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Dairies and Animal Feed Lots

Dairies have numerous issues to deal with-Land and Water Considerations, Nutrient Management, Odors, Common Concerns Associated with Expansion, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations- CAFO regulations, permits and liscensing, health and safety, Manure Storage and solids handling.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing regulations that will require dairy and other producers to control and contain runoff from their land, as well as regulate type and scope of livestock operations.

Production has been forced to become concentrated in fewer but larger dairies, and environmental concerns over the industry's waste products are placing increasing pressure on dairy operations. Heightened environmental concerns and need for resource conservation have caused implementation of water use permits and other possible regulatory actions in many states. These may include water intake limits, water effluent limits, permit restrictions, air quality restrictions or solids handling limitations.

Keeping cows clean and healthy requires continual pen and lane flushing in dairies, using thousands of gallons of water daily. The wastewater that is the end result has a high organic content which can be difficult to filter for reuse, but not impossible. Studies have been performed that show bioaugmentation of pond water or flush water reduced organics and ammonia levels. Benefits include odor control, reuse, recycle of water, reduction in health problems and less or no permit violations.

Conventional on-site treatment for manure has included scraping the pens and stockpiling the manure for fertilizing adjacent crops. In contrast, a flush system uses dairy wash water to remove manure from the dairy cow feeding lanes. This method saves labor, but increases the quantity and nutrient loading of wastewater, which requires an improved wastewater treatment system for dairies with flush systems.

Treatment may include lagoons, runoff storage ponds, settling basins, aeration basins, constructed wetlands or discharge directly to a local POTW.

Animal Feed lot solutions

Pigs

Chickens

Cattle

Some Dairy Industry Benchmarks

Typical water use per 100 dairy cows per week is 122,500 gallons during the hot season in Florida (Van Horn, et al., 1993).

Table 1. Comparison of Animal Emission Factors (kg NH₃/animal/yr) Battye et al. (1994).

	Asman (1992)				Buijsman et al. (1987)	NAPAP (1990)	Battye et al. (1994) composite
Animal	Stable + storage	Spreading	Grazing	Total	Buijsman et al. (1987)	NAPAP (1990)	Battye et al. (1994) composite
Cattle (beef & dairy)	7.396	12.244	3.403	23.043	18.	12.6	22.9
	(1.6-12.9)	(3.6-21.2)	(2.8-8.2)	(5.2-39.7)

Swine	2.521^a	2.836^a	0	5.357^a	2.8	3.35	9.1
	(2.4-8.1)	(2.8-8.0)	0	(5.2-16.1)

Poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc.)	0.095	0.154	0	0.249	0.26	0.071	0.179
	(0.05-0.64)	(0.10-0.64)	0	(0.12-1.8)

Horses	3.9	3.6	4.7	12.2	9.4	--	--

Sheep (ewes)	0.381	0.693	0.623	1.697	3.1	1.85	3.37

^{a Battye et al. (1994) stated that these composites appear to have been
calculated using the incorrect number of swine in the Netherlands and are
therefore too low; corrected values would be 4.0, 4.5, and 8.5 respectively.

The EPA has tons of information on Dairies, environmental impact, useful
tools, etc.}

http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/impactwholefarm.html

Whole-Farm Nutrient Balance

A "Whole Farm Nutrient Balance" evaluation is a tool that can be used to evaluate the potential for generation of excess nutrients on the farm and can form the basis for developing plans to deal with nutrient buildups. Nutrients are transported along multiple pathways and in a variety of forms in a livestock operation.

Source: Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship

Nutrient management is critical at animal feed lots. Biological wastewater treatment can improve nutrient management efforts. This can increase the nutrient content into the solids for better value for land application, while removing nutrients from the water, thus enabling better water recycle.

Evaluating nutrient balance from a whole farm perspective provides a more complete picture of the driving forces behind nutrient-related environmental issues. The following four management strategies should help reduce nutrient imbalances:

Efficient use of nutrients in crop production can offset fertilizer nutrient inputs.
Alternative feed rations and efficient utilizer of on-farm feeds can offset nutrient inputs as purchased feeds and forages.
Exporting of manure nutrients to off-farm users can increase managed nutrient outputs.
Manure treatments allow disposal of manure nutrients. Some treatment options enhance the value of manure nutrients and complement manure marketing efforts.

What are some of the options to address these issues?

Water and wastewater treatment with the use of biological additive has been shown to be a relatively inexpensive treatment of pond water or waste pits.

Some of the benefits of using biological and odor products for treatment:

MicroClear 205

	Cleaner ponds or pits- lower BOD, N and P and TSS
	Cleaner Water available for reuse
	Reduction in odor control

Reduction in ammonia levels in the barns, leading to less sore throats for the pigs, higher weight gain, lower vet bills and lower mortality rates

Reduction or elimination of fines

Troubleshooting Lagoon Systems

Animal Feedlot Case History

Many animal feed lots are being forced to deal with BOD removal, nutrient levels and TSS issues that previously were not required to be significantly addressed.

We were asked to help speed up the start-up of a biological wastewater lagoon system for a pig farm. The site was composed of a series of ponds. The first actually was designed with returned sludge and high aeration, so that BOD and nitrification could occur. The second two ponds had less and less aeration so that the solids would settle out, and the carbonaceous bacteria would continue to degrade the BOD, yet consume some of the nitrates (generated by the nitrification process in the earlier stage) as an alternative oxygen source, thereby reducing total nutrient levels.

Call today to find out how easily we can help bring solutions to your operation!!!

Beneficial Reuse

More to come . . . . .

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