Any arable farmers about?

[GreenFootstool]

I have questions about muck spreading!

I live on the edge of a small town with lots of adjacent farmland which is a mix of arable and livestock (sheep and cows).

The last three days there's clearly been lots of slurry / muck spreading taking place which has caused a stink (boom boom) on the local Facebook pages.

Someone has asked if there are limits to when / how spreading can take place but I can't find much about it other than proximity to waterways and specific DEFRA limits in October?

What is in slurry? Is it just cow shit? Someone seems to think it's also human sewage in use but I have no idea as to that!

I also wondered if it would help a touch with the current drought conditions to soak the fields a bit 🤔

Sorry if I'm being dense, although I have grown up on the edge of rural life, I've never worked farms and am a bit ignorant as to the practicalities.

The restrictions vary by region. Typically from cattle, yes. But can be from other stock.

It wouldn't (or definitely shouldn't) ever be waste from a domestic septic tank.

How interesting, thank you! I'm surprised there are any restrictions tbh, it seems to me like something you'd just need to do or not as the case may be!

Treated human waste is used in this country, but there are conditions attached. I live in a farming area and you can tell when it's been used 😟.

Someone has been muck spreading near us this week, and it's definitely just animal waste.

Where do you think sewage from aeroplanes goes when it has been emptied from the planes?

If you see large mounds of black looking soil dumped in field then It is probalby"treated" human waste for fert.

Arable farmers wife here.. it’s most likely treated human poo. Safe, but smelly. There are restrictions on where/when you can spread and incorporate it. And on how it’s stored - near waterways etc. since the advent of the Ukraine/Russia war, usual fertiliser jumped from £100 a tonne to £1000, not dropped to around £600. But poo is very cheap. Does the same job, gets rid of waste (better than putting in the sea) and smell will be gone in a week or so. That said, I’d still not let my dogs run around in freshly spread poo then jump on my sofa! Safe, but smelly!!

So with the human poo then, does that come from the water / sewage companies in a dried form?

I think I've only pictured slurry as in slurry pits so spraying of it across the fields - does the solid waste get spread like soil? That sounds harder to work with!

Treated sludge from sewage treatment works has been used for years. The water company i used to work for developed a dried product from human waste that looked like instant coffee! It could only be used on ground that wasn't used for food production though like golfcourses (although it was 30years ago).

Can I ask an unrelated question? Is an SFI purely for growing food or can it be classed as livestock, too? TIA.

Yes slurry is just water and cow poo - usually stored in a lagoon and then pumped out with umbilical pipes.
Farm yard manure is solid, poo and bedding, straw usually.
There are strict regulations when it can be spread in certain areas and not when it’s wet soil so thats why there is lots of activity at the moment, as the ground conditions are good, harvest finished so early because of the weather and when it starts raining it'll probably keep on till Christmas!
There is also the byproducts from domestic council composting sites, digestate waste, and human sewage ‘cake’ that is spread on arable land. These all smell 100 times worse than FYM to me, almost a horrible perfumey note to it that I hate. It’s often full of tiny bits of plastics too, but the water companies seem to get away with it yet again!

Erm if you are in NI in a small town beginning with C I can fill you in about the smell causing the outrage on the local groups and it is not slurry and not above board!

@RiversrunWoodville oooh tell us more!

Agree, it smells far worse. I suppose there has been such a lack of investment is water treatment and sewage, alongside a massive increase in population, maybe it's nothing better than a least worst solution.

No, in Cornwall but I am here for the tale!

A little off-topic, but I said something like this on a thread grumbling about smelly people. As a migraine sufferer, I could be affected by all kinds of perfumes, sprays, domestic cleaning products et cetera, but even if it's a bit smelly at the time so far I never get a migraine from the smell of sweat or of muck spread on the land or the waft as we drive past the sewage works.
I remember a bucket lavatory which was carried 'down the field' and emptied. I don't know if a hole was dug first or not. Maybe it was ploughed in. I was far too little to get the job at the time. (Not everyone has heard the expression 'It smells worse than a country lav in the plum season.', but some of us understand it.)

It's nice to know that we are using human waste as well as animal waste as fertiliser. If we can process it and use it, good.