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Reduces Odor / Liquefies Solids / Nutrient Management  

FAQs about the Pro-Act Microbial Hog System

What are microbes?

How can Pro-Act's system help?

What is the basic idea behind the system?

What is bioaugmentation?

How does the technology work?

Is your system certified to work with organic farmers?

Is expensive machinery involved?

How much does it cost?

 

Still have more questions?  Contact us.  We'd be glad to help.

 

What are microbes?

Microbes are makers or destroyers. They can promote health or cause disease.

Microbes inhabit almost every niche of the world, from 20 miles beneath the Earth's surface to 20 miles overhead. They live at temperatures less than -20 degrees Celsius to temperatures hotter than the boiling point.

Microbes thrive on a huge range of foods including radioactive materials, oil and toxic wastes.

Every time you walk on the ground you step on billions of microbes. They (bacteria or fungi) live in the soil, on rocks, inside roots, buried under miles of earth, in compost piles, and all over the Earth's surface. Microbes live in buildings, homes, and schools and in people.

Certain bacteria produce antibiotics; others live symbiotically in the guts of animals (including humans) or elsewhere in their bodies; or, on the roots of certain plants, often fixing nitrogen gas into a usable form. Bacteria put the tang in yogurt and the sour in sourdough bread. Bacteria help to break down dead organic matter. Bacteria make up the base of the food web in many environments. Bacteria are of immense importance because of their extreme flexibility, capacity for rapid growth and reproduction, and great age (the oldest fossils known, nearly 3.5 billion years old, have fossils of bacteria-like organisms).

Not only are there many microbes in soil, there are many, many different species. Some scientists estimate that each gram of soil may contain 10,000 different species of microorganisms!  That's more biodiversity in one gram of soil than all the different types of mammals in the entire world.  That's also more than all species of bacteria than have been catalogued (around 5,000)!

Each gram of soil may contain up to 1,000,000,000 or more microbes.  That's as many microbes in a single gram of soil as there are people in all of China!  Bacteria are typically 1-2 um wide and 2-20 um long. Due to their small size and shape, microbes can be examined only by using a high power microscope (x1000) and staining techniques.

Microbes can be further classified:

Aerobic: Requires oxygen to grow

Facultative: Metabolizes with or without oxygen

Anaerobic: Oxygen is inhibitory or even toxic to these microbes.

By selecting the proper microbes, these zillions of microbes will also thrive eating the manure of pigs, cows and other animals in waste lagoons. They eat the manure gasses and dramatically reduce odor. They eat the carbon in the sludge, turning the sludge to liquid. They digest the manure and produce a gentle, fast-acting fertilizer that has zillions more earth-friendly microbes.

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How can Pro-Act's system help?

Many farms with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) have less storage volume than they need, leading to stressed lagoons. Stressed lagoons often accumulate solids, costing thousands of dollars to agitate and pump.  They can give off offensive odors and gases, endangering the goodwill of neighbors.  In addition, there are often more nutrients in the manure than the available land can accept and still meet the nutrient management requirements.  This excess of nutrients can lead to expensive disposal problems.

Proper manure waste management can be an ongoing and frequently expensive problem for dairymen.  Our system will reduce odor and liquefy solids while building a gentle, time released fertilizer.  In addition, the nutrients tend to stratify with the solids, giving the farmer some important options when applying manure.

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What is the basic idea behind the system?

Our patented microbial manure lagoon treatment system consists of the proprietary aerobic/facultative microbial mix, growth factors and our patented surface air diffuser (normally one diffuser per acre surface area).  By combining the aerobic microbes with a surface air diffuser, we are growing these microbes to be part of a three-stage system.

The three-stage system works faster and more efficiently than one-stage anaerobic digestion.

The anaerobic microbes in the bottom layer pull the carbon out of the solids, converting it to water and carbon dioxide. 

The facultative microbes are robust and eat voraciously using the gases from the anaerobes for a food source, alleviating stifling manure gasses.

The aerobic microbes act as an odor cap, and they finish off any gases that get through the facultative layer.

The droppings from this digestion process, detritus, fall to the bottom and fertilize the microbes below. The increased microbial activity requires more carbon. Manure solids are the primary carbon.

Our microbes are naturally occurring soil organisms; they are the same ones that digest the raw manure when you put it into the soil.  We are performing that function in storage so when the manure is applied, it's a gentle, fast-acting, fertilizer that has zillions of extra earth-friendly microbes.

Equally important to growing microbes is to be sure you are not killing them with treatments on the slatted floors.  Avoid using anti-microbial cleaners on the floor.  Using Clorox is out of the question.  Antibacterial medications that are fed to animals pass through them and can also have an inhibitory effect on the microbes in the manure.

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What is bioaugmentation?

Bioaugmentation is the addition of pre-grown bacteria to perform a specific remediation task in a given environment.  Simply dumping microbes into the manure is not bioaugmentation.  Successful bioaugmentation changes the population makeup of the environment. New and old microbes work together to form a new workforce.

The workforce thrives in a friendly environment of controlled pH, temperature and oxygen levels. It’s critical for microbes to have a balanced diet and the proper nutrients to ensure good growth and a healthy population. It also requires the absence of antimicrobial products, harsh cleaners, copper sulfate, etc.  Finally, the regular addition of new microbes, not ordinarily found in the waste stream, ensures the success of our three-stage system.

Bioaugmentation is the mechanism to provide these skilled workers. A critical part of the success of a bioaugmentation program is proper application.  Because every system is unique, it is essential that products are properly applied.  Simply dumping microbes into the manure is not bioaugmentation.

As environmental restrictions tighten, many farmers are going to be faced with compliance levels that will seriously challenge the capabilities of their existing manure and wastewater treatment facilities.  Bioaugmentation is the most cost effective solution, with minimal capital expenditures, the monthly operating expenses are very competitive.

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How does the technology work?

To see how our technology works, let’s take the example of treating an existing waste lagoon, filled with manure.  It been there for some time and some of the manure has turned to solids, particularly on the bottom.  The solids can also form islands that protrude from the lagoon.

Remember that we have three kinds of microbes:

Aerobic: Requires oxygen to grow

Facultative: Metabolizes with or without oxygen

Anaerobic: Oxygen is inhibitory or even toxic to these microbes.

We add our microbes to the lagoon.  In our mix, microbes use nitrogen, carbon and oxygen.  The manure has nitrogen and carbon.  We also add growth stimulants to make our microbes grow faster, and we use a patented diffuser to provide more oxygen and to spur growth.  Our microbes blend into the lagoon that has three layers with the aerobic on top, the facultative in the middle and the anaerobic on the bottom.  This three-layer digester speeds the digestion of the manure.

The anaerobic layer eats carbon.  Manure solids are primarily carbon.  This layer pulls the carbon out of the solids, converting it to water and carbon dioxide.

The facultative layer eats the gases from the anaerobic layer, alleviating the stifling manure gases.

The aerobic microbes act as a odor cap and finish off any gases that get through the facultative layer.

The droppings from this whole process are called “detritus” and they fall to the bottom and feed the microbes below.

This whole process liquefies solids, provides a strong, aerobic odor cap and builds a gentle, fast acting fertilizer loaded with zillions of earth-friendly microbes.  Also, our microbes are the same ones found in the earth that digest the raw manure when applied as fertilizer.

Look at the data behind the success at a North Carolina hog farm.

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Is your system certified to work with organic farmers?

Yes.  Organic farmers across the U.S. are already using our system which works with nature, not against it.  We have been certified by the Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA).

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Is expensive machinery involved?

Mechanical system suppliers think that manure can be processed as if it were sewage.  They reason that the more iron and horse power used, the better the end product. Frequently, they succeed only in making whipped manure.  It makes the problem worse.


Pro-Act’s patented MOO® diffuser, our only mechanical component, is used to grow aerobic microbes. The aerobic microbes, together with the anaerobic microbes that are indigenous to the manure, mineralize and stabilize your manure.  They’re not complicated, but they get the job done.

 
We do recommend the use of mechanical solids separators prior to the manure slurry going into the lagoon; they help the system work better.

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How much does it cost?

Dairy operations can be treated for $12 or less per cow per year.

Our cost of treatment per animal is far less than the more complicated capital intensive alternatives.

We require no major infrastructure change to the farm and a minimum capital outlay - produces a quick payback.

Our products are safe, economical and easy to use.
 

See how Pro-Act helps you unleash the profit.
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Certain farms and organizations may qualify the Pro-Act Helps™.

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Copyright © 2009 Pro-Act Microbial, Inc.
The treatment systems of PRO-ACT MICROBIAL® are protected by U.S. Patent No. 7,267,766. Other U.S. and foreign patents pending.