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excess fertilizer causes algae blooms I was just hearing an Ohio farmer complain that they won't let him spray manure on his fields while the ground is frozen
by jws 11y ago
excess fertilizer causes algae blooms
I was just hearing an Ohio farmer complain that they won't let him spray manure on his fields while the ground is frozen anymore, and he doesn't have sufficient storage to hold all the manure through the winter. What's a poor farmer to do?
Spraying frozen fields is not "fertilizing", it is just dumping manure and letting it wash into the streams. He may as well have been dumping it straight into a stream all winter.
It makes one wonder, is there an 80-20 rule for farmers? Are 20% of them causing 80% of the fertilizer runoff?
- ChuckMcM 11y agoOne supposes he could invest in an anerobic digester[1] and start turning all that manure into electricity for the grid. Honestly, any farmer not doing this yet is leaving money on the table. [1] http://www.energy.ca.gov/biomass/anaerobic.html http://www.energy.ca.gov/biomass/anaerobic.html
- ams6110 11y agoThat all depends on how long the payback is, which isn't clear from that reference. Farmers are businessmen, aren't going to do something if it doesn't make financial sense.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoIn California, which has pretty extortionate electricity rates, the payback for an anerobic digester is under 5 years, but there is more information here: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex12280 http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$Department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agd... which includes the US case study here: https://www.epa.gov/agstar https://www.epa.gov/agstar