[mattduke]

"And what a remarkable coincidence that the two state senators who sponsored this legislation -- Thomas Middleton and Lowell Stoltfus -- raise chickens on the eastern shore of Maryland"

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/a ... 19648.html

[MrBill]

No kidding, years ago when I was in the grain trading business corn was closer to $2 per bushel than $6, and we calculated that at below $2 we could actually burn corn as a substitute for fuel to generate electricity. To keep it in persepective this super commodity bull rally is starting from a very low base! ; - )

[kpeavey]

On the surface the legislation reeks of corruption.

Nonetheless, the plan does have a practical use. Burning dried litter would indeed offer some fuel value. The tragedy of duplication could remove vast amounts of chicken litter from the compost industry, or drive up prices at the very least.

A better use would be to use the litter to make compost to amend the fields used to grow corn. Explaining all that to a politician is the challenge for which there may be no technical solution.

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', '.')..
A better use would be to use the litter to make compost to amend the fields used to grow corn. Explaining all that to a politician is the challenge for which there may be no technical solution.

[MrBill]

The nutrient value of chicken manure is quite high due to their imperfect digestion systems. Therefore, chicken manure can actually be blended into other animal feed and recycled that way as well. I am not sure, but I think it might also be used for fish food, but I cannot find any links on that one?

Someone help me out with the use of chicken manure as a source of fertilizer. Is their an acidity issue if too much is used? I forget?

I would agree that burning it should be a last resort only if produced in significant quantities in a small area, and it is not cost effective to transport it to where it can be used. But that is hard to believe. I once turned grain dust and filtered grain screenings into a profitable source of animal feed. When something is cheap enough you can usually find a use for it! ; - )

[seahorse]

Where I live (chicken capitol of the world), chicken litter is commonly used as a fertilizer. However, my State of Arkansas is currently being sued by the State of Oklahoma, along with all the poultry companies like Tyson Foods, to stop the practice. The suit alleges that the litter is polluting the Illinois River. Here's a link to the lawsuit.

Morning News Article


One other problem I have with using chicken litter is it has high quantities of arsenic (Roxarsone) and other additives that are probably not good to be putting into the environment. Here's an article on that for a primar:

Arsenic in chicken litter

[MrBill]

As King of the world the FIRST problem I would address would be run-off of waste into waterways and soil erosion in general by creating greenbelts in and along waterways.

[patience]

RE: Chicken manure. My neighbor raises 2.2 MILLION chickens per year for Tyson's. Since there is a lot of hardwood around here, he gets sawdust from a pallet mill for floor litter. When he cleans a house that has been grown and sold, he scoops it out with a tractor and bucket loader into a, 8' x8' x 20' long spreader and fertilizes his fields with it. The sawdust requires heavy bacterial action to degrade, which ties up nitrogen from the manure until the bacteria are finished and die off. This makes the whole process a slow release nitrogen additon, ideal for corn a year later. He would resist mightily the idea of burning the stuff, with the high price of nitrogen fertilizer!

[seahorse]

Nitrogen is why the State of Oklahoma is suing Tyson and the State of Arkansas right now, not to mention all the arsenic and othe heavy metals in the starter feed, which, Tyson says gets shit out in the chicken house. So, spread all the arsenic you want, but there are risks.

[patience]

seahorse,
I'm not saying that it's agood idea as currently done, only that the farmers love it, probably without knowing what's going on. I'll inquire of him about the additives. Here in south Indiana, we have a "karst system", caves, that is, of drainage, and groundwater gets into that in a hurry. Lots of sinkholes. If anyone was aware of the problem with this, it would hit the fan in a hurry!

[seahorse]

If he grows for Tyson, he uses feeds produced by Tyson (he has to under their contracts, I've litigated them). Their starter feeds, fed to chicks up to 3 weeks in age, have, among other things, Roxarsone which is arsenic.