By Bruce Cochrane
The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative reports custom swine manure applicators have taken their focus on biosecurity up a level in response to PED.
Preliminary findings from a survey conducted by the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Madison to gather information on how custom swine manure applicators are dealing with Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea will be discussed during a webinar this afternoon.
MLMMI executive director John Carney reports custom applicators have stepped up their focus on minimizing the risk of cross contamination.
John Carney-Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative:
Custom applicators are spending more time mapping the location of roads and barns and thinking about where is traffic flow going so that they can take roads and use roads that have less traffic going to the barn, whether it's staff working there or feed trucks.
We're seeing applicators thinking hard and talking with their customers about each piece of equipment that comes onto the farm for manure pumping and applying and consciously considering is this a piece of equipment that should be bought and left on the farm rather then moved from farm to farm, how much equipment can be staged in the field and not go into the yard in the first place.
We're hearing manure applicators ask for a site map of the farm with an indication of where is the line of separation, the line of separation being the line that they want manure application and staff to stay on one side because barn traffic, pigs, people, feed trucks are on the other side.
The objective of course is don't have cross over between manure application and anybody coming into or going out of the barn or near the pigs.
Carney stresses, while there has been a number of changes, biosecurity is nothing new to manure applicators but with this new risk they've taken the focus on biosecurity up a level in response to the challenge.
Source: Farmscape