Hog production - expensive enterprise
Post 362 of the American
Legion recently donated
jackets to the Perquimans
County High School
basketball team.
Representing the Post, above
left, is Curtis Lightfoot, who
is presenting a Jacket to team
member Brad Frieraoo and
Coach Calvin Webster.
(Photo by Val Short)
By TONY SHORT '
Raising hogs is confinement is an
expensive operation, as any hog
producer will tell you. The hogs must
be properly cared (or. They can
neither get too hot nor too cool. They
must be disease free and they must
be well fed.
When many hogs are put together
in a confinement house, some means
must be made to get rid of their
waste. A hog house is like a small
town in that it needs some kind of
waste treatment plant.
The waste treatment system
usually involves a water filled lagoon
or pond. Some municipalities use the
same type system.
This lagoon is dug in the ground to
a certain depth, width and length
based upon the number and wight of
tbe bogs present. The waste from the
hogs U flushed from the house to the
lagoon, where it is acted upon by
bacteria.
The bacteria help break down the
material.
Any lagooon has a certain storage
limit. Once this limit is reached, it
must be pumped down by spraying it
on the land. This requires an
irrigation system, which is an added
expense.
This integral part of the treatment
system is often overlooked. Many
lagoons are left to overflow, instead
of being pumped out. This not only
adds harmful pollutants to water
courses, it is a waste of nutrients that
can be used for fertilizer.
Most effluent analysis show that
the waste water is high in nitrogen.
A lagoon for 400 top bogs produces
enough nitrogen to fertilise IS acres
of corn at a rate of 150 pounds per
acre.
The North Carolina Department of
Agriculture in Raleigh will ananlyse
a sample of waste water to deter
mine the actual fertiliser content for
three dollars per sample.
Farmers in Northampton County
devised a way to avoid the high
expenses of buying an irrigation
system to apply the waste to the
land. One individual bought a
system and now contracts with local
farmers to pump out their lagoons.
The value of the nutrients applied
for fertilzer outweighs the cost of the
pumping.
Lagoons are pumped out because
State and National laws mandate
that no effluent can be discharged
from them except under aevere
ralnall condition* (a IS year storm).
The Soil Conservation Service
designs them based upon thii
criteria. *
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Potted
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