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Facts About Dairy Farms & Agricultural Waste Management

By Lianne Derocco


For most people, our contact with the dairy industry is limited to grabbing a gallon of milk and some yogurt at the grocery store and then consuming these foods. While you might not have given dairy farming any serious thought, it is one of the largest industries in the United States.

There are more than 50,000 dairy farms in the United States and nearly all of these farms are family owned and operated. There are dairy farms located in all 50 states, although most are located in states such as California, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania and Idaho. More than 20 percent of the nation's milk supply comes from California.

You must have seen how big dairy cows are but you would surely be amazed by the fact that they could actually be as heavy as 1,000 pounds or even more. The normal dairy cow can provide about six to seven gallons of milk daily but it also produces so much waste. In fact, it could come up with manure summing up to the weight of 60 pounds. Of course, you would surely have problems with dealing with agricultural waste if you have so many cows.

It is normal for dairy farms to employ waste lagoons or pits in order to deal with agricultural waste. However, strict monitoring should be enforced so that the wastewater would not seep into the aquifer. Aside from this, it is also important to consider the proper methods of treating the manure. Otherwise, you would encounter problems like sludge build-up at the bottom of the lagoon. At the top of the lagoon, you may also have hard top-level crusting. It is also expected for foaming to occur, which compounds further the troubles that you may encounter.

If nothing is done to correct the anomalies mentioned above, your dairy farm could become a huge contributor to environmental degradation of pollution and more people would be adversely affected. You may have to check out the solutions that may provide to deal with agricultural waste. It is through these products that you could definitely solve the problems that you encounter in the dairy farm, particularly on the waste.

Agra Sphere is one product that they sell and this contains no chemicals. Each biodegradable sphere is filled with a propriety blend of microbes that eat away at waste solids. These spheres can eat away at sludge and prevent the formation of a crust as well as reducing foaming, odors and flies. When a top crust is already in place, consider using Bioverse AG's product called Activator Plus or Lagoon Activator, which uses natural bacteria to liquefy a top crust.




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