Neighbors Sue for Horse Manure Pile Smell

[ultrarunner]

We just got back from the finger lake region of NY.. Beautiful area..But some of the areas had what can only be described as an atrocious cow chit stench. .. It would gag you. I couldn't imagine having to live next to it every day. Just driving down the road passing it was brutal.

A high level of stench year round sounds like a feedlot in a warm climate.

Hard to smell anything with snow on the ground and spreading manure doesn't typically happen everyday...

 

[Jstpssng]

We just got back from the finger lake region of NY.. Beautiful area..But some of the areas had what can only be described as an atrocious cow chit stench. .. It would gag you. I couldn't imagine having to live next to it every day. Just driving down the road passing it was brutal.

That is a beatiful area. Had I been a bit smarter 20 or so years ago I might have moved there. I just didn't have sense enough to spend more time with the one I was interested in...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A few years ago at about this time of year I was driving down the road and saw my neighbor winching a road killed moose onto a trailer. I stopped and offered to help and as we were winching it onto his trailer I asked him if he was going to use it for coyote bait. It had been dead long enough so that the stomach was bloated. He said that he can't smell very well but thought it was pregnant. (They drop their calves in April.) I tried to convince him that it was a bad idea as the animal had been there for at least a day, but he brought it home and I have been told that he cut it up, put it in the freezer and ate it. It wasn't a case of him needing the food, he is a retired chemical engineer and is well set up with property and equipment. He just wanted the moose.

Yesterday I went past his house and there was a road killed deer across from his driveway. Today it was still there, I hope that he doesn't try to bring that home.

Good lord...I'd never do that! Road kill meat I bet could be deadly to eat!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Getting back to initial lawsuit...I'd certainly talk to my attorney but I doubt I'd retain him...it probably wouldn't be necessary. All that money spent and it could be appealed I'm thinking even if I didn't win. It would have to be outrageous for anyone to prevail, and manure pile could easily be moved far end of property.
We have horses, wife did when we met ('72), Dad did...we never ever noticed smell.
I think it's not possible to be sued if one is in compliance with state/County codes. I would want my county agent with me who had seen my farm.
It just "stinks" of a frivolous lawsuit that's going nowhere.
I had bad spots on the front yard I put an inch or so composted horse manure on few weeks ago then we've had rains. You should see it now...lush/green.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

 

[JimRB]

I have been around horse manure piles since 1984. You have to stick your nose up to a horse's butt when farting to get a stink. Hard to say how many loads of horse manure and shavings compost I have sold over the years. I move the manure pile 250 feet to the compost pile. Even fresh hot manure pile does not stink.

Neighbors behind and to the right of me have gotten loads from my pile for gardens. The guy behind me moved. The new kids have been seen playing in the compost pile. Not thrilled with that but I guess they figured out it is not the best place to play.

Across the street at the over 2,000 acre farm, the previous farm manager spread chicken litter. Stinks and is gone in a few days. New manager contracted for humanure. Day after day 10 trucks or more a day dumping that crap. Then after the pile is big enough they spread it. Stinks for 2 or three months. Not a little stink but really foul stink. Then the next year they started another pile across the road in a different pasture. So far I have not heard the dump trucks or the smell this year.

I have heard people 10 miles away complaining about the smell when some farmer over their started the same practice.

We do not turn our horse manure and shavings compost pile. After a few months it has gone through a heat. Earthworms galore. I never consider it to be a smell. Pile sits in the shade of the woods which maybe helps keep the moisture level up so it composts pretty fast.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

exactly, no pile, no complaint. Composting horse manure is not a difficult thing. Haul out is certainly an option too. There are people out there that wont spread manure because they think its bad for the horses.

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/7.29.09%20_Final%20Manure.Storage.Publication%20Updated%201.6.2023.pdf

 

[lman]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

Don't you have to unload the spreader, unless it's a very small pile.

 

[r porter]

it sounds like it is time to start raising pigs over on that side of the field.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

it sounds like it is time to start raising pigs over on that side of the field.

I pastured hogs once. The neighbors had a horse that liked to run at the pigs and make them scatter, so they chose that fence line as their latrine. By the end of summer they had quite a respectable pile of poop about 100 yards long and 12" wide.