http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7203792Oh my.
ensho (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:34 PM
Original message
manure wars in New Mexico
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/40816
Dairy Pollution Sparks 'Manure War' in New Mexico
The picture on many milk cartons shows cows grazing on a pasture next to a country barn and a silo — but the reality is very different.
More and more milk comes from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), where large herds live in feedlots, awaiting their thrice-daily trip to the milking barn. A factory farm with 2,000 cows produces as much sewage as a small city, yet there's no treatment plant.
Across the country, big dairies are coming under increased criticism for polluting the air and the water. In New Mexico, they're in the midst of a manure war.
Everyday, an average cow produces six to seven gallons of milk and 18 gallons of manure. New Mexico has 300,000 milk cows. That totals 5.4 million gallons of manure in the state every day. It's enough to fill up nine Olympic-size pools.
(good grief! that's a lot of manure)
The New Mexico Environment Department reports that two-thirds of the state's 150 dairies are contaminating groundwater with excess nitrogen from cattle excrement. Either the waste lagoons are leaking, or manure is being applied too heavily on farmland.
-snip-
---------------------------
again, another source of polluted drinking water
Aw, the above primitive's just one of those anti-milkers.
Think of the manure the primitives create, and the primitives, unlike dairy cows, don't give anything back.
hedgehog (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:37 PM
Response to Original message
1. And where in New Mexico does one find enough water to give to dairy cattle to produce5.4 million gallons of manure a day?
lapfog_1 (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:39 PM
Response to Original message
2. Cow manure isn't like human feces.
Especially if they are fed mostly grass and hay, instead of corn feed.
In moderate amounts, especially broken down by bacteria and insects, it is very beneficial to the environment (not so much the flatulence that cows produce).
Spoken as someone who used to shovel it, spread it over a few acre garden, and disc it into the earth.
ensho (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:48 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. the bad thing is the corn feed. cows were meant to eat grasses and chew their cud as it makes its way through all the stomaches. what comes out the other end makes wonderful fertilizer.
(I forget, is it 3 stomaches they have? and do they chew the corn cud like they do grasses? corn must really upset their insides.)
Mopar151 (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. Are you talking about corn silage?
'Cuz it's the whole plant, stalks 'n all - plenty of good chewing there.
ensho (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 01:07 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. oh, thanks, they always say corn not corn silage
in the days when cows went to pasture, did they eat corn silage too?
pipi_k (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:50 PM
Response to Original message
4. Well damn, they can ship some of it my way!
There are plenty of dairy farmers around, but the dirty bastards are keeping the cow manure for themselves.
I've actually considered going out some dark night to do a bit of turd-burgling...
kestrel91316 (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 12:56 PM
Response to Original message
5. kestrel's solution >>>>
Manure lagoons >>>> biogas/energy/money >>>> lagoon sludge >>>> biochar/money >>>> return nutrients to soil where cattle feed crops are grown, sequester much CO2/make more money.
But that would make too much sense.......
jaksavage (861 posts) Fri Dec-11-09 01:01 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. That is new experimental money not the old regular money they are used to.
Biodigesters are a really great technology.
I learned about them in 1979 in the Peace Corps, on my way to Tuvalu!
Mopar151 (1000+ posts) Fri Dec-11-09 01:13 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Some research money and manufacturing capital
Would be a very good investment, with multiple payoffs. Make sure the systems are adaptable for pigshit - a lot of folks in the Carolinas will breathe better.
It's a very simple principle - when the money works, recycling works!
The lurking primitives really should take a gander at the stories about the William Rivers Pitt, out here in the Sandhills of Nebraska, 740 cubic yards of antique swine excrement (1875-1950) sitting in the snow here like a miniature
Jungfrau.
