A26-Lancister Farming, Saturday, October 26, 1996
Worker
(Continued from Page A2l)
“The good news is that (health
problems are) preventable. We
know ... what kinds of levels, in
terms of dust and ammonia inside
the buildings, are acceptable. I
think there are management and
engineering methods to control
those in the environment.”
Donham said that OSHA,
because of the 10-employee mini
mum, has left agriculture “pretty
much alone.” But as the industry
continues to become largely inte
grated, “there’s going to be more
employees, ,so it’s going to be
more of a concern.” '
Dealing
With Odors
People’s previous experience
with odors often dictates their
response in surprising ways.
And dealing with odor nuisance
complaints will depend on the
who file complaints
against operations, according to
Wendy Powers, graduate research
assistant in the Department of
Dairy and Poultry Sciences at the
University of Florida in
Gainesville.
Powers spoke during the odor
abatement segment of the confer
ence on Monday afternoon.
A panel at the conference focused on dealing with local and state environmental
challenges on Monday. From left, Charlie Daniel, Cal-Maine Foods, a commercial egg
operation in Bethune, S.C.; Wes Jamison, Department of Poultry Science, University
of Arkansas; Julian Brake, Department of Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Tech;
and James Arends, S and J Farms Animal Health, Willow Springs, N.C.
SCHICK ENTERPRISES
Designers and Builders
of Quality Buildings
- HOG CONTRACTS AVAILABLE -
FENCING
Concrete
or
steel
CONCRETE
Slats
WATERING
Systems
AIRSTREAM
HELMETS
ADA
PLASTIC
COATED
FLOORING
MODERN AG
SS FEEDERS
1 -800-527-7675 (61 0) 285-6519
Health
Powers spoke about how nation
al situations such as the spill of
thousands of gallons of swine
effluent into a local river in North
Carolina will dictate people’s
response. She has heard of com
plaints by suburbia “before the ani
mals have even arrived on site.”
In one recent study, 44 residents
of a confinement house were asked
about their experiences. They were
a diverse group of people, different
in age. gender, race, and education.
The findings: die people who
live near a confinement operation
“report significantly more tension,
more depression, more anger, less
vigor, more fatigue, and more con
fusion than the control subjects,”
she said.
Only trouble is, “we’re not able
to determine what’s actually caus
ing the people to say that these are
the characteristics they’re feel
ing.” Personalities differ. And peo
ple react different ways to different
odors, often with surprising
results.
Of the entire survey, 47 percent
of the respondents indicated there
was an odor problem. The remain
ing more than half of the
respondents—indicated that there
was no problem, even under the
same circumstances.
G.S.I. BINS LIFETIME AAA
& HYDRAULIC VENTILATION
Fill Systems TRAILERS LIFETIME
GUARANTEE
The results showed that the peo
ple who lived in the area for an
extended period of time were less
offended by the odors.
And some indicated that the
“nicer-looking farms had less
odor,” said Powers.
Studies were recently underta
ken at Drexel University in Phi
ladelphia to quantify the power of
suggestion when it came to odors.
Students at Drexel, in the study,
were asked to perform simple
mathematical tasks in a room that
was intermittently scented at
times with a malodor. one with no
odor, and one that was pleasantly
scented. They were asked to report
about odors and how they thought
they did on the test scores.
When the scores were actually
tallied, there was “no difference
between the malodor or the control
or the pleasantly scented room,”
said Powers.
In one case, those who con
ducted the test told the students
that malodors would be placed in
the room, when none actually were
used. Regardless, the students per
ceived that a malodor was used and
indicated that it negatively
affected how they did on the tasks.
Powers noted that children
under the age of 5 years old “like
all classes of odors. This may be
because they’re more sensitive at
that age and they may be able to
detect something pleasantly offen-
sive, or maybe because of the
social pressures imposed on them
after the age of 5. (They may have
been) taught not to enjoy a certain
odor.”
Production Tour
The conference included a pro
duction tour conducted on Wed
nesday to farms in the region that
are learning to handle and market
poultry waste.
Chi one farm, an extensive poul
try waste composting operation
has been put in place to dry the
manure and prepare it for further
processing and marketing.
The challenges, however, of
learning to market a poultry litter
product continue to mount.
Marketing the product is “some
thing I’m just inexperienced at,”
said layer manager Paul Wolge
muth on his 210,000-bird opera
tion near Rheems. “It’s always a
challenge to find a market”
Wolgemuth told the 80 produc
ers and agri-industry representa
tives at the tour that six years ago,
the family made a decision to
expand the poultry operation from
70,000 layers to its present size.
However, the township required
that because the farm was situated
on only 170 acres of cropland, a
plan to dispose of the manure was
necessary.
Wolgemuth said they invested
in a Salmet poultry system using
battery-type cages with manure
belts and a windrow composting
The Orifii
Chop • Trim • Blaze • Clear
Brush Out Fence Lines
system. The manure is removed
from the houses twice a week and
taken into the composting facility,
which picks the layer manure up
on a conveyor belt and drops it
down onto piles arranged in
windrows.
The manure goes in at 55-60
percent moisture out of the layer
house and is turned twice a week.
Temperature of the piles range
between 140-ISO degrees.
In December 1991, Wolgemuth
was able to secure a hve-year con
tract with an organic fertilizer
company, which purchased the
manure at S2S a ton. Wolgemuth
thought he was sitting on a gold
mine, he said until the orders
started to dry up by the summer rtf
the next year.
The last time he was able to sell
the material to the company was
the spring of 1995. The “unlimited
potential” of the product started to
wear thin, which forced him to
rethink ways to dispose of the
manure and to explore new mark
eting possibilities.
Since then Wolgemuth has sold
to several companies, but the
demand is very seasonal. Wolge
muth said he recently signed a con
tract to take a large amount of his
manure.
Annual output of manure is
about 1,200-1,400 tons per year at
about 25 tons per week. Those 25
tons keeping coming every week,
he said, “whether we have a mark
(Turn to Page A 27)