The River Wye in impending death because of hen manure
Salmon are being blamed for dying because of a “manure mountain” along the River Wye that has developed because of the need for inexpensive chicken and global warming.
Princes used to take fishing trips to the River Wye to catch salmon. Every year, thousands were collected from a stream that travels 155 miles south form mid-Wales to the grasslands of the Severn estuary.
Yet those times of plenty are gone. The least amount of salmon to be captured from the Wye since records began was only 326 in 2021, down from over 8,000 in 1967.
Local fisherman believe that the demand for the £4 supermarket chicken is to blame for the decline in fish populations. In the Wye watershed, there are currently thought to be more than 20 million hens, up from around 13 million 10 years ago.
Tesco is able to offer a whole chicken for less than the price of a nice coffee because of the intensive agricultural techniques including free range chickens.
Yet there could be a downside to this inexpensive protein. More than 2,500 tonnes of phosphorus are released annually in the droppings of chickens raised in the Wye watershed. As most of their manure is applied to the ground, the phosphorus it contains can end up in the river.
The Wye is a location of particular scientific significance and a priority place for conservation, but in recent years, dense algal blooms have been fueled by excessive phosphorus levels in the water.
Salmon eggs become oxygen-deprived when decaying algae lowers to the riverbed. Also, it eliminates ranunculus, a plant that young fish utilise to hide from scavengers.
https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/river-wye-death-uk-longest-best-loved-rivers-2108758
According to Jamie Audsley, chief executive of the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, visitors to the River Wye anticipate seeing pristine waterways packed with wildlife, including spawning salmon and diving kingfishers.
Instead, they encounter a muddy, filthy, and dying river. This is the end outcome of many years of intensive cultivation brought on by rising chicken demand.
We have reached a crisis point, according to Stuart Smith, chairman of the Wye Salmon Association. Salmon won’t be in the rever in 10years if we don’t take action now.
The mound of chicken faeces is overburdened to soil and river
The manure mountain in the area’s history has been studied by Lancaster University Professor Paul Withers. According to his calculations, the Wye catchment’s agricultural land accumulates 17 kg more than double the national average of “surplus” phosphorus per year per hectare.
The soil is saturated and the biggest single source of fresh phosphorus is chicken faeces.
Yet, he also emphasises that it took a long time for the soil to get overburdened. Septic tanks and sewage systems, as well as cow, sheep, and pig dung, have all contributed.
Industrial poultry operations have just recently been added. He said that they weren’t the only source. Yet they are the only sector growing in the Wye catchment.
Farmers on their own admit that there is an issue. According to Richard Corbett of Corbett Farms, which has roughly 190,000 laying hens, the issue is not just with poultry.
Yet there’s no denying that we produce too much phosphate. He and a few other farmers think they have an answer. It incorporates that resembles a massive compost pile where microorganisms break down chicken litter, which is made up of the bedding and excrement of the birds.
An insulation-producing facility next door is already heated nua system in northwest Herefordshire. A facility that may receive roughly 100,000 tonnes oof chicken waste annually is in the works.
According to a planning proposal, this would be combined with other agricultural waste products to produce enough natural gas to power 6,000 dwellings or more than 8% of the housing stock in Herefordshire.
The chicken dung would be changed into a phosphate-rich residue that would be transported out of the Wye watershed and utilised as fertiliser in other parts of the UK, such as Anglia.
The same reasoning underlies a plan at Whittern Farms, where managing director Jo Hilditch invested £3million building a specialised incinerator. 180,000 birds are shopped for processing every weeks.
The 200 tonnes of trash they have created is burned to provide heat for the hens; subsequent generations. Around 15 tonnes of gritty, greyish, phosphate-rich ash are left behind as a result.
Once more, it its taken outside the region and utilised as fertiliser by farmers who would otherwise purchase phosphates mined outside.
Source: INews
