Horrible News. 3 brothers die.

[orezok]

Years ago I was a project manager for a developer and one of our sites had an ancient rotational landslide on it.

To determine if it was stable enough to build houses on it a series if holes were bored into the slide area. The holes were about 4’ in diameter and were drilled to a depth where the soil characteristics changed. The soils engineer inspected the soil coming out of the hole to determine at what depth that occurred.

In that case, it was 103’ down.

Then the fun part. A geologist gets in a cage and is slowly lowered into the hole, picking at the side of the hole as he went down to determine if there were multiple fractures of the soil or if the entire mass slid as one. This determined the stability of the slide.

The geologist was first strapped to the top of the cage so if he collapsed that his body would not come out of the cage and he could be safely brought to the surface. He then was put on an oxygen mask as decaying vegetation could produce gasses. Finally he was given a radio as once he descended more than 30’ or so the hole muffled the sound and neither party could hear the other.

I’m thinking you would have cajones of titanium to go 103’ down a tiny hole.

 

[MossRoad]

Nope! Not me.

 

[yanmars]

That accident occurred in the county I live. Had another manure pit death accident here about 10 years ago if I remember correctly.

 

[shooterdon]

I had not heard of manure pits until seeing this thread. I grew up around small farms and manure was piled on the ground and flipped over as needed with a tractor.

I understand the need to reduce the work of cleaning out stalls. Spray the stuff down a trench to a big pit and let it ferment. Easy-peasy.

Most places need a permit to build anything and I know we get visits by the county checking out if we have built anything without a permit. Surely there is a way to inform owners of the danger....but will anyone listen? How many guys know they should wear chaps running a saw and never use them?

I cannot see many farmers investing in Scott Air Packs and keeping them current. A safety harness attached to a jib crane work but you need two people.

 

[MossRoad]

I thought manure pits were common. Every dairy I ever went to had a line of grates on the floor behind the cows in the milking stations. The manure/urine goes on the floor and into the grates, then a conveyor of sorts moves it all to the end where it goes to pits. When the pit gets full, it's pumped into a spreader tanker type machine and taken to the fields.

Our friends farm 10,000 acres and finish hogs, about 5-6 thousand at a time. The hogs just crap on the grated floor and it all goes to pits. Never asked them how they dispose of theirs, but a hog farrowing facility we visited pumped it from the pits out to fields to be incorporated into the ground by a tractor pulling a 1/2 mile hose back and forth across the fields.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[MossRoad]

 

[stuckmotor]

Somewhere I read about a large operation that tapped the methane coming from its animal waste to produce a significant amount of electricity. Can't remember if it was a dairy or poultry business.

 

[MossRoad]

Somewhere I read about a large operation that tapped the methane coming from its animal waste to produce a significant amount of electricity. Can't remember if it was a dairy or poultry business.

Fair Oaks Farm in NW Indiana has something like 40,000 dairy cows. They capture all of the methane from the manure in a digester and use the methane to not only power their fleet of semi's, tractors, etc., but to generate all of their electricity and sell power to the grid.

 

[Torvy]

Reminds me of how many people get hurt or killed in PTO accidents. Some people just get too casual with dangerous stuff when they have been around it a long time.