Posted on 11/18/2023 3:44:30 PM PST by nickcarraway
Many Minnesotans on social media seemed slightly confused about the manure-like odor that wafted through the state this week.
“Every fall, I pretty much smell it. And just because of my nature, the nature of my work, I noticed that pretty quickly,” said Melissa Wilson, associate professor at the University of Minnesota, who specializes in manure nutrient management and water quality.
Experts like Wilson say it’s a fairly straightforward phenomenon, and it actually happens quite often.
Come fall, farmers across the region lay out fertilizer in anticipation of the winter.
“We’re actually taking the nutrients that are generated from the animals and recycling it back to the fields so that it can be used for crop production in the next year,” Wilson said.
Typically that happens just before a big freeze, and the ground freezes over before the smell gets too noticeable; but when you get a cold snap like the one at the beginning of this month, followed by an unexpected bout of 60-degree weather, it’s the perfect way to carry those smells up into the air.
“It’s really unusual to have 70-degree temperatures in the middle of November, so that was probably why the smell was so strong,” said Matt Tarldsen with the MPCA.
Still, the phenomenon is perfectly natural and keeps the state’s agriculture alive and well.
“Yes, it stinks. And that’s kind of one of the drawbacks of this type of work,” said Wilson, “But just reminding [people] that it is nutrients and we are recycling those nutrients back to the field. It’s a stinky job, but it needs to get done.”
The smell dissipated as a cold front moved in and pushed the air out, and according to the MPCA, that cold-front will likely remain here through Thanksgiving.
“It’s one of those things where once the fertilizer is down for a while, it won’t smell as much as time goes on,” Taraldsen said.
I was sure Democrat politicians were to blame.
Was Hillary visiting Ilhan?
Sooooo many good replies to be had. I eagerly await them. And, of course, all will be aimed at our party of ineptitude, idiocy, repulsiveness and odd looking humans.
Sheesh, it happened all the time in CNY near where we used to live.
Nobody ever went running to the news media over it.
You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
It’s one of those things
where once the fertilizer is down
for a while, it won’t smell as much
As time goes by
Dairy armer down the road sprays liquid manure, not the best day to live downwind.
MN is full of shit.
Yup, I know. Remember it too well.
People don’t realize what *country fresh air* can often be like.
Do NOT let Bill Gates buy up their farmers.
a regular Paul McCartney, you
Lol
Farmers spread our manure when the crops are harvested, which is usually colder, so it freezes pretty fast, and usually it is soon covered with a blanket of snow, so hardly stinks for long.
Well, shit!
“lay out fertilizer” ? In my 77 years I’ve never heard spreading shit called that before.
Refugees
As soon as the media cover an issue a reader/listener has first-hand knowledge of, their tenuous grasp of the issue really stands out. We have to remember this regarding things we know zilch about, which is that they are ignorant there, too.
Grew up on a dairy farm. Every year Dad would scrape all the cow manure into a spreader and take it to the field. Our cousins next door with the much bigger farm did the same with their fields. The whole countryside reeked of cow manure for weeks, it seemed.
“Many Minnesotans on social media seemed slightly confused about the manure-like odor that wafted through the state this week.”
Just the normal democrat odor from the Twin Anuses.
Did Sir Poopie-Pants pay a visit?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.