Agricultural waste management

You must not burn animal carcasses in the open as this is prohibited. The only exceptions are during disease outbreaks or similar circumstances when Animal Health may grant special authorisation for burning.

If you operate an on-farm incinerator that burns carcasses, you must ensure the incinerator is approved by Animal Health.

• Animal Health (replaced the State Veterinary Service)

If you operate an incinerator that has a capacity to incinerate more than 50kg of carcasses per hour, you may require a Pollution Prevention and Control permit from your environmental regulator.

If there is a disease outbreak and Animal Health authorise you to burn carcasses you should take a number of steps to reduce your environmental impact.

You can avoid producing dark smoke by:

• placing primary fuel (straw, fuel oil, heavy untreated timbers, coal, etc) in the base of the fire, and the carcasses on top
• designing the pyre to allow burning to take place up and through the material rather than from the top down (this creates a much higher temperature and reduces the risk of creating dark smoke)
• never burning plastics or tyres as fuel.

You should:

• supervise burning at all times and have a fire extinguisher, water supply or a bowser available for emergencies
• only burn carcasses in daylight hours
• contact your local fire brigade to let them know you are burning, before lighting the fire.

Remember you must not burn carcasses unless you have been advised to do so by Animal Health.