Portales does it smell due to the dairy? (Clovis: house, bankrupt)

[movingprettysoon]

I know this is a weird question, but with the dairy near by does it cause an odor problem in Portales?

[desert sun]

your answer is YES!!!!

Im from Portales and the smell of cow crap is the smell of home. The town dosent really smell like a dairy its just out in the country and inbetween Portales and Clovis. The wind blows alot also so sometimes it blows a scent your way or there will be a dairy worker or a truck in town that will smell like it.

My girlfriend has to hold back her barf so she dosent lose it when we drive from Portales to Clovis but you will get used to it. I was in Amarillo a couple months back and in the city it smelt like a dairy but it dosent always smell like this.

[Poncho_NM]

I lived in rural PA for a while, about 5 miles from a pig farm. We also owned a small airplane. There were times you couldn't drive or fly over that farm without wanting to gag. There was a major rural intersection by the farm, unobstructed out in the middle of nowhere. It was dangerous. They put up flashing lights and rumble strips, but people just seemed to crash there anyway...

My next house was in the city...


Rich

[newmex]

Originally Posted by movingprettysoon

I know this is a weird question, but with the dairy near by does it cause an odor problem in Portales?

If not the dairies, it's the ethanol plant in Portales. Ahhh, the smell of money...

[Minathebrat]

Originally Posted by Poncho_NM

I lived in rural PA for a while, about 5 miles from a pig farm. We also owned a small airplane. There were times you couldn't drive or fly over that farm without wanting to gag. There was a major rural intersection by the farm, unobstructed out in the middle of nowhere. It was dangerous. They put up flashing lights and rumble strips, but people just seemed to crash there anyway...

My next house was in the city...


Rich

I've actually heard of people passing out from the noxious waves of stench that come from industrial pig production plants- I refuse to call such places "farms", factory seems more appropriate. It's actually the stench from the open air refuse pits producing ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and rotting pig carcasses since many of these factories lose hundreds of pigs a day in untimely death from the horrific conditions the animals are raised in. Clean-up is usually not up to par.

[desert sun]

also there is the smell of roasting peanuts when you drive by Bordens Peanuts, it smells so good.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by Minathebrat

I've actually heard of people passing out from the noxious waves of stench that come from industrial pig production plants

It can be pretty bad. We use to try and fly on nice calm sunny days with just "puff clouds" (That's a pilot term I made up) and enjoy the scenery flying just 1,000 feet above the ground. Quite peaceful, and then you encounter this smell, you wonder if it's your plane, you think back of those days with flight instructors, many of them foreign with bad accents, you don't recall any dangers with those smells. Gas, yes. Oil, yes. But not Pig Farm smells up in the air! It is scary the first time, because I didn't know what it was....



Rich

[TiaDalma]

Originally Posted by newmex

If not the dairies, it's the ethanol plant in Portales. Ahhh, the smell of money...

You betcha! After my having lived in Illinois and Iowa both, lands of Hogs and Corn, you learn ethanol processing smells worse than any livestock Whew! And any road trip on I80 will teach ya that (btw, I personally don't believe ethanol is Worth 'it' We've had blended fuels with ethanol there, for years and years too)

Tia Dalma

[sjbasin]

Originally Posted by Minathebrat

It's actually the stench from the open air refuse pits producing ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and rotting pig carcasses since many of these factories lose hundreds of pigs a day in untimely death from the horrific conditions the animals are raised in. Clean-up is usually not up to par.

You may not like the way hogs are raised, and that's fine. But the claim that "many of these factories lose hundreds of pigs a day" is nonsense. You apparently are not at all familiar with the industry. Losing "hundreds of pigs a day" would put ANY operation out of business in less than a week. Losing hundreds per YEAR would bankrupt most of them.


p.s. Animals that die are not left to "rot". They're properly disposed of.

[Minathebrat]

Originally Posted by sjbasin

You may not like the way hogs are raised, and that's fine. But the claim that "many of these factories lose hundreds of pigs a day" is nonsense. You apparently are not at all familiar with the industry. Losing "hundreds of pigs a day" would put ANY operation out of business in less than a week. Losing hundreds per YEAR would bankrupt most of them.


p.s. Animals that die are not left to "rot". They're properly disposed of.

Actually I'm been doing alot of research on the industry, I'm very interested in our country's food infrastructure and food quality in general. There are industrial pig plants that have gotten fined for just such an offense. Seabord Corp. for one, in Oklahoma was fined for improper disposal and they were reported to have lost 48 pigs an hour, or 420,000 in one year, which I believe was in '97. The article I read was from 2001, I've been trying to find out if they've improved their record since then.
I should have refrained from using the word "many" as I don't have a statistic indicating the actually number of plants that have been fined for this infraction, but I really try when I post information to not just run my mouth off and have some sort of backing behind it, unless I'm stating an oppinion.

Here are a few good articles:
The Empire Of The Pigs - TIME
This one contains the information on Seabord Corp.

Pork's Dirty Secret: The nation's top hog producer is also one of America's worst polluters : Rolling Stone
This one is about Smithfield. It says (p.3) one study puts the premature die-off rate @ 10%, but I'd need more information.