Water in diesel

[KubotaSam]

I would not had put that fuel into anything. Save it for washing parts or burn a brush pile. Way to many things can happen with water into fuel.

[pat32rf]

I had much the same happen to half a 45 gallon drum of fuel. Decanted into smaller glass container with siphon from the bottom of the drum. Very easy to see and remove the water drops. Probably discarded 1/2 quart (liter) of fuel. After using the rest in my JD I still had no water in my filter/separator bowl. The water WILL NOT MIX with the fuel, as long as you have not added a LOT of alcohol.

[rd_macgregor]

The freezing idea sounds ingenious to me. I have a spring-loaded spout on my fuel can, so (if I thought there was water in the fuel) I could store it upside-down (spout down), then easily decant off any water with minimal fuel loss before refueling the tractor.
BOB

[Don87]

You know, come to think of it, maybe the time to dump questionable fuel into my truck's tank was NOT the night before I am going to be driving the trailer 120 miles one-way to take the pigs to the processor.

What happened? Did you make it back?

[DT86]

You know, come to think of it, maybe the time to dump questionable fuel into my truck's tank was NOT the night before I am going to be driving the trailer 120 miles one-way to take the pigs to the processor.

This is off topic but since you started the thread I didn't think you'd mind...

120 miles is a long way to haul anything to be processed. Is that the closest or just the one you like? Are you keeping it all or selling some?

[Don87]

This is off topic but since you started the thread I didn't think you'd mind...

120 miles is a long way to haul anything to be processed. Is that the closest or just the one you like? Are you keeping it all or selling some?

I was thinking the same thing. The guy that was doing mine is only 15 miles away, but I'm doing my own now. Planning on butchering another one next weekend. Just did one in September or October.

[DT86]

I'm lucky, I've got one about 20-30 minutes away and another USDA inspected (for resale purposes) about 15 minutes away. Oddly enough it's about 120 miles from where he is.

[Gale Hawkins]

I had much the same happen to half a 45 gallon drum of fuel. Decanted into smaller glass container with siphon from the bottom of the drum. Very easy to see and remove the water drops. Probably discarded 1/2 quart (liter) of fuel. After using the rest in my JD I still had no water in my filter/separator bowl. The water WILL NOT MIX with the fuel, as long as you have not added a LOT of alcohol.

We did take with the saddle tank on the old two ton truck we bought. I put the tube of the the cheap squeeze fuel transfer pump down inside a piece of 1/2" plastic water pipe that was 6" longer than the deepest direction of the tank and with a flashlight at night got it to draining and just moved the pipe from 'puddle' to 'puddle' in the bottom of the tank until there were no more left.

Every farmer knows not to poor in the last .5 gallon from a 5 gallon container that has set for long time but to first check for trash/water. If one has a gallon jug like was mentioned you can pour off nearly all of the good fuel.

Yes the trashy/water containing part can be used for parts cleaning.

[joshuabardwell]

What happened? Did you make it back?

Yup. Zero issue.

This is off topic but since you started the thread I didn't think you'd mind...
120 miles is a long way to haul anything to be processed. Is that the closest or just the one you like? Are you keeping it all or selling some?

I don't mind. Our closest custom processor is about 35 miles away, but they're not USDA inspected. For a couple of years, we sold only whole and half hogs and the customer had to pick up from the processor. It's a quirk of the law that if the customer picks up from the processor, then the meat doesn't have to be USDA inspected. The reasoning behind that is that you are allowed to eat your own animal without it being USDA inspected, because you're theoretically aware of the risks and have accepted them. It's only if you're selling to the public that the government gets involved and requires inspection. So if the customer picks up the animal from the processor, then it is treated as if you sold the customer a live animal (not regulated) and the customer had it processed (no inspection necessary). The fact that you provided the "service" of transporting the animal to the processor is ignored.

We had some minor "customer service" issues with the non-USDA processor, and we also wanted to be able to legally sell individual cuts, post-processing, instead of requiring customers to buy whole and half hogs, and requiring them to make the trip to the processor ourselves. Because of that, we now use this processor, which is the nearest USDA facility that we could find. Another nice thing is that this processor vacuum-packs and does custom labels instead of using butcher paper, which makes the meat much more presentable for sale.

Finding a USDA facility to process your livestock is one of the biggest hassles facing small meat producers, in my opinion. The lucky ones live close enough to a USDA facility that they don't have to think about it. But there are a lot of farms that are hundreds of miles from the nearest USDA facility, and the transport costs add to the bottom line in a way that makes it more difficult for us to compete with larger producers. Fortunately, the quality difference between our meat and grocery-store meat is big enough that we are able to justify a higher price. But still, I spend about $90 total in fuel each time I take a load of pigs to the processor--$45 to drop them off, and $45 to pick up the meat. And that's not even counting the six hours of driving time, for which I'm not being compensated, and misc. wear and tear on the truck and trailer. It's all well and good, because I am not trying to make a living at producing hogs. I just like pigs, and I like good pork, and I like being able to provide good pork to people while getting to hang out with pigs and eat said pork myself. But the people who are trying to make a living at it really struggle.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that there isn't, as far as I can tell, any central list of USDA-inspected facilities. We searched and searched to find a USDA facility, and the nearest one we could find was just over the Kentucky border, something like three hours one-way. It was only when we had the bright idea to go to farmer's markets and ask the people selling there who they used (since their meat must be USDA processed), that we were able to get a referral to one. Since the federal government has a complete list of all USDA inspected facilities, you would think it would be a valuable service that they could provide to small meat producers to make that list available to the public, but they don't. You just have to flail around until you finally find somebody to do your animals for you. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous red tape and hoops that a facility has to jump through in order to actually become a USDA facility, which contributes to the dearth of said facilities. Meanwhile giant producers like Perdue and Cargill just run their own facilities and don't have problems like this.

At the end of the day, it is worth it to us to use this processor, even if we didn't need USDA, because they consistently do good work, have excellent customer service, and have (so far) not made any mistakes in the processing. It's a disaster if you order an animal butchered one way for a customer, and it comes back butchered a different way. You can't un-do the butchering, and even if they were to offer to trade you a pig, that's no good, because I raise MY pigs the way I want to, and I don't WANT somebody else's pig.

[DT86]

I understand first hand everything you just described, except having to travel.

When you live near a good USDA packer, like I do, it seems everyone locally raises their own. It's tough to sell halves, wholes or even retail cuts unless you do set up shop at a farmers market. That is something I've never had a desire to do.