Season of Mists and Malodourousness

Courier Countryside Column 20 September

Less than sweet smell 

that sours autumn enjoyment

Ahh … the smells of autumn. Loamy aromas rising with the morning mist. Damp leaves rotting on the ground. Sweet-scented apples on the trees. Woodsmoke curling from chimneys on chilly evenings.  And, above all, the pungent stink of muck spreading!         

A neighbour who’s lived in the depths of the country for many years was sounding off on the subject the other evening. The gist of his argument was that farmers who create such smells should be dunked in their own slurry pits.

I was surprised by his vehemence. After all, spreading manure on fields is a well-established farming practice.  It’s good for the land, gets rid of quantities of waste, and is wholly organic.  But, yes, it does smell a tad unpleasant for a day or so.

Then, while in the Parish Council office, it became clear my neighbour was not alone. Others too were complaining about the smell and demanding action.  I had assumed that the problem was chicken manure which is widely used hereabouts. But no. A farmer friend told me the current smell was from spreading human waste – more usually knows as sewage sludge or biosolids.

A quick check on-line shows that this is not only perfectly permissible,  but common throughout the country - though there are recommendations about ploughing it in to reduce the pong.

And thinking about it, biosolids might be preferable to chicken manure. This autumn marks the tenth anniversary of the Great Benenden Fly Plague. So extensive were the swarms that both village pubs and the shop had to shut for days. Elderly residents of a care home were shipped off to a hotel in Eastbourne, and local children evacuated to distant relatives.  The source was traced to a local farm and mountain of chicken waste waiting to be spread – though the farmer denied responsibility.

So again farming, the very industry that sustains the countryside, comes into conflict with those who live here. One sometimes wonders if a dose of public relations might not go some way towards healing the image of agriculture.  Certainly the current suggestion from some farmers that stubble burning should be reinstituted (it was banned exactly 20 years ago) does little to reassure their detractors.

But I see the NFU president recently praised an alternative use of sewage sludge – as fuel for engines.  Sounds good - though I do worry a bit about possible emission smells.