What has the Farmer sprayed on his fields?

[RabbitPied]

I live opposite a farm and the Farmer was out in his fields the other day spraying something, and now there's a terrible smell. I'm used to bad smells as you'd expect living next to a farm but this is different. The smell I could only describe as rotten honey. If your vet has ever given you Metacam for your pet, it smells very much like that, but even more intense.

I'm not complaining about him spraying his crops of course. Farmers have to tend their crops.I'm not concerned either. I'm simply curious to know what it might be.

Any ideas?

TIA

How was it being spread, and on to what? Bare soil, grass, crop stubble?
Was it being flung out the back of a trailer (solids) or liquid sprayed from a tube, or trailed out the back pumped through pipes?

I never see him to ask him. Well I do but he's always in his tractor and various other agricultural equipment and I don't want to interrupt him to ask, or he's further up in the fields.

It's probably slurry or anaerobic digestate or something, some sort of organic manure. If it's really stinky stuff it should be injected into the ground instead of broadcast - the fact there is a strong smell means much of the nutrient is escaping as gas. If it's gone onto bare soil it should ideally be ploughed under within 12/24 hours.

There was a giant hose. There's a grassy field he was in but he seemed to be moving towards his fields with crops. The smell was strong then. That's when I first noticed it. It's stronger now though it ebbs and flows with the wind.

I'm not worried by it and he's a good neighbour . I'm used to strong smells here, and it's part of living next to farms, but it intrigued me. Thank you all for your answers.

I think you might live near to me! 😅

So he's probably shallow injecting an organic manure - slurry or digestate. Chicken manure is solid and chucked out the back of a trailer.
It could be pig slurry, cow slurry or anaerobic digestate, or sewage sludge which is human waste. All these will be high in nitrogen which makes them good fertiliser, but that turns to ammonia which is what you can smell, probably. Pig slurry & anaerobic digestate (leftover fluid from a food digester or similar) has the most nitrogen, usually.

Thank you.

Now I'm curious to know roughly where you are, Onehanded.

SHIT

Slurry. It's different from regular manure as it'll have been rotting away all year and may contain dead animals too. Hopefully he'll only do it once a year though. I grew up next to a farm. I hated it. I can still smell it just from reading your post!