Every autumn, before the closed spreading period begins, slurry stores across the North West are stirred and emptied, and every autumn that work kills livestock. Slurry gas fallen stock collection is a grim but necessary part of the season, because hydrogen sulphide released during mixing can drop a shed full of cattle in minutes. Martlands is a family-run, DEFRA approved operator based in Burscough providing licensed fallen stock and ABP collection across Lancashire, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cumbria and North Wales, and incidents of this kind produce the largest single-event losses we are called to. This article explains what happens, what your disposal obligations are afterwards, and how to handle a multiple-fatality collection properly.
It is written for the practical side of the aftermath. The safety guidance on slurry handling comes from the Health and Safety Executive and your own risk assessment. What follows is what happens to the animals once the shed is safe to enter.
Why Autumn Concentrates the Risk
Slurry stores fill through the summer and must be emptied before the closed period for spreading high-nitrogen organic manures begins in the autumn. That compresses a great deal of stirring into a short window, often in settled, still conditions that prevent gas dispersing. Hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide are all released when a crust is broken, and hydrogen sulphide is the killer. It is heavier than air, it collects at floor level where cattle are lying, and at high concentrations it deadens the sense of smell that would otherwise warn anyone present.
Housed cattle in a shed with a slatted tank beneath it are the animals most at risk, and the timing overlaps with autumn housing, so the sheds are full at exactly the point the tanks are being agitated. Losses are typically sudden, involve several animals at once, and occur in a building the collection vehicle can usually reach easily. That last point is one of the few things in the farm’s favour.
The Disposal Duty After a Fatal Incident
The Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 impose a duty of care to have fallen stock collected within twenty-four hours of discovery, and that duty is unchanged by the cause of death. Burial and burning have been unlawful in the United Kingdom since 2003. Where a serious incident has also injured or killed a person, the site may be under the control of the Health and Safety Executive, and the animals must not be moved until that is resolved. In those circumstances, report the deaths, record the reason for the delay in writing and arrange collection for the point at which the scene is released.
Fallen cattle are handled as Category 1 material because of the specified risk material and TSE controls attached to ruminants, and any bovine over forty-eight months requires BSE sampling. Martlands is a DEFRA approved processing and sampling facility, so that testing is performed as part of the collection under our Category 1 ABP collection licence, APB/CCN21/373/8002. Fallen pigs, which are also at risk where tanks sit beneath pig housing, are handled under Category 2 ABP collection.
Collecting Several Animals at Once
A gassing incident is not a routine single-carcass call. When you telephone, give us the species, the number of animals and an approximate weight range, because a group of adult dairy cows requires different equipment and capacity from a handful of youngstock. Booking through the KoLeCt system records that detail against your holding number so the driver arrives prepared, and it timestamps the report, which is the evidence that the twenty-four hour window was met.
Where a shed cannot be entered safely, say so at the point of booking. Our crews will not enter a confined or unventilated space, and the animals need to be brought to an accessible point by farm staff once the building has been thoroughly ventilated and tested. This is not a delay we impose lightly. It is the same rule that protects your own people.
The Records You Will Need Afterwards
A multiple-fatality incident generates enquiries from more directions than a normal loss. Insurers will want proof that the animals existed and were lawfully disposed of. Your milk buyer or assurance scheme will want the mortality recorded and explained. If the incident is investigated, the disposal route will form part of the picture.
Every collection we make produces a Commercial Document recording the category of material, the species and number of animals, the date, the vehicle and the receiving premises. Kept with your holding register and your medicine records, that document closes the loop on each animal. Our guidance on commercial documents explained sets out precisely what each field means and how long the documents should be retained.
Where These Incidents Occur in Our Area
The pattern follows housing type rather than geography, but the highest concentration of slatted cattle housing with under-floor storage in our service area is on the Cheshire dairy belt and through the intensive dairy ground of west Lancashire. Our routes into Cheshire fallen stock collection and around Sandbach fallen stock collection cover much of that housing, and the proximity of the M6 and M56 corridors means a response from Burscough is measured in hours rather than in a day. Holdings across the Greater Manchester fallen stock collection fringe sit within the same response envelope.
Reducing the Chance of Needing Us
The disposal side of this is the last resort, and the better outcome is that the incident never happens. Stirring on a windy day, ventilating fully, opening every door and side sheet, and removing stock from the building before agitation begins are the measures that prevent losses. Where stock genuinely cannot be moved, the risk assessment needs to say why and what is being done instead.
If the worst does happen, call 01704 776977 as soon as the building is safe. You can also reach us through the contact us page to set up an arrangement in advance of tank emptying, so that a collection slot is already understood before the work starts. Our farm and fallen stock collection service operates a rapid-response fleet and same-day collection is available.
