Given the packing plant slowdowns and closures, there is the very real possibility to have to do the unthinkable and do mass euthanasia and disposal on animals that are perfectly healthy and ready to be turned into food. While all meat industries are hurting, I can specifically speak to the pork production side with national daily kills running close to 60% capacity. The animals are backing up in barns and if the pigs get too big not only is it a welfare issue in the barns, but they are little to no value to the market animal packing plants.
While some euthanasia of market animals is occurring in the state already, this is causing the industry to be prepared for mass euthanasia and disposal. Each has challenges, but what I am specifically needing your help with is locating carbon sources for composting. In a traditional composting system, rough math says we need 20 semi’s worth of carbon for a 2,400 head finisher barn of pigs. While there could be ways to reduce the amount needed, given the number of pigs we could be looking at euthanizing, we are needing to locate mass stockpiles of carbon.
Carbon resources that would be good to locate include but are not limited to tree trimmings, wood mulch, corn stover, shavings, sawdust, wood chips, straw, horse bedding, dry manure, hot compost, etc. If you know of any large quantifiable amount of these carbon sources, please let Benny Mote (benny.mote@unl.edu) know so he can start a document of such resources.