Quote:
Originally Posted by 209x50
Stupid idea. How many drop off sites will there be and who will man and run them? How far are you willing to drive to dispose of a carcass?
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I asked my husband to respond as he is more in tune with what is actually going on with the composting of carcasses. Here is his response:
Stupid Idea?.... actually far from it.
Carcass Composting is a cost-effective solution to a number of problems facing not only livestock producers, but wildife managers through SRD and all agencies that deal with roadkill on provincial and municipal roadways.
As a bit more background... prior to BSE carcass pickup service was free to Alberta producers. Hides at the time were worth dollars, and rendering plants used much of the deads for feed production such as dog food and rendered crude protein in fish food for the aquaculture industry. Post BSE regulations lead to the banning of the inclusion of Specified Risk Material in such products of which the brain, spinal cord etc. were included. The market for deadstock products evaporated and rendering service then had to start charging to allow the service to still be available. Costs initially were 6 cents per pound, which then went to 9 and up to 11 cents. Most recently the cost is increasing again to 13 cents per pound. And the cost for a horse is now a 250 dollar flat fee.
On average your looking at anywhere between 100 to 200 dollars to pickup an adult cow or bull... considering the producer has just lost the animal and the investment he has put into the animail, its difficult to swallow the fact he is now going to pay for this to be removed. It gets even more ridiculous for calves, there is a minimum 75 dollar fee for the rendering truck to come out to pick up an animal. So you have a 50lb calf that just died during calving season, multiply that by maybe 2% of the heard for natural average loss in a year and the carcasses can add up fast... or the bill if you still decide to have them hauled away...
For example, one municipality in the southwest end of the province... prime large carnivore habitat... pre-BSE would have an average of 900-1100 carcasses a year picked up. Post-BSE that dropped down to about 200 by 2009 that number was virtually zero. Its not that there are less losses, or that the herd sizes have dropped, its that the carcasses are now being left in bone yards for scavenging all over the place. A visiting Bear Biologist from Montana actually laughed at a community meeting and said "its no wonder you have more encounters and conflits with bears"..."your the McDonalds in the middle of the highway for bears"
Community Groups in localized areas of the province are already working on development and implementation of carcass pickup programs, and organizations have helped foot the bill for rendering service in problem areas.
Unfortunately, simply going hat-in-hand looking for grant funding to pay for the service is not sustainable. At this time, the rendering companies which are under a monopoly in Western Canada by westcoast reductions... are being subsidized to have the "service" still availalbe. They take the carcasss to central plants such as in Lethbridge, then when they have a truck-full haul them to Calgary, grind up the unused carcass, and haul them off to a class one landfill in Coronation... the community group or producer foots the other half of the bill and thats the end of it... does this make any sense to anyone else?
In the south such as Cardston County, central in Mountain View County, and in the Peace region Grande Prairie County are all developing composting alternatives to deal with these issues in a more cost-effective means. And I don't doubt this is only the first wave of facilities province-wide. Estimates are composting costs little more than 3 cents per pound, including delivery to the site.
Composting is low input and can be operated as modeled in the south through the existing municipal Ag Service Boards, a small CFIA and AB Environment registered facility can easily deal with seasonal pressure of use from Calving and the eventual losses of large livestock. The only inputs for composting is wet bedding material and starter compost, as well as feedstock such as shavings or old hay and straw that in most areas would probably be donated by local organizations or producers. Carcasses are placed in the piles or cells as needed, and are only turned after 4-6 months, then moved to a finishing pile after 9 months before completing the compost within the calender year. CFIA regualations are that the finished material can not be spread on AG lands, but again a good fit with the MDs is that most counties can use the material for top dressing roads that are being reconstructed each year, or stockpiled for other reclamation projects such as at dump locations.
To address the question of how far are producers willing to take carcasses? - I'd suggest that each community is different, but a combination of community drop-off bins for calf carcasses and possibly hiring a semi-retired local to run a route on call once or twice a week during the busy season would work best.
Despite what some environmental groups would lead many people to believe in this province, the Grizzy Bear population is expanding exponentially, especially in the south where they are connected to over 946 breeding bears in Montana and the Flathead valley. Along with being the largest predator they are the largest scavengers, and can smell a dead pile from miles away. Even after these piles are cleaned up, the learned behavior of scavenging takes years to de-program the bears. Composting is only one of the tools in the "toolbox" for bear management, but its a great service as well for our producers.
Supporting these initiatives will go a long way in ensuring a sustainable large carnivore population on the landscape and will help reduce the health and safety risk to producers in the ag interface zones that are prime habitat.
I hope that helps...
you could probably hunt off a quad there.
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