Importing sewage or similar 'fertiliser'

[Princess Pooper]

Cautionary tale... suspect this is a big legal case.

Dairy farm disaster linked to liquid fertiliser – eDairyNews

All the news of the international dairy market in one site

edairynews.com

 

[Ffermer Bach]

what a terrible report, personally I would not spread sewage cake either because of worries about micro plastics, heavy metals, and synthetic oestrogen/contraceptive pills

 

[wr.]

Loads of farms around here spreading digestate and sewage from Welsh Water. Wonder how it will affect the land and livestock in the future.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Loads of farms around here spreading digestate and sewage from Welsh Water. Wonder how it will affect the land and livestock in the future.

One of the few good things about NVZs is that a lot of dairy farms are about up to their limits with their own muck and slurry so can't import anything. I did some calcs for a local dairy farm once that was importing pig slurry and had a fair job persuading him it was not a good idea because his indices were sky high and he was in excess of NVZ limits already, from his own production.

 

[wr.]

Phos levels in rivers around here are causing concern but WW are still happy to supply, FOC sewage cake to just about anyone who will take it.

 

[bigw]

Farmers should really reject sewage cake etc and let people deal with their own waste.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Farmers should really reject sewage cake etc and let people deal with their own waste.

I think most arable farmers are glad of it due to the organic matter as well as nutrients.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I can't remember who it was, but I watched a youtube video of a lecture by a soil woman and she said there was no way she would recommend to her clients using sewage cake

 

[Tarw Coch]

We have had sewage slurry spread here in the past and I’m convinced it did the ground no good at all, I wouldn’t use it again and I’ve spoken to a couple of other farmers who are also convinced their ground was poorer for having it spread.

 

[N.Yorks.]

Cautionary tale... suspect this is a big legal case.

Dairy farm disaster linked to liquid fertiliser – eDairyNews

All the news of the international dairy market in one site

edairynews.com

I don't see anything in the article that actually says it was liquid digested sewage sludge. It describes what actually happened on farm then there was a jump to a discussion sith SEPA (Scottish EA) who just reeled off a load of standard stuff about sewage sludge and biosolids..... if whoever writing the article wasn't sure what the 'fertiliser' was then they may well have asked the wrong question of SEPA.
I'm 100% guessing that there has been something dodgy going on with a liquid waste company who may well have had a beneficial waste and then gone and mixed in other liquids to quietly get rid of them, hoping that the situation wouldn't be realised. Something similar happened in North Yorkshire 8/9 years ago where compost was supposed to have been produced but allegedly all sorts of 'other' substances were finding their way into the material...... The EA stopped 1000's of tonnes of it from being spread for a couple of years before they finally concluded the 'solution' to heaps dotted all over the place was to let what was on farm be spread and stop further production. They obviuously did a cost-benefit/risk assessment...... spreading the remaining heaps was probably much cheaper than hauling it off farm and landfilling it maybe?? It was appalling stuff - door hinges and handles as one of the composted materials were shredded chipboard from old kitchen units etc...... that was just some of the obviously visual stuff. The guy responsible for doing it went bankrupt or his company did and allegedly the EA couldn't charge him directly as it was his defunct company that did it.......

 

[Plain steer]

The farmer in question culled his previous herd of cows to the ones in question as they were carrying mycoplasma bovis

 

[sjt01]

Cautionary tale... suspect this is a big legal case.

Dairy farm disaster linked to liquid fertiliser – eDairyNews

All the news of the international dairy market in one site

edairynews.com

I doubt the Penicillium roqueforteii came from any sort of waste other than blue cheese factory whey. P. roqueforteii is the mould that makes blue cheese blue. There will be some in the whey. Our whey from our blue cheese making (probably about 200 tonnes a year) plus any cheeses that are not perfect, go in our digester, and the digestate goes on the grass, and have done for almost 12 years now, and we have seen no ill effects on silage or cows. It is a bit of a red herring.
Seems like there was plenty of junk in the application.

 

[Happy]

Got told about this case 9 or 10 months ago.
No mention of water companies and sludge in the article.
Mention of Agronomy Company promoting liquid fert rather than solid is more on the right lines.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Got told about this case 9 or 10 months ago.
No mention of water companies and sludge in the article.
Mention of Agronomy Company promoting liquid fert rather than solid is more on the right lines.

I mention sludge in my reply, saying I would also not feel happy about putting that on the fields either

 

[Happy]

I mention sludge in my reply, saying I would also not feel happy about putting that on the fields either

Agree, just seemed thread was going down a water companies and sludge route.

 

[Beef farmer]

We take on as much sludge as we can annually. Its perfect for silage ground away from the dairies.
Spread in oct and leave till the following may.
The rules and regs surrounding sewage cake is insane. The product i believe is safe.

 

[N.Yorks.]

We take on as much sludge as we can annually. Its perfect for silage ground away from the dairies.
Spread in oct and leave till the following may.
The rules and regs surrounding sewage cake is insane. The product i believe is safe.

Agree the rules and regs are extensive but they were all based on knowledge from 30 years ago shaping the legislation..... I think that heavy metal contamination is lower now but i'd bet the pharmaceutical products are at higher concentrations and micro plastics are still a relative unknown....... I have no idea if digestion etc of the sludge denatures these compounds, maybe someone else might know?