Novel Approaches to Manure Management

Summarized From Eastern Ontario Poultry Conference
October 17th, 2007

Poultry meat and egg farming is a predominantly non land-based production enterprise. The management of waste represents a cost in a production enterprise using animal waste as a fertilizer input. It is important for the poultry enterprise to choose the equipment and management style which will preserve the manure's fertilizing value. It is important to encourage a business approach which will adapt a manure treatment system to the practices and systems already in place. If the manure leaves the farm, it becomes important to diminish the volume of manure produced and also to facilitate manure handling. Drying manure will more easily allow these two objectives to be attained.

The SECONOV system is a technology that really dries manure. In addition, this technology reduces odours and flies, reduces the volume of manure to be managed and facilitates and reduces transportation costs. Energy costs are reduced as well. The system requires a minimal amount of maintenance all the while generating a high quality final product.

The SECONOV system can be adapted to existing henhouses and for new poultry barns. Modular installation enables the size of the farm to be adjusted. Furthermore, it makes enables pollution to be combated at the source and makes it possible to store manure for the medium and long-term.

Testing with models have demonstrated a 73 % reduction in odours. The system allows for the evaporation of 70 grams of water per layer per day from the manure minimizing ammonia los by 40 grams per layer per year. The impact on a medium-sized farm with 22,398 hens represents a daily evaporation of 1,540 litres of water and a reduced ammonia loss of 880 kg per year which together impact positively on odour emission.

Our company holds a permit from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment to take on manure from outside our own farms. Our company also has a North American patent allowing it to market the SECONOV drying system.

The challenge is to minimize and upgrade the by-product of the annual digestion of some 300,000 tonnes of feed!