of factors that make manure an undependable source of plant nutrients, including differences in soil fertility Estimates of the availability of dairy manure nutrients to crops levels where manure application experiments have been rely on indirect measurements and can vary greatly. More accurate estimates of manure nutrient availability are needed to improve maconducted, inherent shortcomings of...

As a part of the USEPA's concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) final rule, all CAFOs are required to develop and implement a nutrient management plan (NMP). The USEPA's emphasis on better management of nutrients appropriately targets a critical environmental issue associated with animal production. The concentration of animals in livestock feeding operations, often separate from feed gra...

Ammonia (NH) emissions vary considerably among farms as influenced by climate and management. Because emission measurement is difficult and expensive, process-based models provide an alternative for estimating whole farm emissions. A model that simulates the processes of NH formation, speciation, aqueous-gas partitioning, and mass transfer was developed and incorporated in a whole farm simulati...

Different stocking densities (SDs) or space allocations are being practiced in commercial laying-hen operations as an attempt to improve hen welfare. Information concerning the impact of SD on accumulated manure properties (e.g., moisture content) and thus ammonia (NH3) emissions is limited in the literature. Bird SD affects the amount of manure per unit of accumulated manure surface area, whic...

In recent years, animal agriculture has been surrounded by concerns of environmental contamination and degradation. To reduce potential environmental hazards, researchers have tried various practices to reduce the amount of nutrients being excreted in swine manure and ammonia emissions from manure contributing to diminishing air quality. To prevent further environmental concerns, diet modificat...

The livestock industry has undergone substantial changes in the past few decades. The poultry, swine, and dairy industries in particular have become increasingly concentrated. This has resulted in fewer, but larger, livestock operations throughout the country. As a result, there has been a growing concern about odor emissions from livestock operations and potential decreased water quality cause...

Cultivating algae on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in animal manure effluents presents an alternative to the current practice of land application. The objective of this study was to determine values for productivity, nutrient content, and nutrient recovery using filamentous green algae grown in outdoor raceways at different loading rates of raw and anaerobically digested dairy manure effluent...

When poultry manure is collected but cannot be analyzed immediately, a method for storing the manure is needed to ensure accurate subsequent analyses. This study has 3 objectives: (1) to investigate effects of 4 poultry manure sample preservation methods (refrigeration, freezing, acidification, and freeze-drying) on the compositional characteristics of poultry manure; (2) to determine compositi...

Bovine enteric viruses can be used as indicators for animal fecal contamination; however, no quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) assay has been reported for detecting bovine adenoviruses (BAdV). In this study, we developed a duplex FRET assay targeting BAdV serotypes1, 2 and a taqman assay targeting BAdV serotypes 4 to 8. The detection limit of the duplex FRET assay is 25 and 10 genomic equivalen...

Animal production has changed from subsistence to an industrial model, lowering production costs but giving rise to higher potential environmental impact. When the effluents are not correctly managed, serious pollution events can occur. In Brazil liquid manure is commonly stored in reception pits or covered lagoons (biodigestors), followed by land application as a biofertilizer. In some regions...