Response to oustanding issues Animal Husbandry MCU12/0184

                                                                  MW A Environmental




    3.2.2       LITTER APPLICATION


    The only direct integration of the proposed       poultry farm and the existing
    avocado orchard is the      re-use   of spent litter from the poultry sheds as
    fertiliser / mulch within the terraced orchard area.



    Timing

    Following removal from the poultry sheds, the spent litter will be stockpiled
    and turned for a period of up to 4 to 5 weeks prior to application. Under the
    proposed operational timeframe, all litter is to be spread within 4 to 5
    weeks of being removed from the sheds to ensure that odour emissions
    do not coincide with peak emissions from the following batch of birds.


     If, due to unforeseen circumstances, litter is not able to be spread within the
     available 4 to 5 week period then in the event of odour nuisance, the litter
     may be removed from the site by a regulated waste transport company as
                                                   ability to reuse the material
     occurs for many broiler farms that do not have to

     on-site.



     Volume


     Based upon a full replacement of litter from all sheds at the end of the batch
     and a conservative 75mm depth of litter the potential litter volume is
     1027m3. This volume of litter is to be spread at a depth of 0.05m over an
     area of  approximately 2.0ha. The average footprint of each tree is 5m x 8m
     (i.e. 40m2); therefore each batch of litter will compost approximately 500
    trees. With 5.8 cleanouts of the sheds each year there will be in the order of
     2900 trees composted each year.


     An audit of the trees for the purpose of legal proceedings disclosed that
     there are 6,651 avocado trees in production and numerous additional trees
     in the orchard (refer to Alwyn Peffer & Company        Pty Ltd correspondence
     included as Attachment 3). Advice from the applicant is that a conservative
     estimate would be an additional 1,100 wind break and planted native trees
     within the orchard that are currently fertilised and maintained. The existing
     tree count within the orchard for application of the litter as fertiliser is well
     over 7,000.



     Several    areaspreviously planted to mango trees are lying fallow with
     terracing and irrigation in place; it is intended that these areas are to be
     planted to avocados with approximately 3,500 additional trees to be planted.
     As such, the capacity of the orchard is considered to be sufficient to accept
     the volume of litter that will be produced by the poultry sheds.




Ridgewood 12-002                         15                       11 September 2013