Livestock agriculture dominated by pig rearing is responsible for the production large volumes of wastes. Across the European Union there are over 151 million pigs that produce 300 million tonnes of slurry annually. Furthermore, intensive production linked to certain regions, leads to zones of nutrient excess where available land for land spreading is insufficient. However, even if the environm...

Understanding P sorption from animal manures is essential to formulate best management practices with regard to land application of manure from the standpoint of crop production and environmental quality. Little research has focused on the construction of P sorption isotherms where the P source is manure. The objectives of this study were to: (i) develop a procedure to characterize how inorgani...

Phosphorus (P) losses from land-applied manure can contribute to nonpoint source pollution of surface waters. Dietary P levels influence P concentrations in animal manures and may affect P losses from land-applied manure. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of dairy diet P concentration on P losses in runoff from landapplied manure. Manures with P concentrations of 0.48 and...

This study aims to characterize salmonid manures and to determine their potential use in agricultural soils. Sampling was carried out below salmon and trout cages in farms located in lakes and in the sea in the South of Chile during 2002-2003. Manure was analyzed for macronutrients, micronutrients and heavy metals. Results showed a high variability between samples and differences between sea an...

Commercial production of white button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) requires a specialized growth substrate prepared from composted agricultural by-products. Because horse and poultry manures are widely used in substrate formulations, there is a need to determine the extent to which the composting process is capable of eliminating human pathogens. In this study, partially composted substrate wa...

Concentrated animal feeding operations are major sources of ammonia to the atmosphere. Control methods to reduce emissions include acidifying amendments, urease inhibitors, and absorbents. For beef cattle, decreasing crude protein (CP) in diets may be the most practical and cost-effective method to reduce ammonia emissions. Our objective was to quantify the effect of reducing CP in beef cattle ...

Livestock odors are closely correlated to airborne concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOC), which are a complex mixture of carbon-, sulfur-, and nitrogen-containing compounds produced primarily during the incomplete anaerobic fermentation of animal manure by microorganisms. Volatile fatty acids, alcohols, and aromatic ring compounds comprise a substantial fraction of VOC, yet very li...

Potential interactions between food production and climate mitigation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty. Three agriculture intensification scenarios for supplying nitrogen to increase crop production (mineral fertilizer, herbaceous legume cover crops--green manures--and agroforestry--legume improved tr...