Sealin’ in the stink
Hog odor control product uses a farm crop to solve a farm problem

By Cindy Green

Inver Grove Heights, Minn. — The soybean may be hog farmers’ salvation from stink. Barrier, a soy-based product that inhibits hog waste odor, is being introduced this month by Agriliance, a joint venture company of Land O’Lakes, Cenex/Harvest States and Farmland. If it sells as well as marketing manager Bob Herzfeld expects, Barrier will stretch supplies of soapstock, a byproduct of soybean oil refining.

“If this takes off, it will raise the value of soapstock,” says Herzfeld, who holds the patent for Barrier with Agriliance colleague Joe Gednalske.

Lock up the gas

When poured over manure pits, Barrier creates a sealant that keeps odorous gasses from escaping. Studies at the University of Minnesota and state universities in Iowa and North Carolina, sponsored by AURI and the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association, show a 75 percent reduction in hydrogen sulfide emissions in treated pits.

Barrier retails for $10.25 per gallon — about 62 cents per hog. Herzfeld acknowledges it may be more than farmers are willing to pay just for odor, but the added benefits make it a bargain. Tests are revealing healthier hogs and fewer mortalities. “Hydrogen sulfide is a very toxic gas. Inhalation can cause a range of problems,” Herzfeld explains. By using Barrier, “we feel growers could double their money — for every dollar spent, they should get two in return.”

More soy benefits

Farmers would also be using a farm product to solve a farm problem. Soapstock, a gummy, amber-colored material left over from soy oil refining, is less expensive than oil and can be used in such products as soap, lubricants, animal feed and road dust suppressant. Herzfeld says Agriliance is primarily using Minnesota product, including soapstock from the company’s oilseed processing and refining facility in Mankato, Minn.

One gallon of Barrier uses soapstock byproduct from 45 bushels of soybeans. “If only 10 percent of finishing barns (in Minnesota and Iowa) would use it, we’d need 60 million bushels to produce enough soapstock to make product,” says Mark Schoenfeld, product development specialist. Barrier consumes three times the soapstock of another soy-based product — Preference, a herbicide adjuvant developed by Cenex/Land O’Lakes and AURI nine years ago.

In fact, Preference accidentally led to Barrier’s development. Herzfeld and Gednalske noticed that mixing Preference with herbicide 2,4-D eliminated its smell. They received a patent on Preference as an herbicide odor-reducer in April 1997. To see if the product worked on hog odor, AURI helped Agriliance test it in swine facilities, which led to a new patent on the reformulated Preference, Clor 1, in June 1998.

Herzfeld and Gednalske have applied for a second patent on Barrier, which is being marketed through agribusiness retailers in Minnesota and Iowa.

Besides waste pits, the product is useful in manure spreading equipment to control odor during field application.

“We’re expanding our research to include other Barrier uses such as sugar beet lagoons, food processing waste lagoons, even outdoor toilet pits at state parks,” Herzfeld says.

AURI waste utilization researcher Jack Johnson, who helped test Barrier, says, “The introduction of Barrier is a perfect example of what AURI strives to accomplish — creating a value-added product grown and processed by Minnesota farmers and used by farmers and producers nationwide.”