Economic Costs of Open Static Pile and In- Vessel Systems for Routine Mortality Management on Swine Farms

In the U.S. the use of composting to manage on-farm swine mortality has increased from 10.5 to 35.9% from 1994 to 2006 (USDA:APHIS, VS, CEAH 2001 and 2007). Traditionally, the most popular method of composting has been the open static pile (OSP) in bins, piles, or windrows, with management of primary, secondary and curing stages. In recent years, in-vessel (IV) systems have been used increasingly; of which the most popular are rotating drums. The objective for this work was to estimate the economic costs of the OSP and IV animal tissue composting systems and compare them to the costs of other methods of managing routine mortality. The economic costs of OSP and IV mortality composting systems were evaluated using a case study approach involving two Michigan farrow-to-wean operations of 3300 and 2500 sows, respectively. At the time of this writing both operations are in full production. The OSP system used on the one farm consists of six 3.66 x 6.71 x 1.83 m, three-sided bins with concrete floor. The IV system used on the other farm is a horizontal rotating drum system (1.22 m in diameter and 12.8 m long). There was no roof over the bins. Using the $ per unit of weight of mortality estimates derived and stipulating that the composting system would be sized appropriately, sited efficiently, and operated at maximum capacity, a 2000- head finishing operation would generate about 9435 kg of mortality annually and have annual costs of $1,012 or $1,416 if an OSP or IV system was used, respectively.