Cloisterdale Also Reduces Weight for Easy Disposal
Taking the Odor Out of Manure
IT Glenn 11. Herr
General Manager,
•leistcrdalc Farms
tiood desci iplion Full id doesn't j,an in IDtiltal ,i time wlun hqu.d
Farm odors may be one of the c '«* l ~ . . 0 snrn handlm.; methods
toughest problems producers of „' U ‘ T' ld n ? c0 I m,n,l V Wllb «-<Mv «■>"«!. »«>i
livestock face in the next five system •'>uthyc happily with without proud.m; .. 5.,!,-;.u.0 i
_ ears OUI ntighbois But liquid in.muie solution to the odoi and h.ind.nu
The fragrant odor of a newly w ) h . at 7. c } wl ' s 0 ! K 'i utl was r ,obk ’ m
mown field of hay is not the had to be mosecl 0l " P lo ' Tl,e obiectnes at Penn Stain
•dor *roWem: but the putrid, „ . ... wm ‘ (1) t 0 lcmo ' L ‘ as imich
•feosive odois resulting from , ' ” a^ci V troughs inside moisluie as possible from the
KteroliF mountains of livestock " ol,s ( es w *! c lepld f d w ‘ lh CI, P S r°ultiy manu.e inside the poul
wastes-are the odors that raise t 0 stcm the ovclflow that was try house in oidei to lessen the
our suburban dwellers. adding to our pit weight and \olumo of nia.eiial
The odor complaint will affect vo < | u ™ e - to be handled. (2) to eliminate
both 'large and small producers Lagoons weie dug first to odois and flies, and (3) to dc-
A complaint from one neigh- take the pi essuie off the volume velop an automatic system of
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A Clpisterdale employe watches the
conveyor for defective eggs. Except for
defective eggs which are removed, eggs at
Cloisterdale move directly from the hen
bor in respect to faun odors can
be sufficient cause to close down
a fanning operation.
Such are the ground rules now
being established and enfoiced
by local, state, and federal
boards of health.
The day when the faimei can
say "I was here first” is gone
Today it is up to the farmei o
decide how he can live amicably
with his neighhois.
Certainly, air and water pollu
tion laws aie becoming moie
stringent, and laws will be moie
rigorously enforced.
Now is the time for you as a
producer of beef cattle, dauy,
swine, 01 poultry to take inven
tory of your farm situation in
respect to farm odois and deter
mine how long you can keep your
peighbors happy
At Cloisterdale we have had a
Beiious problem of controlling
odors from our egg laying com
plex of about 270,000 layers
Nine houses of 30,000 layeis
each, equipped with four lows
of full-stair step cages suspended
•ver deep pits to accumulate the
poultry droppings, has caused us
a houendous pioblem
The tfaeoiy that with a deep
pit the manure will be self-disin
tegiating and the pits would
never need cleaning has pi oven
false.
After less than two full yeais
cf operation much of the mania e
had already begun to liquity and
ifche addition of watei to the pits
didn’t help the cause of odor
control.
Each day 35 to 40 tons of raw
waste from these nine houses
were being added to the pits
With little disintegration of the
raw waste, one can visualize the
scope of the problem.
Liquid waste odors aie horrible
When dormant, but when the
liquid waste is moved or gels in What is the IVnn Slate svsunr
motion, horrible isn't even a Development of this svsUm he
mamue handling to eliminate time clock conti oiled and done
manual laboi. about eight times daily
Ovei the past seven veais a An is blown acioss the manuie
S 2 stem has been developed which at velocities avei aging about 500
meets these objectives feet pei minute on a continuous
Manuie is dned to about 30 b ? sls Fans aie suspended about
per cent moistuie which ieduces inches above the manuie.
the manuie weight to about ’a The combination of staling
the ouginal amount pioduced an d blowing an acioss the diop-
This is accomplished by combm- pmgs to speed diving not only
mg two simple diying tech- ieduces weight and volume of
niques, stirring manure and manuie but also piactically elim
blowing air at high velocity mates odors
across the droppings The basic leason for this ae-
Stimng was done with a spe- complishment is that the anae
ciallv designed rake and cleaning robic bacteua, which live in the
to the consumer without being touched by g a( jg e t This gadget is drawn absence of oxygen and cause the
human hands. Herr says the eggs fre- Through the manuie by a cable offensive odois in manure, can
quently are on the retailer’s shelves with- which is driven with a reeipio- not live in an atmospheie which
in 24 hours of being laid. eating power unit Stimng is (Continued on Page 12)
build-up within the houses. This
we did, but there could be no
constructing of enough lagoons
(limited land area) to handle the
whole ]ob, and what was con
suucted soon filled and thus
began the odor problems
3. Irrigation was installed to
pump fiom the lagoons to a pei
manent field set aside foi this
pm pose only Two pioblems
weie encounteied -
a Constant clogging of nozzles
b Conosion of the entire sys
tem within fom months
And again, of couise, odor
pioblems expanded foi the com
munity
4. Sewerage tieatment, inciner
ation, and buiying all weie
deemed too nnpiactical and ex
pensive.
5. We then moved to duect
pumping and hauling in 1,400
gallon tank tiailers fiom the
house pits to our fields and
those of our neighbois This had
ns problems also
Fiom our expeuence we con
cluded that some diy oi semi dry
method had to be developed as
om solution, as well as an in
dustry solution.
Certainly, the problems of the
poultry farmer are the same for
hogs, steers, and dairy operations
as well, and will inciease in the
future.
After a whnlwmd tom of the
countiy, visiting laige poultry
operations and agucultiual ex
periment stations, we saw
nothing that looked as piomismg
as the diymg method developed
by Dr. Glenn Biesslei and his
co-workeis at Penn State Uni
veisity
Plans lor convei ting one of our
30,000 layei cage houses weie
diawn up in coopeiation with
Penn State, and an installation
was made last summer.
Eggs flow constantly from the cage come together and bring the eggs on one
operation at Cloisterdale. The eggs roll out com eyor into the packing area. This is the
of the cages onto conveyors, the conveyors point just before sorting and packaging.
Lancaster Forming. Saturday. September 12.1970— ( )
This aiticle hv (Henn II lien, :il manage) of
Cloistc'ifl.ilc F.ums onginallv appealed in Ihc Kami Sen
nee Bullt’tin of Miller nml Bushong Inc Itolucislown
In it. Hen desenhe.s Ihc new maiiine system aheadv
installed in one of nine 30.000 bnd units and planned foi
the tcniainmg eight houses
lien also spells out why Cloisteid.ile went to considci
able expense and tiouble to obtain the new system and why
ho thinks othoi egg pioduecrs and fainieis must eonsidei
such a system for the future.
In an accompanying ailicle. Dr Clean 0 Bressler, the
developer of the new mamno handling concept being pio
neeicd at Cloistcidale. gives a icpoit on the leseaich which
piovod the new system
The basic mfoi motion in these ai tides has been widely
discussed nationally in the egg industiy Hen and Brcsslci
were both speakers on the new mainne system at the Penn
sylvania Poultry Fedciation meeting at Heishey this sum
mer
Lancaster Panning piesenls these two ai tides fiom
two different sotnccs to give a compi ehensivc look at
what many peisons close to the egg industiy think may be
a new development of great significance in the next sever
al yeais.
Herr believes the development may be impoitant foi
all farmers not just egg pioduceis who have animal
waste problems, paiticulaily wheie the faim is near mban
aieas or persons who might object to faim odois
The photos showing the mamne disposal system at
Cloisterdale and the hum's automated egg gathenng sys
tem were taken by Lancaster Fanning
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