Hog Production and Water Quality: Minimizing the Risks

Manure is a Valuable Resource

Hog manure contains many valuable nutrients beneficial to crop production. Proper storage and handling of liquid manure will provide maximum benefits with minimal harm to the environment.

Minimize Risks of Pollution Through Manure Management

With the pork industry expanding in Alberta, good manure management practices will reduce the risk of polluting the environment and maintain our image of producing good food from a healthy environment.

Manure management will maintain our market advantage of producing quality food in a clean environment.

Manure that is applied at inappropriate times or excessive rates can affect water quality. The quality of surface water (streams, dugouts, lakes or rivers) will deteriorate if liquid manure runs into these waters as a result of over-application on land, spillage, storage overflow or dumping. Ground water quality can be harmed as a result of over-application on land.

Nutrients from manure stimulate unwanted algal growth in water. Dissolved oxygen in the water is depleted when algae die and decompose. This often causes fish kills. Decomposing algae can also generate offensive taste and odour problems and increase water treatment costs. Consuming water with toxins from blue-green algae can be fatal to livestock, wildlife and even humans.

Water supplies contaminated with manure contain bacteria and may contain other disease-causing microorganisms like Cryptosporidium and Giardia. These organisms are a threat to human and livestock health.

Drinking water from dugouts or other surface water supplies must be treated prior to consumption. Test your drinking water every year.

Excessive manure application rates can result in high nitrate levels in shallow ground water. Nitrate levels above 10 milligrams per litre is unsafe for human consumption.

How You Can Help Protect Alberta's Water Resources

It is important to properly store and handle hog manure to minimize environmental impacts.

Manure management is not just manure spreading.

• Ensure sufficient long-term manure storage. A large storage capacity allows the flexibility for applying manure when soil is dry and work schedules permit. Manure storage should be large enough to contain manure for one year and have a reserve capacity to avoid overflow during large rainstorms.

• Ensure adequate land base for application. Sufficient land should be available to receive the amount of manure produced each year. Test your soil and manure for nutrient content, and apply manure at recommended rates to meet crop requirements.

• Manage your nutrients. Apply manure according to manure and soil phosphorus content to meet crop requirements. Since phosphorus can build up in soils over time, over application of manure can increase phosphorus levels in runoff and contaminate water. Over-application of manure can lead to nitrate leaching and contamination of ground water.

• Reduce movement of land-applied manure. Incorporate hog manure by injection or tillage during or immediately after application. This reduces the risk of manure runoff, minimizes odour and maximizes nutrient recovery by reducing ammonia losses. To further reduce the risk of manure runoff reaching water bodies, maintain a vegetated buffer zone between water bodies and the area where manure is applied. Also, do not apply manure on frozen, saturated or compacted soils and steep slopes where erosion or surface runoff is likely to occur.

• Ensure proper construction of lagoons. Store manure in earthen lagoons. In areas with sandy, coarse-textured soils, seal earthen lagoons with compacted clay or plastic liners to prevent leaching to ground water.

• Ensure proper location of lagoons. Maximize the distance from manure lagoons to ground water wells and surface waters. Lagoons should be downhill from water supplies.