How To Use A Big Lot Of Old Pig Manure

[jamescollister]

This will probably be an Tony [ AI ] question, but will put it out encase others have ideas.

As posted on another thread wife has ordered 10 tip truck loads of dirt for the back of the house. I find out now that the Uncle, who is back of our back yard is raising the level as well.

He had a hole dug many years before I came and that's 10 or 11 years ago and put up a pig sty. 5 to 10 pigs max. Hole filled with water, as holes do here, but them pigs have been crapping all those years and the waste has been wasted into that pond. Uncle has given up on pigs and wants to expand his rice processing shed.

The pond is about 15 meters by 10 meters, not sure how deep, but will be over 2 meters. This being a very dry year the pond is dry and the hole is less than 1/2 a meter deep now, lots of pig shit in there.

Trying to make a deal with him, where I [digger ] will dig the hole out and I will pay for the land fill.

So the question is, what is the best way to process this pig slurry, will be wet as we dig down, into good usable fertilizer.

There will be a lot, so won't be building, as AI has holding areas to turn and process the stuff. It will all be dumped at the factory in the open.

Any ideas on this. Jim

Edited January 29, 2013 by jamescollister

[Khonwan]

Quickest method would be to dump it around the land you want to fertilise then plough it in. Alternatively: dump it, spread it out to sun dry, then fill old fertilizer bags with it (or load it into a tractor-trailer). This seems too obvious – am I missing something in your post, Jim? Perhaps you want to compost it first. If so, over to AI, but it doesn’t have to be composted for most crops like cassava, corn, rubber, etc., i.e. produce that doesn’t require pathogens to be killed off.

Rgds

Khonwan

[jamescollister]

Quickest method would be to dump it around the land you want to fertilise then plough it in. Alternatively: dump it, spread it out to sun dry, then fill old fertilizer bags with it (or load it into a tractor-trailer). This seems too obvious – am I missing something in your post, Jim? Perhaps you want to compost it first. If so, over to AI, but it doesn’t have to be composted for most crops like cassava, corn, rubber, etc., i.e. produce that doesn’t require pathogens to be killed off.

Rgds

Khonwan

That's what I was thinking, just dump the stuff on the land, but more than would be needed for 100 rai. Seems a waste as much would just wash away in the rains.

Haven't sat down and worked out cubic volume, but think it would not be small, so there may be years of good fertilizer, if it can be stored and improved. Not sure of the best way to go, could dump it, dry it and bag it, or add other things to improve it.Jim

As a PS maybe even sell it as AI does.

Edited January 29, 2013 by jamescollister

[Lickey]

I would think there could be a lot of methane in that hole so no smoking Jim,

[Khonwan]

It won’t run off if it’s ploughed in. 1,000kg of manure per rai is roughly equivalent to 50kg of chemical fertilizer (in terms of nutrients); I’d be ploughing in at least 1 to 1.5 tonne per rai. Ploughing in 2-3 times this amount would not be OTT.

Rgds

Khonwan

[jamescollister]

I would think there could be a lot of methane in that hole so no smoking Jim,

Will be just glad when the hole goes, must have produced a million mosquitoes each year. Jim

[Khonwan]

Read that a bit too quickly - yes, not enough for 100 rai. I would select your worst parts of that land only and plough-in at a rate of 1-2 tonnes/rai. I'm constantly telling my Thai neighbours this when I see them buying 100 bags of chicken manure and spreading them over 10 rai!

Rgds

Khonwan

[jamescollister]

It won’t run off if it’s ploughed in. 1,000kg of manure per rai is roughly equivalent to 50kg of chemical fertilizer (in terms of nutrients); I’d be ploughing in at least 1 to 1.5 tonne per rai. Ploughing in 2-3 times this amount would not be OTT.

Rgds

Khonwan

Can't plough in in a rubber plantation, trees have surface roots. Can water in or sprinkle the dry stuff on.

Either way I will dig the shit up and dump it on the ground one way or another. Too good to waste. Jim

[jamescollister]

just cracked number 7 big bottle of beer, but still can add some what, maybe , but a hole that size will have about 300 cubic meters of shit. Don't know what shit weights but have loaded a few pickups with fertilizer and unloaded them.

With mature trees we use less than 50 kilos of fertilizer per rai 2 times a year . 1,000 plus . That works

at around 200,000 a year, or somewhat under 200 bags of fertilizer per year. Bag is 50 kilo so, That works out to about one metric ton a year.

If I can use the pig manure, processed, I can save over 300.000 Baht over a 3 year period.\Not rich and that's my beer money covered. Jim

Edited January 29, 2013 by jamescollister

[IsaanAussie]

7? WOW, big day Jimbo. This is liable to turn into Compost 101, but what the hey, can't sleep anyway and before you ask, coffee!

I agree with what Khonwan has said here. Especially about the misunderstanding here about what manure and composts are and are not in comparison to fertilisers. To rebuild soil here needs 10ton per hectare of good quality compost, a bit over 1,500kg per rai. Pig manure has an NPK of around 3:1:2, it is not a 15:15:15 replacement at one to one. As I get asked frequently, if it is that "crappy" why does it work just as good? Well it works differently. Take the N part. In the 15's formula the N component is in soluble, plant available form. You use it or you lose it, most is lost either being released to the atmosphere or leeched out under the roots. In compost the N is trapped and not plant available immediately and is released over time as the microbes do their thing.

Jim,what you will have is anaerobically (without oxygen) composted or decomposed manure. It is not the same as the aerobically composted manure I produce. Under water the decomposition is much slower and at low temperature. Methane is released rather than ammonia, and pathogens are not destroyed. Potentially this can be dangerous stuff biologically, E-Coli etc.. do not let the kids play in it.

Most nitrogen will be long gone but the phosphate and potassium levels should be still there, along with the trace elements and minor nutrients. Oh yeh, you will probably have pretty good heavy metals content as well.

What you have is basically the sludge like comes out of a biogas digestor. One difference is in the digestor the stuff is moving which helps release the other major gaseous component, hydrogen sulphide. Like eggs do we? Wait until your "digger" gets into this stuff.

So what to do with 300 cubic metres of something between mud and very wet number twos? Normal practice is to pump it into shallow drying pans and from there into bags or whatever. I definitely wouldnt be getting it angry by digging it out. unless you dig real fast!

Just how dry is the pond?

Edited January 29, 2013 by IsaanAussie

[IsaanAussie]

After 7 bottles he should be getting awake soon.

So lets talk rubber trees and fertiliser requirements. For a tapped tree, 12:6:6 at 32 kg per rai, twice a year is my understanding. That I can achieve with pellitised pig manure compost with some added minerals fermented into it prior to pelleting.

What are you using? Given that we can see what we might get out of your sludge mine.

[jamescollister]

Thanks for the replies.

AI what you are saying is this stuff has lost much of it's goodness over the years, not super fermented wonder growing manure. Won't do any harm, but not a lot of good either. Not worth the effort to dry and bag it. Probably not worth the cost and effort to spread it over 100 rai of land.

So what about this, thinking of buying 5 rai of rice field off the BILs wife, if the price and payments are right. Part of my diversification to avoid starvation and we dig out as much as we can and dump it on the rice field. Good bad or indifferent.

On the rubber tree fertilizer question, can't give you a yes or no answer on that. Tappers seem to know what their plot needs and we mix organic and chemical. There is a table with recommendations somewhere, if I can find it will post.

Thanks again for the replies. Jim

[IsaanAussie]

Mate forget the shit in the hole, 300,000 per year and its "Up to you" with the tappers? Call me....

On the hole contents. If it is 2.5 metres deep and doesnt have half the depth full of dirt it could be anything now. One thing is for sure,it will have more nutrients than the plantation soil the P and K which be of use. It is a matter of cost and return. A macro might dig it out and dump in truckloads for 25 to 30 baht a "Q". Probably more as their busy time is just starting. So to get near the trees will cost perhaps 75,000 baht without spreading etc. You can buy a lot of chem fert's for that without risk of any leftover viruses of other pathogens his pigs shat out into the pond or the education on how to get it into the root zone etc....

How would I do it? Well if I need .... nar,give me a call...