Tag Archives: environmental

Composting Horse Manure

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Uncontrolled stockpiles of horse manure can be an unsightly, smelly and fly-infested mess. Stockpiles also can cause runoff pollution in nearby streams and ponds. For horse enthusiasts, veterinarians and operators of boarding stables, handling and disposing of horse manure can pose numerous challenges. Frequently, operators of equine facilities and large-animal veterinary clinics must pay someone to take the manure off the property. However, there is an excellent way to stimulate demand for a product that would otherwise be a liability. Composting manure can eliminate a messy problem and… Read More →

Use of cationic polymers to reduce pathogen levels during dairy manure separation

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(View original article)  Various separation technologies are used to deal with the enormous amounts of animal waste that large livestock operations generate. When the recycled waste stream is land applied, it is essential to lower the pathogen load to safeguard the health of livestock and humans. We investigated whether cationic polymers, used as a flocculent in the solid/liquid separation process, could reduce the pathogen indicator load in the animal waste stream. The effects of low charge density cationic polyacrylamide (CPAM) and high charge density cationic polydicyandiamide (PDCD) were… Read More →

Particulate Matter: What Is It and Why Does It Matter to Agriculture?

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Particulate matter (PM) is the term applied to dust and other small particles that are suspended in the air. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates PM as a pollutant because it can cause health problems when inhaled. There are two categories of PM— coarse and fine. Coarse PM, typically found near roadways and dusty industries, is made up of particles larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter. Fine PM, found in smoke and haze, is made up of particles 2.5 micrometers in diameter and… Read More →

Manure to Energy: Understanding Processes, Principles and Jargon

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Today the spotlight in the United States is on the increasing world demand for energy and the high cost of oil and natural gas. This has heightened interest in alternative and renewable energy sources, such as bio fuels, forests, wind, solar and animal manure. While demand for hydrocarbon energy (energy from crude oil, natural gas and coal) will continue to rise, renewable energy will become more important in the coming years. This publication uses the following figure as a simple illustration of potential sources of energy from biomass,… Read More →