuel ponds and methane containment.
“When my Dad, Walter, started 30 years ago, we were the first company to build those temporary bridge covers they use for winter construction,” Curry said.
“Our main focus has always been figuring out practical ways to cover large areas with poly-canvas. In agriculture, the main use is manure composting.”
He said the common practice in many underdeveloped countries is to compost manure for fertilizer and siphon off methane gases for fuel.
“Everything they do may be very low-tech, but it is high utilization of the manure,” he said.
“We may be more advanced in many aspects, but we’re lagging far behind the underdeveloped areas of the world when it comes to manure management. No matter where you are, it comes down to the same thing. Keep the methane out of the atmosphere and figure out how to put that energy to good use.”
Curry said his company’s first prototype is presently part of a waste management project in Ohio.
The six metre wide Bio-Retractable Cover has so far achieved a 98 percent airtight seal.
Curry displayed a table top of the Bio-Retractable Cover in the Inventors Showcase at Manitoba Ag Days last week.
To begin with, the poly-canvas tarp is rolled up on a big spool at one end of a long trench. While the trench is open, it can be filled with any kind of biodegradable material that needs to be composted.
Trench filling can be done by Bobcat, front-end loader or dump trucks. It can also be pumped in if it’s in a liquid state.
When the pit is full, the canopy is rolled out over the trench on an aluminum rail.
Once in place, the trench is sealed up with odours and gases trapped inside the arched canvas ceiling.
Curry said the key to a 98 percent seal is the Poly-Fastener rail clips that tightly hold the canvas and rail together.
The shape of the arched canopy is formed by flexible aluminum truss string bows that go flat when rolled onto the spool but pop up to form an arch when they roll out over the trench. They are called string bows because they behave like an archer’s bow.
Curry said the Bio-Retractable Cover can go longer than 210 metres if needed, but at that length the spool is already 3½ metres in diameter.
There are no firm prices yet because the product is still in the proto-type stage.
“Producers should look at this as one more option in their manure management plan,” he said.
“It may not be as complex as some of the hi-tech systems now on the market, but it works.”
For more information, contact Mike Curry at 204-661-1729 or visit www.curryindustries.com.
