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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:
Environmental impact and agronomic value of pig slurry on field corn: nitrogen balance measurement using nitrogen 15 radioactive labelling
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
It is difficult to accurately evaluate the loss of nitrogen in the environment following the spreading of pig slurry, because other nitrogen sources (fertilizers, crop residues, etc.) also contribute to the overall nitrogen losses. The radioactive labelling, with nitrogen 15, of the slurry nitrogen allows to distinguish it from the nitrogen found in other sources in the field. Radioactive labelling was used in a two-year assay (2003 and 2004) for determining the real fertilizing efficiency of pig slurry applied in post-emergence on field corn (at a rate of 85 to 95kg total N/ha) and for determining the real proportion of nitrogen loss attributable to slurry spreading. This study allowed us to establish the distribution of the slurry nitrogen in the soil, plants and environment. As measured at the end of the growing season, 20 to 50% of the slurry nitrogen was assimilated by corn, depending on the year and the type of soil of the assay. Nitrogen uptake was lower in a clay-rich soil, since clay reduces the availability of ammoniacal nitrogen. Fifteen to 25% of the slurry nitrogen was lost in the environment between spreading and harvest. The measured nitrogen uptake and losses of slurry are similar to those reported for mineral fertilizer applications at post-emergence of corn and at similar rates. In the various conditions of this study, spreading of pig slurry proved as efficient as the application of mineral fertilizer in terms of agronomic performances of corn, and no more at risk, environmentally speaking.
Determining nitrogen fractions in swine slurry
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Sorption and Desorption of Ammonium from Liquid Swine Waste in Soils
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Movement of Lagoon-Liquor Constituents below Four Animal-Waste Lagoons
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Odour and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Hog Operations
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Odour and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were measured on two 3000-sow farrowing
operations to quantify the relative and absolute contributions to odour and greenhouse gas
emissions from hog barns and manure storage structures; to characterize these emissions; and to
develop or validate models which were capable of confidently predicting the dispersion of odour
from hog operations in surrounding communities. The two farrowing operations (Farm A and
Farm B) were built from the same blueprint with slight modifications – Farm A had an extra
quarantine room at the east end of the building. The buildings on both farms were mechanically
ventilated with wall mounted exhaust fans. Manure was stored as liquid in under-floor shallow
gutters and then removed to outdoor earthen manure storage (EMS). The major difference
between the two operations was that Farm A had a two-cell EMS with negative pressure covers
(NPC); whereas Farm B had an open single cell EMS. It was found that odour emission from farrowing rooms was 2 to 3 times higher than that
from gestation rooms on the two farms. The average odour emission rate of the two farms was
22.9 OU/s-m2 (314 OU/s-AU) from farrowing rooms and 9.6 OU/s-m2 (113 OU/s-AU) from
gestation rooms. There was no statistically significant (P>0.05) difference between the two
farms in emission rate from farrowing rooms; however, the emission rate from gestation rooms
on Farm A was significantly (P<0.05) higher than that on Farm B. Outdoor temperature had the
most influence on odour emission from building exhaust. Specifically, the odour emission rate at
lower temperatures (<14°C) was significantly lower than that in higher temperature ranges (15-
30°C). The open EMS contributed 60% to the total odour emission on Farm B; whereas the NPC EMS
contributed only 2% to the total odour emission on Farm A.
Treatment of poultry mortalities on poultry farms
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