News

Online tool for designing life-saving manure storage

An online tool has been developed to help save the lives of people who enter manure storage facilities on the farm.

Dennis Murphy, Nationwide Insurance professor of agriculture, safety and health, says pits are designed for the safety of animals but there are complicated computations for designing adequate ventilation for people. That’s where the tool comes in for builders, designers and engineers…

“What size fan is needed and for how long it needs to run – and particular storage to remove any potential toxic gases and to replenish oxygen.”

Murphy tells Brownfield Ag News improper ventilation has had deadly results,  “I believe it was just last year, two farmers in, I think, Iowa and two farmers in Wisconsin both perished in manure storages because they did not have – obviously – adequate ventilation systems, if any at all, in their storages when they entered.”  The online tool was developed by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.