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| I guess we've all been talking about ddgs and the other 'yeasts' that potentially come with it, but the bakery stuff might be as responsible for foaming as anything.
Anyway, since you apply manure to the ground, it's a good idea to not put anything in the pit you wouldn't want on the field - ie. plutonium might be a defoamer, but it would make for some odd looking corn. I have tried several industrial defoamers and while they work, they are not significantly better than crop oil or other light food grade oil. Last summer I removed a pump out cover and used my pressure washer with oil being injected into the line (like detergent or disinfectant). I sprayed the 4x4 space and killed foam until the pit foam level was down enough - takes about 30 minutes to get 6" down (2400 hd - 100x200). I had to repeat it about once a week since it was pretty hot out.
I'm not sure where you are, but usually it has to be warm out to have foam. Once we got below the near 90F temps our foam production slowed up a lot. If you have foam even when it's cold, you could have a whole lot of foam once it gets warmer.
There are some pit additives that you dump in and then agitate the pit. Like was posted earlier, make sure you have lots of ventilation going while agitating and no open flames or sparks. If you have foam when you are pumping out, you'll notice that it goes away pretty quickly once it gets stirred up and usually doesn't come back any time while you are pumping out. I'm not sure the additives have much effect compared to agitating. Its a lot of gallons to treat and unless it's a microbiocide (which you don't want to use), it doesn't seem like it has much of a chance. There are lots of folks selling expensive stuff that you dump down the drain - a little hard to warranty.
hth,
Pat
PS: Remember ddgs make your manure have no fertilizer value and your best option is to pay to have it trucked to me. In other words, be watchful for easy solutions that are spendy - people say/claim a lot of things in our industry especially when something isn't well understood. | |
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Finishing Hog Barn Pit Foam.
