Waste Water Treatment

I am traveling right now, so I can't ask some info. Soooo, in the meantime, contact your local county extension office. Their from the government and are suppose to help you. Imo they are just a bunch of pencil necks, trying to get experience at the farmers expense.

Make gas from it

Be careful with water contaminated with pig feces. Many diseases can go from pig to man. E-colies and the likes are also a big problem.

Letting the tank reach a high temperature and producing methane seems to work for some farmers. I don't have the details but a quick search on the internet should help you.

Local regulation should be followed.

1. Separate out the solid wastes into a biogas digester. Use the biogas for heating, cooking, whatever.
2. The digested solids are largely pathogen free and make excellent fertilizer.
3. Pass the wastewater through a subsurface flow constructed wetland to remove the BOD.
4. If you use fast growing edible plants such as cattails, some of the excess plant growth can be harvested for pig feed.
5. The treated water can be recovered for irrigation as it is high in dissolved nitrates, phosphates and sulfates. It can also be recycled for washing piggery floor.
6. This will save you money on fertilizer as well.

sounds like you only intend on raising a few pigs. What is a few, like 3-5, or 30-50, or 300 -500, or 3,000 to 5,000?

Buy a shovel all hosing it down is doing creating more volume to all ready runny mess. That much more you have to get rid of. It is not just as easy as spraying it on your garden. It may burn it up or contaminate it. Needs to be composted before use.

Contact your local county health department, verify the regulations for wastewater storage from confined animal facilities. You may need to size the tanks for a specified storage capacity, evaluate potential for waste spillage during flooding and consider that volume also. You may need to install monitoring wells around the collection and storage faciltiies to monitoring for groundwater contamination. Additionally, you may need to install containment for flooding to limit risk to natural waterways. You should be aware of your ultimate planned capacity, as permitting is done for the maximum number of animal units a facility is allowed.

The main rule: avoide (waste) water as possible. It is much simplier to manage with solid manure than with dissoluted wastewater. Wastewater storage and cleaning is a problem even in small quantities. Better add some natural adsorbent like sawdust (foliage tree!) or peat or strow...and compost it. Get, produce manure, not slush. Wash with water only at extreme cases. Keep clean dryly!

agree, this site may not be a good site to post with the combination of experience level and what sounds like low numbers of units ^(pigs)

If it is a low number, that are dewater equipment, but that is a added expense. The only other issue you would have is odor

Show me a clean pig operation and I'll show you an honest politician. We raised pigs for food growing up. We had about 250 square feet of pen per pig and had no problems. Watering trough on one end, mud pit for the hot summer days, and those things were happier than a pig in $hit. Why do you want clean pigs? They don't want to be clean. Pigs like dirt, it's their natural environment. They will be more stress free, will fatten up faster, and your operation will be worry free. Oh, and don't worry about the smell....you'll get used to it just like the pigs already have.

It's interesting that you say that, back in the late 70's early 80's, the belief was to keep the pigs clean, in a clean and controlled environment. Control disease and the like.

Problem is, when the pigs were sent off for slaughter. Pigs were having heart attacks, and there was a change in the consistencies of the meat, in texture and taste.

Turned out the pigs were going into shock, release hormones that effected the meat. and if they had a coronary, well, you can't bring in a dead pig for slaughter. Hope I don't have to explain myself.

I just went back through this entire thread and did not find anyone who mentioned the 70's and 80's. Additionally, since you are responding to my comment, I think (as I said) keeping pigs "clean" is stupid and contrary to what a pig prefers. We kept our pigs muddy and happy. and never had any disease problem, ever.

I am no pig psychiatrist, but I am pretty sure that when a 30-06 round went through the pigs head at the time of harvest, no heart attack had time to occur. We were just country folk having dinner and the taste and consistency was about what you would get at the local supermarket without the nitrates. Guess we one upped some of yall by not sending them off.

The time period, well, I lived through it. I didn't say anything that it was stated in any posts.

Hoping that I didn't have to explain myself is shot to well you know...... he!!. Of course dead is dead.

So explaining myself:

When transporting the pigs to market they would go through an auction house to be purchased by the packer. These pigs die prior to the auction house. What packer is going to buy a dead pig being dragged into the ring, at least not legally. These are suppose to go to the mink ranch. Animals are supposable to be killed at the slaughter house.

Raising the pigs, the smell is the worse.

Fortunately, when I was growing up, my dad would raise only one or two pigs about every 5 years. Becasue as a kid, we would make them into pets. End up letting them run loose like a dog. They were actually smart animals. When penned, they crapped in one corner, and were actually quite trainable.

The reason our dad didn't always raise one/two pigs a year. We had a hard time intially eating our pets. But the side pork with the rine and pork steak was too good to hold out.

Got it. I misunderstood your post. Sorry P.

Show me a clean pig operation and I'll show you an honest politician. We raised pigs for food growing up. We had about 250 square feet of pen per pig and had no problems. Watering trough on one end, mud pit for the hot summer days, and those things were happier than a pig in $hit. Why do you want clean pigs? They don't want to be clean. Pigs like dirt, it's their natural environment. They will be more stress free, will fatten up faster, and your operation will be worry free. Oh, and don't worry about the smell....you'll get used to it just like the pigs already have

To WJMFIRE

I love your sense of humour ...and you are right! The main thing is I don't like the smell that much, though I enjoy the steak.

TO ALL OTHER CR4 FAMILY

Thanks for the ideas. I am weighing all the options you suggested and will make a decision soon. Keep up the good work. My elders used to say "...two fingers are better than one..." It is still so true today, your views have broadened my horizon!