Slurry & Manure
Treating only the barn pits cleared an 18-foot sludge cone and 6–7 feet of lagoon solids downstream.
ViewFamily Farms sow unit · Western Pennsylvania, USA · 22 October 2026
The challenge
The barns' shallow pull-plug pits were blocked with sludge, which caused problems further down the system. Agitation could not work around the sludge cone, the lagoons carried a heavy crust and 6–7 feet of bottom solids, and odour was a problem across the farm.
The approach
In 2006 the contract pumper started a low-dose PIT PERFECT® programme in the shallow barn pits only. The lagoons were never dosed directly.
Results
Clear within 60 days
Shallow barn pits
Gone in one season
18-ft sludge cone
6–7 ft
Lagoon bottom solids removed
First trouble-free in years
Pumping
The barn pits were clear within 60 days. After six months of treating the barn pits, the effect had carried down into the lagoons: crust and bottom solids were gone, the collection pits pumped without trouble the next spring, and odour fell across the farm. The practical lesson for any slurry system is to dose where the slurry enters, because the biology travels with it. This used PIT PERFECT®, the pig formulation in the MICROBE-LIFT® family.
Source documentation
Ecological Laboratories case studies (opens in a new tab)