Something, probably a new variety of microorganism, is foaming up in hog manure pits. It won't surprise you to learn that decomposing hog manure generates methane, and that methane, trapped in the foam bubbles, explodes, sometimes destroying hog barns and killing pigs. The foam can reach 4 feet in thickness, which would be quite a bomb.
The researchers still aren’t sure what causes the foam. But they have noticed a correlation between adding dried distillers grains in soluble — a product of the ethanol production process increasingly used in livestock diets — to the hogs’ diets and the foam, although that solution is too simplistic, Jacobson said.
I'm quite fond of bacon, but I'll be the first to admit that large scale hog farms are very bad neighbors. True, business may be booming, but the side effects are dangerous and sometimes lethal.
But this foam problem should be a reminder that those invisible little creatures have interesting potential. Maybe we can breed something to live in those giant manure pools that can reduce their stench and toxicity.
And yet the two local small hog farms I've visited don't stink at all.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what they do differently. The only one I spent much time close to, as opposed to nosing it from afar, had only about 3 hogs (it was associated with a school) and being downwind was acridly bad.
ReplyDeleteHuh. I have no idea. Both farmers were organic, but although they sort of walked me through how they kept the animals, I didn't see anything extraordinary. Maybe it's a question of square feet per large pooping animal, or maybe it's diet.
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