The poop about the fair
<p>Where there’s livestock, there’s … well, manure - something for North Idaho Fair-goers to avoid stepping in, and for organizers to find ways to recycle.</p>
<p>A trailer near the 4-H building at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds holds manure before it is transported to its next destination.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - With the large amount of livestock at the fair, one may wonder what happens to all the manure and waste the animals produce during their stay.
The North Idaho Fair and Rodeo, which concluded Sunday, draws roughly 120 animals to the Kootenai County Fairgrounds each year, plus about 500 4-H animals call the fairgrounds home during fair week. In six days, 620 animals produce a good amount of waste.
The excrement from the various types of livestock is handled several different ways.
The manure from rodeo-stock animals, such as cattle and draft horses, is spread over the ground where it's dropped by the animal and left to mix back with the earth.
Steve Wilson, a rodeo committee member, said although it's hard to gauge exact waste amounts for the rodeo-stock animals, the amount they eat provides an estimation.
"Say a rodeo bull eats 35 pounds of hay a day and 10 gallons of water," Wilson said. "It all comes out."
That means the eight tons of alfalfa hay consumed by the rodeo animals during their stay at the fair turns into roughly eight tons of fecal droppings that will become ground cover for the arena area.
Wilson said rodeo organizers and 4-H representatives are always looking for ways to keep things green and recycle what they can back into the earth.
The 4-H buildings at the fair Thursday were full of smiling children and young goats dressed in "jammies." The jammies are specials outfits made for sheep and goats to wear after being fitted. Fitting is the process of cleaning and prepping the animal for showing. Behind the scenes, the children are also responsible for the disposal of their animals' waste. The buildings had no "barn smell," and nearly every stall had fresh clean wood shavings.
Wilson said the 4-H youths work hard at keeping their animals and stalls spotless. They spend several hours a day working.
During the fair, 4-H will use about four semi-truckloads of wood shavings, Wilson said, with Idaho Forest Group donating and trucking them in.
The children deposit the waste and shavings into a pile that is moved to 30-yard dumpsters.
Sharla Wilson, Kootenai County 4-H program coordinator, said the dumpsters then travel to a couple places. Remaining 4-H animal waste is taken to the Fighting Creek Landfill.
"There's a gentleman on Scarcello Road who buys truckloads of (the waste) and spreads it over his pasture," she said. "His fields are really rocky and this helps."