AE-76
Sept. 1969
Swine Waste Management and Disposal
A. C. Dale and J. E. Mentzer
Introduction
It presently seems that the public’s demand for the control of pollution cannot and will not be denied, and the swine industry cannot revert to past systems of production to avoid the problem. This does not mean that it is "the end of the line" for the swine industry in Indiana, tut it does mean that swine producers will nave to do a more acceptable job of disposal in the future. All current systems of disposal have some undesirable characteristics, but with present day technology and some good management one can avoid many problems. Waste disposal is an integral part of the swine production unit and should be planned accordingly.
Much research is being directed to the problem of livestock waste management and disposal, and considerable progress is being made, but no simple solution to the problem has been developed. Of the twelve state agricultural experiment stations within the North Central Region of teUnited States, eleven now have active projects directed toward the deteVmi nation sf improved livestock waste handling and •'sposal methods. Seven have projects -Staining directly to swine wastes.
reproduction, Value and .	•

Logically the first step in planning or handling, storage, and disposal of anure is to estimate the amount and value “^manure to be produced. Table I gives eapproximate daily production of manure bV swine.
 "rules of thumb" that are eas-V remembered and that provide for reason-accurate estimation of manure produc-0n are as fol lows:
1.	Manure production in gallons per day = I per cent of body weight
2.	Manure production in pounds per day = 8-9 per cent of body weight
3.	During the finishing period a hog will produce approximately 150 gallons of manure and urine.
VaIue - It is difficult to place an exact value on swine manure. Some have evaluated the manure in terms of the increase in production of crops to which the wastes were applied. Another way is to relate the value of the wastes to the cost of a quantity of chemical fertilizer that will provide the same quantity of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium as Morris (II) has done. Table 2 gives a reasonable estimate of the value of swine manure, but these values can vary drasti-cally depending on the assumptions made in the calculations.
Based on these calculations the value of the 150 gallons of manure produced by a hog during the finishing period is about 52 cents which is considerably less than was formerly believed.
The manure production and value figures do not include waste water, rain water, and wash water that may be collect-ed and handled in the system. The volume water wasted by some fountains may be as high as the manure production. A reasonable estimate of rain water may be made by assuming 40 inches of annual rainfall, on uncovered finishing floors.
Excess waste water will probably improve the pumpability of the manure as a liquid but has little value and increases the amount of material to be handled.
Cooperative Extension Service, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, Lafayette, Indiana