To worry about the smell of whatever they're spreading on the fields?

[MrsWinnibago]

We live on the outskirts of the countryside and our route to school is down a long country lane bordered by farms.

The lane is about 2 miles long...for the last two days it's smelled really badly...it's not muck...as in manure...it's something else but I don't know what...something more pungent and I keep worrying about what it IS exactly? Can you tell me? Could it be toxic? How can I find out?

Liquid manure is AWFUL. Nothing like the lovely smell of horse manure which is actually quite nice and farm-y.

Well I'm none the wiser. I don't think this smell is born of shite though...it's really chemical-like and I want to know what it is. I can't ask the farmer as I wouldn't have a clue how to find him...I'll phone the council tomorrow and ask them.

It's perhaps slurry? That is really fowl smelling.

Scarlett as I've said, repeatedly...it does not smell anything like shit.

Silage?
Rotten seaweed? - vile smell, but v good fertiliser
Or anything blood/bone based.

Shit smells like shit - I can think of worse - but fermented shit can be awful. Well-rotted manure hardly smells at all.

Chicken shit fertiliser is pretty awful and smells not like shit at all.

Yes Glasgow fuckin stinks today!

I second chicken shit. Vile, and yes, 'fowl' smelling stuff.

Why would the council know what fertiliser the farmer is using?

It smells kind of like....I dunno...it has a burnt quality to it....

Slurry - smells like rotten eggs?

Cross post, it is legal to use human waste as a fertilizer, but there are strict regulations in place for it's treatment and use on specific crops.

The closest description of the smell is like badly rotten chicken poop, mixed with dirty disposable nappies, bad enough to put you off eating any time soon after smelling it boak!

Apparently in glasgow it's a farmer putting human shit on his fields. Yum.

I bet it's slurry.

Coal I have no idea...but how else does one find these things out? Other than walking through about 30 square miles of field and looking for "The farmer" when there could be about 3 of them!

The council will be able to tell me who is spreading what in the area...I assume these activities are registered somehow.

Pacific no...no rotten egg smell....it is sharper and more chemical than any poo based thing....it's got a burnt quality to it.

I think our farmers were usi g chicken shit it is chemically eye nipping smelly

A bit like burned hair! That's it...not totally the same but with a bt of that in there.

Slurry smells like nothing else - not at all like poo

Hm, good luck finding out - now I want to know…

Historically people have always put human shit on fields though.

Like burned hair Pacific?

Envoiromental health will be able to tell you mrsw

Environmental Health will find out what it is for you. We spread slurry last year and they came up to ask what we were spreading. We had to give them a sample as well.

I'm not sure I remember - I just remember this unbelievably bad smell that did not compare to anything I'd experienced before. Sorry.

They use human shit around here, it's arable land. It overtakes the whole village and stinks to high heaven for about three days then disperses.

I'm told that there's an alternative which is treated but thisstuff is used because it's cheaper. What do I know though, I come from the city!