A CRIS search revealed only three regional projects closely related to the proposed replacement project:

• NCR-183, Utilization of Animal Manure and other Organic Residues in Agriculture, with a termination date of 9-30-01;
• NE-132, Environmental and Economic Impacts of Nutrient Management on Dairy Forage Systems, whose objectives are to study dairy forage systems primarily in the northern states;
• NCR-189, Air Quality Issues Associated with Animal Facilities, with a termination date of 9-30-01.

Land application
Manure and wastewater treatment
Air quality
Feeding strategies
References

The emphasis on potential human health impacts of water runoff from land application sites is relatively new, and projects across the nation have been initiated to study ways to curtail movement of zoonotic pathogens and hormones into public drinking water supplies (Sheffield 2000).  Work that complements the proposed multistate project includes the microbiology of the major pathogens and rapid methods of pathogen detection and identification.  The multistate project will use laboratory and field scale experiments to evaluate movement of the pathogens and best management practices for land application of manure and wastewater to minimize impacts.

Prototype variable rate manure spreaders for semisolid manure have been developed and tested by two of the collaborating institutions.  Further work is needed to devise variable rate spreaders for slurry manure (Cast 1996).

While engineering solutions (such as the “package treatment plant”) to the manure problem are widely sought by industry as well as academic institutions, the project participants realize the value of a holistic approach to treatment that includes economics, byproduct utilization and marketing, the use of low-technology sustainable systems, and gives attention to potential negative environmental or societal impacts.  During the last five years, US commodity prices have put increasing pressure on producers raising financial risk for the adoption of new practices; if manure and wastewater solutions are not realistically evaluated for their cost to producers, the innovations will not be implemented.  The project collaborators recognize and include the extreme regional differences in goals and constraints for manure treatment systems, for example Minnesota (cold winters and substantial land availability) versus Hawaii (mild weather but extremely restricted land base).

Constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment have been evaluated over the past ten years (USEPA 1988).  Changes in societal acceptance of wastewater irrigation systems make the development of wetlands a very attractive alternative.  Some success is reported, however more work is needed to determine the optimum designs, loading rates, plant species etc. to make constructed wetlands applicable for a wide range of performance in wastewater treatment for confined animal production.  The multistate project will enable wetlands results representing a wide range of climates and plant species to be compiled into a comprehensive design guide useful to a large geographic area.

Anaerobic and aerobic digesters are being studied in several locations (Chynoweth et al 1998).  While the biological mechanisms of large-scale anaerobic and aerobic treatment are now fairly well known, the complexity and expense of systems has prohibited their widespread use.  Effort is being concentrated on devising economical, robust systems applicable to small to medium sized farm operations, particularly swine and dairy.  Economical digesters would play an important role in energy supplies, odor reduction and manure handling on farms (Moser and Roos 1997).

Much work has been and continues to be done on economical separation of liquid and solid fractions of dairy and swine manure (Zhang and Westerman 1997), since such treatment would potentially reduce costs, make available value-added manure marketing strategies, reduce manure odors, etc.

A related regional project, (NCR-189), concentrates on air emissions within structures and on air emissions from a larger variety of agricultural production and processing facilities.

Much has been learned in the past ten years about air sampling, about health issues related to work inside facilities, and about characterization of odorous and particulate emissions (Auvermann et al 2000).  New concerns are now surfacing about greenhouse gas emissions from confinement facilities, manure storages, and land application areas.  Several multiyear projects within the existing S-275 project are measuring ammonia emissions from buildings and land application areas. The multistate effort will address conditions across the US, looking at coastal, semiarid, and temperate climates.  Emphasis will be on best management practices and low cost technologies for reducing emissions of those gaseous and particulate constituents currently identified as of most concern.

A result of the worldwide attention given phosphorus pollution in surface waters is the recent development of synthetic phytase and low-phytate corn and soybeans (Koelsch et al 2000).  While the feed industry and plant breeders are making great strides in developing these ingredients, and the technology looks very promising as a way to reduce phosphorus loading on surface waters, an integrated approach is needed to evaluate the overall impact of these developments and possible side benefits.

Another high priority nationwide is dietary manipulation to reduce odors and ammonia volatilization from livestock and poultry manure (Auvermann et al 2000).

Several of the institutions in the existing project S-275 have long term experiments evaluating sustainable forage systems that utilize animal manure, spread mechanically and/or under grazing management, as the primary source of fertilizers.  The systems are being extensively modeled to determine optimum forage species, loading rates, runoff characteristics and best management practices.

Auvermann, B.W., B.W. Shaw, and R.G. Maghirang (eds).  2000.  Air pollution from agricultural operations.  Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Air Pollution from Agricultural Operations, Des Moines, IA.  ASAE, St. Joseph, MI.

Cast. 1996.  Integrated Animal Waste Management.  Council for Agricultural Science and Technology.  Task force report, ISSN 0194-4088; no. 128.  Ames, IA

Chinuyu, A.J., and R. S. Kanwar. 2001.  Effects of poultry manure application on the leaching of NO3-N to subsurface drainage water.  In, Preferential Flow, Water Movement and Chemical Transport in the Environment, Proc. 2nd Int. Symp. 3-5 January 2001, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.  ASAE, St. Joseph, Michigan: 701P0006. pp. 269-272.

Chynoweth, D.P., A.C. Wilkie, and J.M. Owens.  1998.  Anaerobic processing of piggery wastes: a review.  ASAE Paper No. 984101.  American Society of Agricultural Engineers, St. Joseph, MI.

Gilley, J.E. and L. M. Risse.  2000.  Runoff and soil loss as affected by the application of manure.  Transactions of the ASAE.  43(6): 1583-1588.

Koelsch, R.K., C.T. Milton, D.E. Reese, R. Grant.  2000.  Model for estimating manure nutrient excretion from animal nutrient balance.  In, Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Animal, Agricultural And Food Processing Wastes, Des Moines, IA.  ASAE, St. Joseph, MI. pp. 103-110.

Miner, J.R.  1995.  An executive summary; a review of the literature on the nature and control of odors from pork production facilities.  Prepared for the National Pork Producers Council, Des Moines, IA.

Moser, M.A. and K.F. Roos.  1997. AgSTAR program: three commercial-scale anaerobic digesters for animal waste, making a business from biomass. Proceedings of the 3rd Biomass Conference of the Americas, R.P. Overend and E. Chornet, editors, 1997, Elseveir Science Inc., Tarrytown, NY.

Parker, D.  2001.  Demonstration of biogas production using low moisture content beef cattle manure.  Final report, Western Regional Biomass Energy Program, Grant No. 55008.  Lincoln, NE

Sheffield, J. (ed.)  2000.  Evaluation of comprehensive approaches needed to improve the handling of farm animal manure and benefit the environment and the farming industry. Joint Institute for Energy and Environment, Knoxville, TN.  JIEE Report 2000-07, August 2000.

Thu, K. (ed.). 1995.  Understanding the impacts of large-scale swine production.  Proceedings from an interdisciplinary scientific workshop, June 29-30, 1995, Des Moines, IA.  The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, Des Moines.

USDA.  2001.  Confined animal production and manure nutrients.  Resource Economics Division, Economic Research Service, US Dept. of Agriculture. Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 771.

USEPA.  1988.  Design manual – constructed wetlands and aquatic plant systems for municipal wastewater treatment.  EPA/625/1-88/022.

Zhang, R.H., and P.W. Westerman.  1997.  Solid-liquid separation of animal manure for odor control and nutrient management.  Applied Engineering in Agriculture 13(5):657-664.