Composting of Swine Manure Slurry to Control Odour, Remove Water, and Reduce Pollution Potential

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1997 | No Comments

Dust concentrations in livestock buildings in Northern Europe.

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To determine and estimate the dust burdens within livestock buildings in Northern Europe, field surveys of inhalable dust concentrations (IDCs) and respirable dust concentrations (RDCs) within cattle, pig and poultry buildings were conducted in the United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands (NL), Denmark (DK) and Germany (D). The study involved about 80 surveys in each country.

For cattle buildings, mean IDC and RDC were 0.38 and 0.07 mg m-3, respectively. Mean IDC and RDC in pig buildings were 2.19 and 0.23 mg m-3, and in poultry buildings, 3.60 and 0.45 mg m-3, respectively.

Dust concentrations were affected by housing type and animal species, and their effects were different in the four countries. IDCs in cattle buildings were higher during day than at night. Both IDCs and RDCs in pig buildings were higher in winter than in summer, and higher by day than at night. Winter dust concentrations were higher than in summer within poultry buildings, but only IDCs were affected by sampling period, i.e. higher during the day period.

Ammonia Emission from Pig Houses Affected by Pressed Sugar Beet Pulp Silage in the Diet of Growing-finishing Pigs

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The reduction of ammonia emission came from the lower pH of the manure obtained with the substitution in the diet with suger beet pulp silage. The concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the slurry increases for a stable ammonium concentration. No impact on odour have been investigated and the VFA emissions have not been verified.

Ammonia Emission and Feeding-induced Activity from Houses with Sows Kept Individually and in Groups

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Measures should be done during the summer time to analyze and compare completely both system. The ventilation rates and air velocity in the building during summer are much higher more important differences could then be expected. The results obtained and presented for this experiment are valid only for winter conditions with temperature ranging from -9.5 to 11.3 C.

North Carolina Approves Hog Ban

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The two-year moratorium on all new construction and expansion of hog farms is effective in North Carolina retroactively to March 1997. However the worst fears of the North Carolina Pork Council (NCPC) didn’t come true.
– Existing hog farms are not affected by the Clean Water Responsibility and Environmentally Sound Policy Act.
– Permits issued for construction or expansion at the time of the bill’s signing will be effective and projects who were in the process of building prior to March 1st can proceed with the construction.
-Counties are enable to zone hog farms above 600 000 lb. steady state liveweight (average inventory) but they can completely zone hog operations out of their counties, thus protecting existing farms (can rebuild after natural catastrophe and can’t be amortized).
– A 2500 ft setback from outdoor recreational facilities was approved.
– Construction or expansion construction projects can be excluded of the moratorium if they include innovative animal waste management system and don’t use an anaerobic lagoon.
The municipalities will also have to meet the nitrogen and phosphorus limits in drinking water.
This bill mandates watershed management studies and plans that have to be implemented by everybody around the table, cities and agriculture. A companion bill of $1 billion in funding is called.

Those drastic measures must be coupled with realistic measures for the existing farmers (education, easily implementing techniques) in order to find solutions to the actual problems. Otherwise the moratorium won’t give the expected results in only stopping the expansion.

Analysis of Manure Management Systems and Phytase Adoption by Pork Producers

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In the United States increasing concerns are given to the phosphorus levels in the manure applied to the soils. As phytase is an enzyme that increase the availability of the phosphorus that is present in the feed ingredient given to the pigs, an experiment was done to determine the costs and benefits for the swine producers to adopt phytase and incorporate it in the regular diet givne to the pigs. The profitability of such use is verified considering the value of the animals, the value of the manure produced and the fix and variable costs of the production. Different parameters (nutrients in feed, resulting N and P contents in the manure and manure management system) were studied to determine the optimal situation for phytase use. The land available and the number of pigs produced were also considered as parameters to evaluate. The result of the study showed that the net value of the manure was negative and that the use of phytase was profitable in only several cases.

The analysis was done with consideration on nitrogen production and manure management practices. The use of phytase becomes interesting when the producers are severely limited by land availability. The results suggest that little or no economic impact of the phytase addition for producers interested by its use in best management practices. The general adoption of phytase would need to be coupled with economic incentives (subsidy on phytase or tax on the di-calcium P).

Nutrient Values of Manure.

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This publication presents the nutrient values in manure measured in a Saskatchewan study for different type of production: swine, dairy under liquid manure management and beef and swine under solid manure management. The values obtained for the liquid swine manure is presented with the value given by the Canadian Plan Service M-3700 – National Standards. The nutrient content obtained from the study are presented with the CPS M-3700 put between paranthesis: Nitrogen – N: 0,3 (0,37) %; Phosphorus – P: 0,10 (0,09) %; Potassium – K: 0,13 (0,15) %; Calcium – Ca: 0,13 (0,10) % and Magnesium – Mg: 0,06 (0,04) %. In order to obtain the value in kg/1000 L of manure, multiply the % by 10, so 0,30% N is 3 kg N/ 1000 L and for values in lbs/1000gal multiply by 100 giving 30 lbs N/ 1000 gal.

The values presented are result from means obtained from many farms (71 samples for the Saskatchewan study and 141 samples for the National Standards) and should be considered as guidelines. The nutrient content for a specific farm can differ from those values particularly for the nitrogen and phosphorus, if dietary manipulation, stage feeding or particular manure management are done.

Adding phytase to diets makes economic sense

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Gary Cromwell , University of Kentucky, points out that the economical benefit from the use of phytase comes from the difference from the cost of supplementation and the cost of the phytase needed. For growing pigs the use of phytase would be economically interesting. However for younger pigs, where higher levels of phytase are needed, other considerations such as the reduction of phosphorus in the manure and lower environmental impact would have to be evaluated.
Producer perspective: The Buck near Lafayette, IL have a farrow-to-finish farm of 400 sows and use the manure produced on their 600 acres land. They started 9 months ago using phytase in their feed for the grow-finish stage for pigs over 50 lb. They pay their feed $1.79 less per bag and they expect their manure to be more easily managed in the fertilization of their fields cultivated on a rotating basis. They consider that phytase is a tool to become more environmentally friendly and those tools are needed to maintain a good reputation as pork producers.

Phytase is effectively a good way of reducing the phosphorus content of the manure. The fertilization with manure becomes less limiting because phosphorus is lowered. The doses applied considering the plant’s phosphorus need can be increased (if we compare with manure obtained from swine fed diets with no phytase and supplemented conventionally) and at the same time those doses get closer to meet the nitrogen needs of the plant.

Developing an Olfactometer for Livestock Odor Evaluation

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As odor produced by livestock production systems became an increasing concern of the public and resulted in many complaints, the need to determined odor threshold concentration with reliable and rapid methods has also increased. As malodorous compounds from livestock production are numerous and complex to analyze, olfactometry is still the best method to scale the human sensory response to odor. A new automated triangular forced-choice olfactometer was developed according to ASTM Standard and evaluated. This olfactometer features 15 dilution levels and testing of most odor samples can completed in less then 10 minutes by 4 panelists. To obtained accurate results with olfactometry, it is important to give enough attention to panel selection and training, to selection of sampling bags, to the storage of the samples and to the calibration of the olfactometer. Testing on sampling bag showed that Tedlar bags are more reliable than PVC bags due to the lowest permeability of Tedlar and that samples in those bags can be stored to up to a week with little changes in the results. If the odor analysis are done within a few hours (less than 4) polyethylene bags, which less expensive, can be used.

The testing of the sample bags is interesting because it gives more information about the aging of the sample and help choosing the best sample bags according to the delay before sampling analysis. For the olfactometer, some descriptions are given but they are very brief.

Odor Measurements from Manure Storages on Minnesota Pig Farms

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Investigations on odor and hydrogen sulfide emissions have been done on 30 pig manure storage facilities in Minnesota. A wide range of odor concentration levels and hydrogen sulphide concentrations have been measured during fall weather conditions. A procedure to sample the odor directly over the manure was elaborated in order to eliminate other odor sources. Storage classification was made and the results are presented according to this classification: indoor deep pit, outdoor concrete metal structure, earthen basin and 2nd stage earthen basin. No storage system showed lower concentrations for both parameter measured. The average odor concentration measure for all storage systems was 150 odor units. H2S concentration measurements were higher for non earthen systems than for earthen basins. The H2S concentration were distributed in two blocs with concentrations around lower than 10 ppm or higher than 50 ppm.
The methods used to realize the experiment are well presented and are follow ASTM and European Standards. No trend and no logical physical explanation can justify the large differences in odor dilution threshold and H2S concentrations obtained from the different manure storage systems. Thus not initially expected, the role that management practices may play in odor and gas emissions could probably be accounted for these large differences. As the experiment continue in 1997 more results and investigation will probably help in the determination of the factors affecting odor and gas production such as possible seasonal effects, temperature, animal diets, pumping frequencies, and general storage management.