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Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Airborne dust concentrations in livestock buildings and the effect of feed.
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1995 | No Comments
Research on reducing airborne dust concentrations in livestock buildings is reviewed. Research has concentrated on removing dust from the livestock environment by methods such as filtration, ventilation, sweeping floors and spraying with oil and water. These methods have proved moderately successful, but the few studies that mention costs suggest that they are uneconomic. Little has been done to reduce the generation of dust. Feed has been identified as the main source of dust in livestock buildings. Research has shown that feed dustiness can be reduced by changing composition or applying coatings. However, further research and development are needed to apply this research to practical feed formulations. Feeders and feed delivery systems need to be developed to reduce their contribution to dust generation. The benefits in terms of animal production need to be quantified before the economics of the various dust control methods can be evaluated.
Swine Manure Nitrogen Conservation in Storage using Sphagnum Moss
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Mise au point et evaluation de la faisabilite d'un procede naturel de traitement du lisier de porcs pas le sol
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In the Plouvorn site, a 4 years study is realized on a pilot scale pig manure treatment system using a natural soil process. The experiment is done under field conditions. The treatment is done in 3 stages: a managed field (3280 m2) from which all the leachate water that percolate through the soil can be recovered, a storage pump reactor system (160, 350 and 450 m3 capacity) where the denitrification process occur and to complete the treatment, a non-managed field. The manure treatment follows these operations: 1) over application is done to the managed field with manure, 2) the nitrate leachate is then collected and treated, 3) and the leachate that has been denitrified is irrigated over the fields. The objective of this project is to evaluated the performances of such systems for manure treatment, considering the nitrogen removal efficiency for the soil/water system used. From 1991 and 1994, and average of 980 m3 per year have been applied to the managed field for a total of 3919 m3 of raw manure per ha. The manure spreading was done in individual spreadings of 157 m3/ha from March-April through October of each year for a total nitrogen load of 756 kg total N per hectare. The leachate coming from the managed field contained high nitrates concentrations (concentrations ranging from 440 to 828 mg/L, measured during the last season) which show that the nitrification process was in the soil. The leachate was subsequently denitrified at and average rate of 0.5 to 1 kg N per day for a retention time in the reactor of 10 to 60 days. The results obtained show that this treatment process is a promising method for nitrogen removal.
No information is given on the expected life time of such soil filter and also on the other nutrients in the manure. No mention is done of the potential leaching of other nutrients as build up in the soils occurs with applications that go on. The increase in the concentration of some nutrients could also lead to toxicity levels for the growth of the vegetal cover that are meant to uptake those nutrients.
Managing Odors from Swine, Part 2 and Part 3
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This is a general overview of current method to reduce swine manure odors.
Areas discussed are buildings and facilities, outside storage systems (lagoons and covers,), and land applications (spreading and injection).
Analysis and design of an aero-deduster for livestock buildings.
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A particle separation theory for the uniflow aero-deduster was developed and a prototype of the aero-deduster was designed and tested based on the analysis of the particle separation theory. Theoretically, all sizes of particles can be separated and dust particle separation efficiency increases as the particle size increases. The factors affecting the dust separation efficiency includes the aero-deduster configuration, particle size and the air flow condition in the deduster. For example, dust separation efficiency of the deduster was 10% to 20% for particles of 2 um and 30% for particles of 5 um.
Environmental Policy and Swine Manure Management: Waste not or Want Not
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Epuration de l'azote des lisiers de porcs par nitrification et denitrification dans un procede rustique d'epuration derive des lits bacteriens.
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A simple low cost gravel facility was used as a biofilter to treat swine liquid manure as an on farm percolation-infiltration system that removed both carbon and nitrogen. Tests done in laboratory showed using aerated columns showed that partially stabilized stored manure can be treated to reduce the BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand) and lower the nitrogen content. After the initial biofilm (bacteria attached to the gravel particles) developed in the gravel bed, for an initial ammonium-N concentration of 1 g per liter, the nitrification process could reach a rate of 86 g per square meter of the gravel cross section per day. This rate was high enough to convert all the ammonium to nitrate. The nitrification process could not convert all the ammonium-N to nitrate when the initial ammonium content was equal to 3.2g/L even with a high nitrification rate of 258 g/m2 per day; the leachate had still a residual ammonium-L content of 0.52 g/L. Tests were done with the effluent and the results showed that when a carbon source was added to it, denitrification occurred and its rate was proportional to the amount of carbon added. The on-farm pilot scale gravel bed facility (50 m2 gravel surface area and 1.4 m depth) could nitrify completely 52 g of nitrogen per m2 and per day with a through-put of 60 L per m2 per day. The results showed that at a higher manure load of 100 L per m2 per day, the nitrification activity increased to 72 g per m2 per day however not all the ammonium-N was converted to nitrate.
This system seems simple as a gravel bed is used for support to the bacteria that treat the manure. However, aeration of the bed is necessary and subsequent control is necessary in order to assure the denitrification of the nitrogen that is under the form of nitrate. On a commercial scale that may represent controls and conditions that have to be monitored. The results presented are for a 3 months period and no information is presented on the ambient conditions necessary for optimal bacteria activity. As the activity slows and stops at low temperature, such systems could be ineffective during a long period in cold winter conditions.
The Potential of Thermophilic Anaerobic Fermentation for Biological Methane Production and Odor Control Using Swine Manure as a Substrate
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Swine manure from a primary treatment lagoon sediment and from rumen fluid were fed to mehtanogenic culture under thermophilic conditions (50A