The Curious Case of the Exploding Pig Farms

Nautilus writes about The Curious Case of the Exploding Pig Farms.

"Hog farms in the Midwest are great big barns sitting on top of great big pits filled with a great deal of awful-smelling manure. The pigs walk about on a slatted floor that lets manure fall into the pit several feet below. Around 2007, farmers began noticing pig poop acting funny. The normally liquid mixture started producing foamy bubbles, rising up and up, past the slats, right to the pigs’ cloven hooves.

Then it got worse. Among the gases in the bubbling in the foam are two of special note: methane and hydrogen sulfide—both highly flammable. All it takes is a small spark and Kaboom! In September 2011, a barn explosion killed 1,500 pigs and seriously injured one worker. It was just the most serious in a string of barn explosions that have cost farmers millions of dollars in the past several years."

The coincidental theory is that a new feed which is a byproduct of ethanol production is altering the manure, though quick experiments have proved difficult to replicate the real world situation. As a short term solution they are now using more antibiotics in pigs to avoid gas bloating. "It works, though no one knows why." Which is really reassuring when pig shit is literally exploding.