Cow shit!

[TimeOut]

Funnily enough stock shit a lot less after they have stood for 3-4 hours, do your homework. And you know I am right.[/QUOTE]

Crap (pun intended) There may be a little less after 4 hours but even after 12 hours cattle will still shit when put under stress i.e. trucking.

Sheep on the other hand are pretty much empty after 12 hours.

That still doesn't alter the fact that if holding tank are big enough and emptied often enough very little shit should get on the roads.

[MrKiwi]

Funnily enough stock shit a lot less after they have stood for 3-4 hours, do your homework. And you know I am right.

Crap (pun intended) There may be a little less after 4 hours but even after 12 hours cattle will still shit when put under stress i.e. trucking.

Sheep on the other hand are pretty much empty after 12 hours.

That still doesn't alter the fact that if holding tank are big enough and emptied often enough very little shit should get on the roads.[/QUOTE]

While I totally agree with you on the holding tank points you make, there is a distinct reduction in the crapping volume with time of holding. So yes 12 hours is going to make a difference compared to four. Yet most stock still seem to be moved after no standing period - holding tanks aren't made that big!

[cold comfort]

Re Otago Daily Times article yesterday entitled " Dairy farmers warned over effluent" ."Environment South-land is calling on Government to amend the Land Transport Act to make it a specific offence for stock trucks to leak effluent onto roads" Chair woman Ali Tims was "frustrated people expected the region council to resolve a problem it had no power to fix". According to this it needs a national policy to give the councils teeth. Have sent a note to BRONZ as this would be an initiative worth supporting. (maybe they could add diesel to it as well). Still significant non-compliance by dairy farmers with groundwater pollution too despite fines- no surprise there with increasing dairying.

[MrKiwi]

Re Otago Daily Times article yesterday entitled " Dairy farmers warned over effluent" ."Environment South-land is calling on Government to amend the Land Transport Act to make it a specific offence for stock trucks to leak effluent onto roads" Chair woman Ali Tims was "frustrated people expected the region council to resolve a problem it had no power to fix". According to this it needs a national policy to give the councils teeth. Have sent a note to BRONZ as this would be an initiative worth supporting. (maybe they could add diesel to it as well). Still significant non-compliance by dairy farmers with groundwater pollution too despite fines- no surprise there with increasing dairying.

Good idea. MOTO NZ are also becoming involved in this. There are quite a few issues. For a change to be effective it requires 3 things:
- farmers to stand their stock for 4 or so hours with dry feed - this helps to dry out the crap and keeps the animals in good health. Clearly this practice is erratic in some places.
- trucking firms to install and use holding tanks and to voluntarily enforce compliance with the standing period from farmers before moving stock. Mostly trucking firms have fitted tanks and use them. They are not necessarily the right people to manage the animal holding part of the programme with farmers.
- local government to install dump stations - this has been frustratingly slow around the country.

Changing the law, ie definition of load as noted in an earlier post by me, in combination with chain and responsibility regulations (as we have in the aviation and maritime sectors) could lead to trucking firms to deciding not to move stock - that would focus farmers attention. Ideally the easiest solution is for farmers to stand their stock as much as possible. Why should we need to regulate?

At the end of the day it is us other road users that cop the brunt of someone else's bad practice. The cost is moved from one sector of the community to another who is not responsible - ie an externality. Externalities should be internalised - in this case, farmers should stand their stock with dry feed for the recommended period. Shit does not belong on our roads.

[MSTRS:Me]

Shit does not belong on our roads.

Not in any of the forms it can take...

[Ocean1]

I'm intrigued by a few apparent assertions here that one can always sense and avoid shit on the road. It must come from those who ride in areas that are so widely soiled that it’s safe to assume it’s more or less universal or those who’ve never actually seen any.

I’m a great believer in riding to suit the current conditions. But if those conditions involve a change from a nice, even, predictable surface to that same surface adversely affected by a random dumping of cow shit then I reckon any loss of control can be fairly laid at the feet of those who put the shit there, rather than the rider.

Oh sure, I’ve seen and avoided many thousands of instances of potentially treacherous shit, but I’ve also had a few seat-puckering step-outs from having hit near invisible patches, especially early on in a rain shower. We shouldn’t expect pristine surfaces on our roads, (we’re not going to get them anyway), but we should expect not to have to contend with what amounts to booby-traps either.

Also, I have occasion to require a quad, soon. I called a friend, an expert in the field, to ask what to look for / avoid in any likely second hand machine. “Anything that meets your usual dirt bike standards and that has never lived on a dairy farm” says he. “We usually decline to work on those much past their warrantee period, they’re invariably fuckt, frames rotted out, bolts all seized, in short not worth repairing”. He probably didn’t need to warn me, I’ve seen how corrosive it is, but it’s another reason we should probably take the relatively cheap and simple steps necessary to keep it off our roads and off our bikes / cars.

[Winston001]

Externalities should be internalised - in this case, farmers should stand their stock with dry feed for the recommended period. Shit does not belong on our roads.

I agree with the rest of your post but take issue with this.

Firstly animal waste is natural - geese, birds, tuatara... We live with it and benefit from these creatures.

Secondly, child abuse is foisted upon the community by loathsome humans who do not deserve to have children. That's an externality - the problem should be solved within the family. Yet we do little to stop them, little to intervene and inspect homes, little to remove children from the execrable creatures whom they are doomed to live amongst.

[MrKiwi]

I agree with the rest of your post but take issue with this.

Firstly animal waste is natural - geese, birds, tuatara... We live with it and benefit from these creatures.

Secondly, child abuse is foisted upon the community by loathsome humans who do not deserve to have children. That's an externality - the problem should be solved within the family. Yet we do little to stop them, little to intervene and inspect homes, little to remove children from the execrable creatures whom they are doomed to live amongst.

Usually geese, birds and tuatara don't shit on our roads in the volumes we get from trucks moving stock.

I don't know where to go with your second point other than you're right.

[5150]

Just as well I ride a Green Kwaka Monster thing. The shit just blends in with the paint work....

[jaffaonajappa]

Just as well I ride a Green Kwaka Monster thing. The shit just blends in with the paint work....

LOL
But on a serious note.....cow shit is corrosive. If ya leave it long enuff it truly will start to 'blend in'....

[Old Steve]

Rode over the Manawahe Road today, from Matata to Lake Rotoma. What a ride this would be in whatever season it is that the cows don't shit on the road. It didn't look as if it was spillage from cattle trucks, but rather droppings as the stock crossed the road or were herded up the road from one farm to the other. I gave GLORIA a high pressure hose down as soon as we got home, the cow shit was about 25 mm thick where it had been flung up onto the hot engine by the front wheels.

But I'd love to ride that road again, in summer when there aren't any wet corners and when there isn't any cow shit on the road. I'm going to log onto moto.org.nz and highlight this problem.