Volume 2 Number 1
In this Issue:
In this Issue:
The program for the Southeastern Sustainable Animal Waste Management Workshop to be held in Tifton on February 11-13, 1997 has been set and mailed. The workshop is being organized by the AWARE Team and sponsored by the University of Georgia College of Agriculture & Environmental Sciences, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Pollution Prevention Division, and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The program includes two days of informative talks, poster sessions and exhibits, then will be concluded with a field tour of research and farm projects.
Invited keynote speakers will kick-off the conference by presenting animal waste management challenges in the North Carolina swine Industry, the Florida dairy industry and the Arkansas poultry industry. Concurrent sessions will then be held in the areas of manure storage and handling issues, water quality, odor and flies, rotational grazing, animal mortality, nutrient management in poultry, animal waste for energy and feed, composting, wetlands and riparian zones, nutrient management for swine and dairies, air quality, and sustainable agriculture. The closing session will include a presentation on EPA's perspective on animal waste management as well as on making money with animal waste a presentation.
The concurrent session presentations
will involve speakers from at least 20
different organizations from 6 Southeastern
states, including producers and industry
representatives, as well as researchers and
extension personnel. Special incentive for
producers to attend the workshop is
available in the form of producer
"scholarships" where the $45 registration
fee is waived if received before January 24,
1997. Georgia Extension county agents are
encouraged to publicize and attend what
should be an excellent opportunity to learn
about the latest issues and solutions to
animal waste management challenges in the
Southeast. (Harris)
AWARE has advanced into the
world wide web era. We now have a
website at http://www.engr.uga.edu/service/extension/aware/. This site contains the objectives of
AWARE, its history, an overview of some
of our past activities, a catalog of past
newsletters, and a list of other interesting
sites. Some of you may even find your
picture there. Please contact Mark Risse if
you have any additions or changes that you
would like for this site. We are interested in
providing links to other agricultural
organizations in Georgia so please let us
know if you would like your organization
represented or if you would be willing to
link your homepage to ours. (Risse)
Dr. Bill Segars has initiated a
program that could have great benefit to
Georgia water quality and shed positive light
on the agricultural industry. One hundred
and fifty two domestic water well samples
collected by field service men of a major
poultry integrator in North Georgia were
analyzed for nitrate nitrogen at the
University of Georgia Environmental
Services Lab. These wells served poultry
houses and the water was not consumed by
humans. Results indicated that 8 wells
(5.3%) exceeded 10 ppm nitrate. These
wells are currently being resampled for
verification of the data. Extension scientists
will use Farm*A*Syst and other tools to
conduct site investigations of each of these
wells to determine potential reasons for well
contamination. Verbal approval has been
received from another integrator to sample
all of the wells of their growers. Current
plans are to utilize a nitrate indicator kit to
screen the wells and only test water that
exceeds 5 ppm. Ohmicron test kits, a instant
colormetric test costing approximately $2
per sample, will be used as a screening tool.
Preliminary studies have indicated that these
kits are reliable at indicating the presence of
nitrate. Hopefully, this program can
eventually be extended to all areas of
Georgia. (Risse)
Dr. Bill Segars, Maxey Nolan, Bill Merka, and Jean Sander recently met with the State veterinarian to iron out details on composting poultry mortality. It appears that in the very near future, the Georgia Department of Agriculture will allow movement of this compost off the farm. Previously, this was banned because of concern about disease transmission. Recent scientific studies in the South have shown that disease transmission does not occur when the birds are composted according to recommendations. While the tonnage is not large, this development does provide better opportunities for growers with small acreage to land apply their waste material in an environmentally friendly manner.
Reports of widespread use of
alligators for mortality control are not
correct. The Georgia Department of
Agriculture currently has four sites
permitted for short term conditional use to
determine if this an effective option. Do not
expect to see any significant increases in the
use of this method until additional
information is obtained. (Risse)
On our first AWARE Manure Tour we visited Shealy Farms Swine operation and were told that one of the biggest waste management problems facing the swine industry is pipe clogging in flush systems. This month, Dan McCracken uncovered an article that shed a little more light onto this problem. While lagoon effluent has many ions that can precipitate under certain conditions, magnesium ammonium phosphate hexahydrate, or struvite, is the primary problem causing precipitate. This white crystalline compound has a low solubility in water and alkaline solutions. While this article pointed out that proper design and management are critical to controlling struvite build-up, it focused primarily on controlling struvite formulation using chemical inhibitors. Flushing the system with any acid is useful in removing the scale, but these solutions are costly, time consuming, and do not always correct the problems.
Buchanan and others at the University of Tennessee (See Transactions of the ASAE 37(4):1301-8) investigated chemical inhibitors to prevent struvite formation. After reviewing and testing over 20 products, they recommended that further testing be conducted on seven products. Of these seven, a product called Kelig 4000 made by Lignotech USA proved to be the most effective. It has a relatively low cost $0.051 to $0.102/1000 lb live weight, presents little environmental or health risk, and readily degrades in lagoons. Although they suggest that further testing is needed, their results show that Kelig 4000 at 100 ppm actually removed struvite and prevented further build-up in a functioning swine facility. They also caution that even though the inhibitor works, methods of injecting them into functioning systems, determining proper rates, and performing detailed economic analysis will require further research.
Dr. Buchanan will be making a
presentation concerning waste build-up in
piping systems at the Animal Waste
Management Workshop to be held in Tifton
in February 1997. Those interested in
finding out more about how to keep those
pipes flowing should plan on attending.
(Risse)
The following are reviews of papers
presented at the Annual Meeting of the
American Society of Agricultural Engineers.
Additional information or copies of any of
these papers can be obtained from Mark
Risse who wrote these reviews.
Uniformity of Manure Application by Traveling Guns
Peter Wright and Tammie Cross of Cornell present this overview of manure application through irrigation systems. When land applying manure through an irrigation system, uniformity is important to both insure that adequate plant nutrients are properly supplied to all areas within a field and to insure that maximum use of available land is obtained when area is limited. If manure is being applied at the maximum disposal rate (equal to the infiltration rate of the soil), non-uniform applications will result in runoff in some areas and excess holding capacity in other areas. Since cost control is driving most farmers to find the cheapest method for manure spreading as possible, more farmers are moving to high volume tank spreaders and traveling big gun irrigation systems. The advantages of big guns include:
1) handling large volumes of manure quickly with pumping rates up to 650 gallons per minute.
2) low pumping costs and long life of pumping and application equipment
3) less field compaction
4) flexibility is application timing and locations
Because of the high application rates, there are also disadvantages including a higher risk of runoff and contamination from piping failures, more odor, and less uniform applications.
In this study, Dr. Cross analyzed 26 different spreading systems for their uniformity of manure and nutrient application. In general, they found that tanker spreaders applied the nutrients most uniformly followed by center pivots, traveling guns, and V-spreaders. While all of the systems had plenty of room for improvement that could be obtained through proper management, the traveling guns had an inherit disadvantage in that the nozzles themselves produce a very non-uniform distribution. Their suggestions for improving the uniformity included:
1) apply thinner applications more frequently to smooth out variations,
2) use the proper pumping system to maintain the capacities and pressures recommended by the manufacturers,
3) Avoid windy conditions
4) Calibrate the system regularly to become aware of any non-uniformity in the system
5) Overlap the applications based on the
system uniformity.
Nutrient Losses from Beef Cattle Feedlots: A review
Nutrient losses from cattle feedlots affect water quality and the resulting agronomic value of the manure. This paper reviews much of the existing literature concerning data on nutrient generation, volatilization, runoff, and losses from storage and handling. Some important findings include:
1) Nutrients excreted are generally reported on a live weight basis, however, ration has been identified as an important factor affecting excretion and needs to be considered in production figures.
2) Up to 60% of nitrogen is lost to volatilization, yet, the major factors that affect the loss are highly variable and not well quantified.
3) About 5% of the phosphorus is lost in surface runoff. Total phosphorus losses are estimated at 20%-30%. More research needs to be done to determine what happens to the rest.
4) Nitrogen losses during composting range from 20-40% and are a function of the initial N content.
5) Nutrient losses during storage and
handling are highly variable and little
information is available for most systems.
Off-Stream Water Sources for Grazing Cattle as A Stream Stabilization and Water Quality BMP.
This paper really interested me as an alternative to building fences for total exclusion of livestock. While it is unreasonable to expect cattlemen to totally fence out all of the streams on their farms, this paper shows that it may not really be necessary. Several researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute conducted this study on two commercial cow-calf operations in southwest Virginia. Observations of cattle behavior, measurements of stream bank erosion, and analysis of several water quality parameters were taken both before and after the installation of a spring fed watering trough in the pasture. When given a choice, cattle were observed to drink from the trough 92% of the time. This reduced the total amount of time the cattle spent in the stream to 58% of the time they spent in it before the water through was available. This reduction would have probably been even greater if an endophyte free variety of fescue were used. Often, the cattle entered the stream and did not drink.
Due to the dramatic reductions in time that cattle spent within the stream area, many water quality parameters improved. Stream bank erosion was reduced by 77% as determined by cross section analysis. Concentrations of total suspended solids, total nitrogen, ammonium, total phosphorus, and fecal coliform were reduced by 90%, 54%, 70%, 81%, and 51%, respectively, due to the installation of an off stream watering source. In other words, the results clearly indicated that off stream watering sources were an effective BMP. Further studies like this need to be done to further document this impact, especially here in Georgia.
Dr. Eldridge Collins of VPI will
attend the Animal Waste Workshop in
February to discuss these results in more
detail.
The Netherlands is pioneering methods to reduce environmental problems associated with animal wastes. The country has about 15 million people (versus about 8 million in Georgia) living in an area about a fourth the size of Georgia. They share the land with 4.7 million cattle, 13.4 million pigs, 44 million laying hens, 41 million broiler, and 1.7 million sheep. Altogether, those animals produce three to four times more manure than is needed to fertilize the country. A 500-sow farm producing 20 piglets per sow each year produces the same effluent as a town of 25,000 people.
"They have what we have, only worse," said David Brubaker, of the PennAg Industries Association, who has studied and written about the Netherlands situation. "Almost all of the feed is imported. And they are producing these huge animal numbers, but the waste is left behind, so to speak."
Animal agriculture is critical to the national economy - the Dutch are the world's second largest exporters of agricultural products. The Dutch have developed the most stringent manure regulations in the world as part of an effort to clean their heavily polluted rivers. The intent is to find new uses for manure, better ways to treat the wastes and new ways to reduce the overall amount of manure. In the 1980's the Dutch embarked on an ambitious program to reduce pollution from manure. New regulations financially penalize polluters while rewarding innovators and farmers who find way to market manure abroad. One farm, for example, has developed pelletized poultry manure that is exported for sale as lawn fertilizer.
Increasingly, stringent regulations, over time, will also restrict allowable application rates for manure. The goal will be that no more phosphate is applied on land than is withdrawn from crops. A new law, the Act on Manure and Fertilizer, requires farmers to keep track of the amount of manure produced and where it is going. A "Manure Board" was established to regulate manure flows, provide manure for use in arable areas, and help find new manure users. It also conducts research, assists in the processing of manure and establishes treatment plants. All farmers with a manure surplus must develop a disposal plan. Farmers who exceed permitted production levels face fines, and there is an escalating level of tax on commercial feed.
To help manage the wastes, manure
factories are being established to treat and
process excess manure; and there is an
escalating level of tax on commercial feed.
The goal is to balance ecological goals with
economic needs, Brubaker said, but the
challenge will be to make sure that Dutch
meat and dairy products remain competitive
in the European market. (Risse, Source:
Water Quality Update volume 5, number 5:
Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service)
Although methane recovery and anaerobic digestion of animal waste has been around for a while, a few new programs and publications are indicating that it may have more potential than expected.
Two new publications from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory titled "Methane Recovery from Animal Manures: A Current Opportunities Casebook" and "Anaerobic Digestion of Livestock Manures: A Current Opportunities Casebook" examine the pitfalls and payoffs of using bioconversion technologies. Both of these publications are result of national surveys of all known energy from manure production systems. Based on farmer responses and economic analysis they conclude that commercially available technology has considerable potential and is far ahead of the technology many farmers tried to implement in the energy crisis of the 1970's. The case studies determined that:
- Successful deployment of farm based technologies is site specific.
- Farm management's role is key; operators must be accommodating and willing to incorporate new technology.
-Maximizing co-product utilization to enhance economic performance is important to the project's financial success.
- Growth in livestock production often depends on the environmental benefits provided by the bioconversion systems.
The author of these publications, Dr. Phil Lusk, indicates that there are a wide range of systems and technologies out there. Some work, some don't. Generally, in order to make a system pay, it has to be based on sound technology, it has to be a larger operation in a warm, humid environment, and there have to be benefits in addition to the energy generation.
Another program that focuses on energy production from animal manures is AgSTAR. It is a voluntary EPA program promoting the use of methane recovery and utilization as part of an integrated manure management system. The program primarily focuses on the pork and dairy industries, however, the technologies are applicable to any liquid or slurry manure management system. The program primarily provides technical assistance to those interested in installing a new system but will also perform a free assessment to determine if a bioconversion system would be economically advantageous to you. A decision support software package is used to conduct farm-specific economic evaluations based on available technologies, energy costs and end uses, and operational and physical characteristics of the individual facility. If economic alternatives are available and the producer has an interest, then AgSTAR will help him install the system by working with the local electric facilities, extension, research, and NRCS staff, and certain "allied" companies. These allied companies are private agricultural and energy industries that have partnered with AgSTAR to develop and distribute up-to-date technology for methane recovery systems at economic rates. Another service that AgSTAR provides is a quarterly newsletter that highlights successful operations and provides updates on advances in the technology. To obtain this newsletter or for more information on the AgSTAR program, contact the AgSTAR hotline at 1-800-95AgSTAR or check out their homepage at http://www.epa.gov/docs/GCDOAR/agstar.html.
Both Dr. Phil Lusk from the
Regional Energy Biomass Program and
representatives from the AgSTAR program
will be participating in the Animal Waste
Workshop in February. (Risse)
Dr. James L. Glancey of the
University of Delaware and Richard K.
Adams, of New Holland recently published
a report in Transactions of ASAE [39
(3):829-835], ASAE, St. Joseph, MI. The
report described their conversion of a New
Holland manure spreader for use in side
dressing row crops. Previous comparisons
between one preemergent application of
poultry manure and two applications (one
before and one after emergence) failed to
demonstrate any advantage of the dual
application. It was thought that one primary
problem with this test was that both
applications were done with a broadcast
spreader and the corn was damaged by the
second application of the manure over the
top of the corn.
Everyone who has spread poultry manure or
seen it spread is familiar with the problems
of evenly distributing manure with varying
moisture levels, and large cakes of manure.
The machine that was developed in this
research seemed to do a very good job of
evenly distributing manure by first
pulverizing it and then transporting an
approximately equal amount to each row
using a separate auger for each row. The
cost of the machine was not reported on, but
it appeared to be a fairly complicated,
expensive addition to the existing spreader,
and it had not been fully tested on a wide
variety of moisture contents, etc. The
authors suggested that more work was
needed to get the kind of consistent
application rates that are needed for accurate
side dressing.
In short, a lot of work is still needed
to develop a machine that will reliably and
accurately meter manure onto a crop at a
reasonable cost. It is good to know,
however, that someone has begun to work
on this challenging problem that everyone
seems to be hoping someone else will solve.
(John Worley)
A new multi-disciplinary multi-year
research project began in February 1996 at
the Coastal Plain Experiment Station
entitled: "Optimum Utilization of Broiler
Litter for an Intensive Coastal Plain Crop
Rotation". The Principal Investigator is
Gary Gascho, Crop and Soil Sciences and
the Co-Investigators are Tim Brenneman
and Don. Sumner, Plant Pathology; Glen
Harris, Crop and Soil Sciences; and A. W.
Johnson and Robert. Hubbard, USDA-ARS.
The objectives of the research are to:
1. Determine the optimum rates of broiler litter for the main crops of the area,
2. Determine the best combinations of commercial fertilizers needed to provide balanced nutrition following application of broiler litter,
3. Evaluate changes in plant disease and nematode populations related to broiler litter application and methods to control white mold and limb rot in peanut, and
4. Determine the changes in elemental concentrations in the soil profile following broiler litter application over a period of several years.
The experiment was initiated on the Coastal
Plain Experiment Station Lang Farm
(Tifton loamy sand). It is a 3-yr. irrigated
rotation with each crop grown each year
(Table 1). Within the cycles there are 4
broiler litter rates of 0, 2, 4, and 6 tons/acre.
The litter will be incorporated prior to each
crop or fallow. Within each litter rate, 6
treatments will be included to attempt to
balance plant nutrition for top yield, grade
and profitability. The basic treatments
include: 1. nothing additional, 2. 10-34-0
starter, and 3. 8-22-5-2S starter. For cotton,
sprays with potassium nitrate during fruit
development are included; for peanut,
disease control for white mold and limb rot
is included. There are 4 replications for a
total of 288 plots.
| Cycle | ||
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1996-97 | ||
| cotton | millet | peanut |
| fallow | wheat | canola |
| 1997-98 | ||
| peanut | cotton | millet |
| canola | fallow | wheat |
| 1998-99 | ||
| millet | peanut | cotton |
| wheat | canola | fallow |
Soil samples have been collected to a
depth of 3 ft in 4 increments in order to
establish baseline nutrient and other
elemental concentration levels. Hereafter,
soils will be sampled in the same manner
each year. All litter applied will be
analyzed for nutrient and other elements
which may accumulate. Soil samples will
be collected from each plot at monthly
intervals and analyzed for nematodes.
Roots from 20 plants in each plot will be
dug at harvest and examined for damage
caused by root knot nematodes. Growth,
development, and disease incidence will be
observed and recorded. To evaluate
disease incidence, stand counts will be
made following emergence for 5 to 6
weeks, post-emergence damping-off will be
calculated, and fungi will be isolated from
diseased seedlings for all litter rates. Plant
stand, plant stage, reflectance readings and
chlorophyll readings will be made during
development. All plots will be harvested
for yield. Peanuts will be graded and lint
will be determined for cotton. Total
nutrients removed from the plots by harvest
will be related to changes in soil levels to
estimate efficiency of use and losses.
(Gary Gascho)
David Radcliffe, Crop and Soil
Sciences Dept., UGA, is looking for a
couple of sites to do a riparian zone study in
the Piedmont. The question is how effective
are vegetated stream borders in cleaning up
groundwater nitrate and surface runoff P
from upland sources. Studies have been
done on this in the Coastal Plain but none in
the Piedmont region. He is looking for sites
in the Piedmont that are likely to have a
nitrate plume moving in the shallow
groundwater towards the riparian zone. This
might be a field that had received poultry
litter for 10 or more years, a field that had a
high stocking rate of cattle or cows for a
number of years, or downslope of a
large lagoon. He would prefer to avoid
private land but isn't having much luck
finding a site on UGA property. (David
Radcliffe)
A group of UGA and USDA scientist
in Tifton were recently notified that their
NRI research proposal titled "A year-round
forage production manure utilization
system" has gained funding. The proposal
was an outgrowth of the SARE-LISA dairy
manure irrigation project completed about
one year ago. The new project will focus on
nutrient losses in runoff and movement
through soil for two cropping systems under
both manure irrigation and commercial
fertilization. The work will include nutrient
use efficiency by the crops, plant
composition and digestibility, effects of
certain pests, and economics. The project
will also be linked to the adjacent Restored
Riparian Wetland project. Project
investigators for the project include Larry
Newton, George Vellidis, Gary Gascho, Bob
Hubbard, Roger Gates, Richard Lowrance,
Bill Johnson, Will Hudson, John Allison,
and Joe Johnson. (Larry Newton)
"I've read in old textbooks and seen in
recent magazine articles that gypsum
(calcium sulfate) can be added to raw
manure to form ammonium sulfate and
control odors. Is this a good idea?"
(Submitted by Bob Boland - CED Brantley
County)
Controlling odors from livestock operations
will continue to be a great challenge,
especially as the (sub)urban-rural interface
increases. Odor control additives, in
general, have produced mixed results. One
reason is that there are a number of different
types of additives. These include masking
agents, counteractants, digestive deodorants,
adsorbents and chemical deodorants. In
addition, these additives are considered
expensive and usually cost prohibitive.
Gypsum should work but the economics
should be seriously considered. The use of
by-product gypsums such as flue gas
desulfurized (scrubbed from smokestacks)
or reprocessed wallboard may make this
practice more economically attractive.
Finally, there are a number of other steps
that can be taken to control odor problems.
Site selection, facility design, best
management practices such as soil
incorporation or injection, and a proactive
public relations program can all be used as a
means of controlling odor and reducing the
need for expensive additives.
Note: Aluminum sulfate (alum) is also being
seriously considered as a chemical additive
to reduce odors as well as stabilize
phosphorous in manure. Up-to-date
information on this practice as well as other
odor and fly control strategies will be
presented at the upcoming Sustainable
Animal Waste Management Workshop to be
held in Tifton, GA on February 11-13, 1997.
(Harris)
Animal Agriculture and the Environment:
Nutrients, Pathogens, and Community
Relations, December 11-13, Rochester, New
York. Contact (607)255-7654
Southeastern Sustainable Animal Waste
Management Workshop Planning Meeting,
December 5, 1996, Macon, Georgia.
Contact: Mark Risse
Southeastern Sustainable Animal Waste
Management Conference, February 11-13,
RDC, Tifton, Georgia. Contact: Mark
Risse
1997 Georgia Water Resources Conference,
March 20-22, University of Georgia, Athens,
Georgia. Contact: khatcher@ecology.uga.edu
Fifth International Livestock Environment
Symposium, May 29-31, Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Contact: (919)515-6753.
Southern Region Extension Water Quality
Workshop, April 5-8, Tulsa, OK. Contact: Bill Segars
Co-Editors: Glendon Harris, Extension Agronomist
Mark Risse, Extension Ag Engineer