An Affordable Solar System For Swine

Posted in: Energy by admin on January 1, 1982 | No Comments

A solar system built into a 500 pig nursery building in Hancock county offers promise as a low cost system which can cut the cost of heating swine buildings. For an investment of $4.50 per square foot of solar colector, the farmer is saving about one gallon of LP gas per square foot annually.

Complications From Installing Solar, Geothermal and Heat Exchanger Systems

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The major obective of installing a solar, geothermal or heat exchanger system is to reduce the fuel bill through preheating of the winter ventilation air. It is important that before a preheating system is installed that the recommended levels of insulation in the walls, ceiling, perimeter and foundation be used. The major consideration in selecting a preheating system is the initial cost per crate or nursery pens. Other benefits of a preheating air system include: a more constant air temperature entering the building, less draft problems with preheated air and possibly better air quality in the building for pigs and humans, since a higher air flow may be used if the fuel costs are low. This paper is designed to be helpful in the selection of a preheating system based on the problems of these systems, actual performance data on these systems and owner experience on installation and management of these systems.

Controlling Odors from Livestock Production Facilities: State-Of-The-Art

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1981 | No Comments

This publication gives a broad review of the odor situation as it is in 1981. General information is given on the physiological reactions associated to odor and the complexity of odor is also presented. A list of odorous volatile compounds is given and information about ammonia releases associated to specific practices are also given. Odor measurements are also discussed, presenting olfactometry and also the cotton swatches technique and mentioning that the concentration of certain odor components cannot be considered as odor indicator. The group of odor sources such as feed material, fresh manure, and stored or decomposing manure are to be considered. Odor control principles and approaches are presented being pH control to limit ammonia releases, inhibition of anaerobic decomposition (aeration, usage of bedding, oxidation ditches and aerated lagoons), physical confinement of manure (covered manure storage, anaerobic treatment devices) and finally reduction of exhaust air odor (by air-borne particles removal). The odor control can be done also by the addition of odor control chemicals added to feed or manure. Management practices and different designs can be done to control odor such as proper siting with a proper perimeter separating the livestock production unit and manure storage facilities from the neighbors, consideration in the siting to prevalent wind direction, proper management control to keep the animals clean and frequent manure scraping or flushing and to maintain good storage conditions. A good timing (to avoid nuisances and interference with recreational activities) and techniques (injection, plough right after spreading) for manure disposal are also essential in order to limit complaints from neighbors.

This is a good review of for the time. Many considerations in 1981 are still accurate in 1997 and many questions raised are yet not answered.

Controlling Odors from Livestock Production Facilities

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See the summary of: Controlling Odors from Livestock Production Facilities: State-Of-The-Art. 1981. Miner, J.R.

Fabric Swatches as an Aid in Livestock Odor Evaluations

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The cotton fabric swatches technique is presented as an alternate means to detect odor differences. The technique is simple and requires little equipment and has proved to be satisfactory.

This technique has proven to be ineffective in the determination of odor levels when the odor concentration is moderate to high. See: Livestock Odor Measurement using a Venturi Olfactometer and Odor Sampling using Cloth Swatches. 1997. Nicolai, R.E., L.D. Jacobson, D.R. Schmidt and C. McGinley.

Evaluation of Commercial Products for Odor Control and Solids Reduction of Liquid Swine Manure

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Products from twenty-two companies that are designed to control odors and reduce solids in liquid swine manure were tested in addition to treatments done with : waste oil, activated charcoal, wintergreen oil, chlorine, mecanical aeration and an experimental product formulated at UIUC laboratories. A large panel of 40 to 50 persons were asked to rate odor on a 0-10 scale for odor strenght and also for acceptability (parfume being high for strenght and low for acceptability). The samples were put in black bottles covered with a gauze to be rated by panel members. The results showed a large variability in the results. No fatigue of the panel members was observed as the clean water was always correctly identify and rated. The aeration treatment seemed to present the best performances in odor control however no significant differences could be measured between the different products and treatments. No differences were also observed for solids reduction.

Implications of Applying Copper-Rich Pig Slurry to Grassland – Effects on Plants and Soils

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Experiments were conducted where pig slurry was applied to grassland that were subsequently grazed or harvested. Soils and plant were sampled to determine their copper content. Pot experiments were also performed to help analyze the results. The copper in herbage from field that received manure varied from less than 4ug/g to greater than 100ug/g (4 to 100 ppm). Different factors influenced copper content such as practices’ management, season, precipitation patterns following manure spreading and herbage composition. Copper build-up from slurry application occurred near or at the soil surface.

Lower manure application would result in lower copper concentration in soils. Conclusion on copper toxicity are not presented other than to mention that the copper coming from manure is not more toxic than mineral copper when considering the experiment done to verify the ryegrass seedlings.

Copper Accumulation in Brittany Soils through Eniched Pig Slurry; Phytotoxic Risks.

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In Brittany where pig production is particularly intensive, copper (Cu) supplementation was as high as 125 ppm Cu in the fattening pigs diets. Since 5 years, the Cu supplementation tend to be lowered to 35 ppm as other growth factors have been introduced. Investigations were made to verify the Cu enrichment of soils in Brittany and 190 fields have been tested. Also pot and microplot experiments were done by incorporating CuSO4 to soil. A survey made over 6 years on those soils showed that during the survey period Cu enrichment and also zinc (Zn) enrichment could be observed, with an average increase of 1,23 ppm and 2,96 ppm respectively. On farms with the highest pig density the CU enrichment measured was 2,82 ppm and for Zn, 9,06 ppm. The pot and plot experiments showed that it would be dangerous to incorporate 500 kg/ha of Cu or Zn ( concentration higher to 120 ppm in the soil) into Finisterian soils for crops such as Italian rye-grass, maize, winter-wheat and barley. Considering a manure application rate of 50 ton manure/ha per year, manure coming from 70 pigs (represents a density of 70 pigs/ha) that would have received a diet supplemented with 125 ppm of Cu and 150 ppm of Zn, it would take 2 centuries before the concentration of these 2 elements would reach 500 kg/ha in the arable layer. As the phytotoxicity of Cu and Zn is complementary, it is believed that the dangers would appear after one century.

Cu and Zn accumulation can cause toxicity and attention has to be given particularly to the supplementation in the diet in order to provide those elements to the animal requirement level and not higher. For higher pig density of higher manure application rates, the phytotoxicity would appear sooner. The laboratory testing allowed them to verify their theoretical predictions.

Effects of the Disposal of Copper-Rich Slurry on the Health of Grazing Animals.

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Sheep are more likely to react adversely to high copper manure concentration applied to grass compared to cattle as sheep are more susceptible to chronic copper poisoning. Plants can be contaminated by copper when high concentration copper manure is applied on surface and manure residues stay on the plants and the ground. The copper coming from this source seems to be relatively available to sheep as the studies on absorption and hepatic accumulation showed. The study has been verifying the sheep’s health while grazing on severely contaminated pasture for 3 years and no important increases in liver copper and no cases of copper toxicosis were observed. If some attention is put on the rate of applied manure and also the timing of the application, there should not be any immediate hazard to let sheep graze on pasture where manure was applied.

The copper concentration in soil can increase the copper in the plants as they grow. However toxicity to the sheep directly from plants having assimilated copper from the soil is unlikely to happen as phytotoxicity would probably occur before. However, manure spread directly on the plants increases the risk for toxicity for the grazing sheep. Proper timing (longer time between spreading and grazing) and manure application rates would lower considerable the risk. The level of toxicity for sheep is difficult to determine as it depends on different factors.

Economics of a Swine Manure Anaerobic Digester

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