Neighbors Sue for Horse Manure Pile Smell

[ultrarunner]

We just got back from the finger lake region of NY.. Beautiful area..But some of the areas had what can only be described as an atrocious cow chit stench. .. It would gag you. I couldn't imagine having to live next to it every day. Just driving down the road passing it was brutal.

A high level of stench year round sounds like a feedlot in a warm climate.

Hard to smell anything with snow on the ground and spreading manure doesn't typically happen everyday...

 

[Jstpssng]

We just got back from the finger lake region of NY.. Beautiful area..But some of the areas had what can only be described as an atrocious cow chit stench. .. It would gag you. I couldn't imagine having to live next to it every day. Just driving down the road passing it was brutal.

That is a beatiful area. Had I been a bit smarter 20 or so years ago I might have moved there. I just didn't have sense enough to spend more time with the one I was interested in...

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

A few years ago at about this time of year I was driving down the road and saw my neighbor winching a road killed moose onto a trailer. I stopped and offered to help and as we were winching it onto his trailer I asked him if he was going to use it for coyote bait. It had been dead long enough so that the stomach was bloated. He said that he can't smell very well but thought it was pregnant. (They drop their calves in April.) I tried to convince him that it was a bad idea as the animal had been there for at least a day, but he brought it home and I have been told that he cut it up, put it in the freezer and ate it. It wasn't a case of him needing the food, he is a retired chemical engineer and is well set up with property and equipment. He just wanted the moose.

Yesterday I went past his house and there was a road killed deer across from his driveway. Today it was still there, I hope that he doesn't try to bring that home.

Good lord...I'd never do that! Road kill meat I bet could be deadly to eat!

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Getting back to initial lawsuit...I'd certainly talk to my attorney but I doubt I'd retain him...it probably wouldn't be necessary. All that money spent and it could be appealed I'm thinking even if I didn't win. It would have to be outrageous for anyone to prevail, and manure pile could easily be moved far end of property.
We have horses, wife did when we met ('72), Dad did...we never ever noticed smell.
I think it's not possible to be sued if one is in compliance with state/County codes. I would want my county agent with me who had seen my farm.
It just "stinks" of a frivolous lawsuit that's going nowhere.
I had bad spots on the front yard I put an inch or so composted horse manure on few weeks ago then we've had rains. You should see it now...lush/green.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

 

[JimRB]

I have been around horse manure piles since 1984. You have to stick your nose up to a horse's butt when farting to get a stink. Hard to say how many loads of horse manure and shavings compost I have sold over the years. I move the manure pile 250 feet to the compost pile. Even fresh hot manure pile does not stink.

Neighbors behind and to the right of me have gotten loads from my pile for gardens. The guy behind me moved. The new kids have been seen playing in the compost pile. Not thrilled with that but I guess they figured out it is not the best place to play.

Across the street at the over 2,000 acre farm, the previous farm manager spread chicken litter. Stinks and is gone in a few days. New manager contracted for humanure. Day after day 10 trucks or more a day dumping that crap. Then after the pile is big enough they spread it. Stinks for 2 or three months. Not a little stink but really foul stink. Then the next year they started another pile across the road in a different pasture. So far I have not heard the dump trucks or the smell this year.

I have heard people 10 miles away complaining about the smell when some farmer over their started the same practice.

We do not turn our horse manure and shavings compost pile. After a few months it has gone through a heat. Earthworms galore. I never consider it to be a smell. Pile sits in the shade of the woods which maybe helps keep the moisture level up so it composts pretty fast.

 

[ddbackhoe]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

exactly, no pile, no complaint. Composting horse manure is not a difficult thing. Haul out is certainly an option too. There are people out there that wont spread manure because they think its bad for the horses.

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/7.29.09%20_Final%20Manure.Storage.Publication%20Updated%201.6.2023.pdf

 

[lman]

Load it into a manure spreader. Pile is gone. Case is moot. Dismissed.

Don't you have to unload the spreader, unless it's a very small pile.

 

[r porter]

it sounds like it is time to start raising pigs over on that side of the field.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

it sounds like it is time to start raising pigs over on that side of the field.

I pastured hogs once. The neighbors had a horse that liked to run at the pigs and make them scatter, so they chose that fence line as their latrine. By the end of summer they had quite a respectable pile of poop about 100 yards long and 12" wide.

 

[dodge man]

I live in farm country and my in laws used to raise pigs and now raise cattle. I think horse manure stinks, but on a scale compared to pigs pretty minor. Cattle are worse than the horses also. Maybe I’ve just gotten used to living in farm country but sometimes I kind of like farm smells.

 

[Torvy]

Moving the pile to make the suit moot is horrible advice. It is tantamount to admitting fault. Those neighbors will not stop until you move. The law may technically protect farming, but unless they punish frivolous suits, it will just continue.

 

[sd455dan]

The worst stench I have ever smelled is the stench of a rendering plant!

When I was a young buck, I worked for a construction company that had a lot of work in the Chicago area, so we took us30 to Chicago.

There was a rendering plant in Plymouth Indiana and you could smell it 5-10 miles on both sides of Plymouth.

It was so awefull many trips I made I would drive 20-30 miles out of my way to avoid it.

The trips I took with my boss, I had to endure it, he couldn’t smell good!

As a Kid driving by Monfort's near Greeley Co. was pretty bad.


I commented to my grandpa once about smells - he said I don't mind it, that generally is the smell of money being made son.
The aroma of Tacoma- from the pulp and paper mill can be pretty unpleasant.

I feel for the Op- we did the composting for or local music festival and mixed the food refuse with horse manure and old hay for a few years and on end of summer hot days it stunk..


Glad our neighbors didn't go after us.
They have not complained about the "regular" barn run cleanout horse manure pile ever.
Hope there is a good resolution to this. If you end up in court and you lived there before the neighbors moved in I would make the judge aware also if you are zoned agricultural.

There were days it smelled so bad I dug out a bank of dirt-(in our area mainly silt ) and covered the whole pile which did bring the aroma down quite a bit.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I still remember the reek of the Potlatch Paper Co, in Lewiston, ID. No idea if it's still there, but man what a stench.

Some of the slaughter houses in SD have a pretty pungent odor as well. Just terrible. Did some contracting work for a company that owned several of those.

 

[grsthegreat]

I still remember the reek of the Potlatch Paper Co, in Lewiston, ID. No idea if it's still there, but man what a stench.

Some of the slaughter houses in SD have a pretty pungent odor as well. Just terrible. Did some contracting work for a company that owned several of those.

Its still there, and still stinks to high heaven

 

[B7510HSD]

Clearwater Paper now.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have been around horse manure piles since 1984. You have to stick your nose up to a horse's butt when farting to get a stink. Hard to say how many loads of horse manure and shavings compost I have sold over the years. I move the manure pile 250 feet to the compost pile. Even fresh hot manure pile does not stink.

You have been around it enough so that you don't notice it... the same as any other scent which people become accustomed to. I don't mind the smell, but it certainly is there. To me a smoker reeks... I've had to check out of a motel room because it stunk so bad. Yet they don't notice it. When I was growing up people would come into the flower shop and comment how good it smelled in there. but I never could understand what they were talking about. One time I bent over to smell a carnation before picking it, just to see if I could smell it. An earwig crawled out... 45 years later I notice them more but still don't really notice them.

Things which reek to me; air fresheners and scented trash bags. They both make me want to gag. Also perfumes and colognes... although I can tolerate the former under certain circumstances.

 

[HayFarmer]

The only way I would use lethal means to deter an animal is if I felt unsafe. I hope I don't have to go down that road.
I've had to dispose of an armadillo but that's about it so far.

My brother was always carrying an axe to fend them when we walked to the road to go to another farm. I ended up dispatching them.

 

[r porter]

probably dont really have to raise a bunch of pigs.

one big ol nasty boar should do the job. with a feeder for him to bang on all day and night.

 

[RSKY]

probably dont really have to raise a bunch of pigs.

one big ol nasty boar should do the job. with a feeder for him to bang on all day and night.

That was one of the sounds of my childhood. The dozen or so hogs we kept banging the lid on the feeder up, then letting it fall shut. Seems like they did this 24/7/365!