Something stinks on U.S. 221 & Poor Farm Road
There’s a stench that hits you full in the face as soon as you pass Ingram’s store while headed northbound on U.S. 221. You also see a brown path that goes down the center of the northbound lane of the pavement and then makes a right on Poor Farm Road, where it continues for about a half a mile before turning left into a farm.
That brown path and the stink comes from liquid manure that is leaking from one of Ingram’s trucks. It has dissipated some now but at the beginning of the week the hills were alive with the smell of cow dung.
Those of us who live in the area of Poor Farm, Sandy Flats and Harvestwood know when David Ingram is spreading the liquid stuff on his fields. That’s part of living in the country. But this is the first time I’ve seen it on the road. David’s truck is leaking and it stinks to high heaven. It was also slick along that stretch of road right after the truck made a trip with is load of watery cow excrement.
David is also chairman of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors and, frankly, I’m surprised that he is operating a truck that leaks liquid manure onto the road. I’m used to politicians spreading crap when they get together and meet or deliver another promise-laden but truth-lacking speech, but not on our public roads.
I suppose I could complain to my supervisor (Virgel Allen) but would he do something against the chairman of the board?
We travel that section of the county almost daily also, coming from the Streamlines shops or forest products harvesting sites on, of all the names – “Harvestwood Road”. We come through bringing hay harvested from the Natural Woodworking Company property just down the Franklin Pike near the intersection with Shooting Creek. We keep a few young horses on the mountain side pasture at NWC, so we are there about daily checking water and our animals.
It was funny that driving through it the other evening one of the apprentice kids that works with us said he “loved the smell”. It reminded him of working on the dairy. He said “that’s dairy manure!”
The neighborly, gentleman thing to do Brother Doug is just call David and tell him about it. He will attend to it, if he hasn’t already.
It is not exactly atomic waste, just cow manure and some water. I am not making excuses for faulty equipment, but – the fact is that even the established Ingram’s are still farmers and work more hours than most people can comprehend, must less emulate/equal. As you see they use old and homemade equipment which is a testament to the reality of producing cheap food for all of us in this great country.
Manure is highly corrosive and I can only imagine how hard it is to keep up with all that equipment and all that liquidized manure. Having known these folks for decades, they are doing a good job and will continue so as best they can if their tract record speaks for anything.
Give him a call, I’d bet on them taking care of it. After all it is fertilizer and that is money and nobody wants to spill money on the way to the bank… and their land is their bank – to grow the stuff that goes in the front before coming out the back of the cows. I am sure they don’t want it on the road either. They probably didn’t know it was happening until they got the the field themselves.
One thing is for sure though, you don’t have to be a bloodhound to know where it came from and where it goes…
Oh yea, don’t ride your scooter over that stuff it may be slick and hard to get off all the fine parts on such a machine or the clothing of the operator…
And this kind of thing is a price one often pays to live in the country. This doesn’t happen in D.C. Welcome home Bubba. I’m just happy they aren’t into poultry….
Jason Rutledge
Biological Woodsmen and
Frequent handler of much horse manure….
Just because the Ingram’s are farmers,dont give them the excuse to leave cow manure on the road. First of all, it is against the law to leave it on the road and second ,I don’t want it on my car. I had just washed my car ,when I drove through it. They had to know that it was on the road and it is not my place to call and tell them anything. KEEP IT OFF THE ROAD!!
Mr. Rutledge, your defense of Mr. Ingram’s callous disregard for public health and safety misses the point.
Mr. Ingram should not need anyone to tell him that his truck is leaking. Any fool could see that just from the line of manure that was left on the road. A man who cared for his neighbors would have cleaned up his mess without having to be told.
I’ve had the misfortune of following Mr. Ingram’s truck when it is on the road and it is not only a stinking mess but a safety hazard as it spews its cargo onto the pavement, leaving a web, slippery, stinking mess.
As a lifelong resident of Floyd County, and one who grew up on a farm, I have no problem with the smell of manure when it is on the fields where it belongs. I do have a problem when it is callously left on public roads.