Composting Deadstock Gains Popularity in Manitoba

Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1353

Manitoba Agriculture and Food says concerns related to the rendering of cattle appear to be fueling a growing interest in the province in the use of composting to dispose of dead animals.

The May 20th announcement that mad cow disease had been discovered in Alberta has raised a variety of concerns related to the use of rendered animal products...in particular cattle.

Manitoba Agriculture and Food Southwest Regional Engineer Brian English says the understanding is that, at some date in the fairly near future, the renderers are no longer going to pick up cattle so producers will have to find some way of getting rid of them.

"In Manitoba there's four legal ways to get rid of dead animals.

One is deliver them to a renderer. We're going to lose that.
The second alternative is to bury them.
The third choice is to incinerate them.
A fourth choice is to compost them.

Burial may make sense in certain parts of Manitoba in certain times of the year.

It's really difficult to bury cattle here in Manitoba in the winter time.

Incineration, for most producers, they're not interested in incineration because of the costs associated with incineration.

There are a fair number of producers and organizations that are looking at composting as a way to get rid of dead cattle.

There are several producers in Manitoba that are already using composting to get rid of dead pigs and Manitoba Pork Council has a lovely little booklet that they put out that provides all the information on how to compost dead pigs.

The same information or the same ideas can be used for composting dead cattle".

English says the biggest drawback with composting cattle is the size of the animal.

He says the process will be much more efficient if the dead animal is cut into pieces but that job is distasteful.

He says rendering is the ideal option for disposing of dead poultry and it's also well suited to swine even though some sows can get quite large.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.