Tag: manure curriculum

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Soil Science and Soil Health for Livestock and Poultry Production

This page is part of a series on environmental management topics developed for young or beginning farmer and ranchers. This series focuses on animal agriculture production and will also be useful to established producers as well as teachers and extension agents/educators.

Why is soil science and soil health important to animal agriculture?

Most livestock or poultry operations recycle manure on nearby land as a fertilizer. On grazing operations, this manure is deposited directly on growing plants by animals. For confined operations, manure is collected and stored until it can be land applied (spread) at an appropriate time. Understanding soil science is important for making the best decisions about manure application rate, location, and timing as well as grazing management.

Soil Science Basics

Soil Health

Soil Characteristics

Soil Sampling

Livestock and poultry farms sample soil to look at nutrient levels and use those in calculating the appropriate amount of manure and/or commercial fertilizer to apply to a field. This is an important step in a process called “nutrient management planning”. To find soil sampling recommendations and testing labs in your state, do a web search for “soil sampling” plus your state name. If you are unable to locate soil testing publications from your state, some recommended resources:

Related: Soil Testing

Knowledge and Tools For Management Decisions

Manure Impacts on Soil

Advanced Topics

Tile drainage and subsurface flow

Teacher/Educator Resources

Oregon State activity http://4hwildlifestewards.org/pdfs/soil.pdf

Acknowledgements

This Building Environmental Leaders in Animal Agriculture project was funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) under award #2009-49400-05871. This project is a joint effort between University of Nebraska, Montana State University, Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community and the National Young Farmers Educational Association (NYFEA). Meet the Beginning Farmer Project Team. For more information about this project or this web page, contact Jill Heemstra jheemstra@unl.edu

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Measuring Bioaerosols in Animal Agriculture

Bioaerosols are particles of biological origin that are suspended in the air. These particles can include viruses, bacteria, fungal spores, and pollen. Bioaerosols are commonplace in the air, but measuring them presents some challenges. The following materials were developed for college instructors to utilize in their classrooms when presenting about bioaerosols.

Fact Sheet

This fact sheet is 15 pages (1 MB; PDF format) and suitable for printing in color or black and white. Download a copy of the fact sheet.

  • Bioaerosol Sampling in Animal Environments, by Lingjuan Wang Li, North Carolina State University; Otto D. Simmons III, North Carolina State University; Eileen Fabian Wheeler, The Pennsylvania State University

Presentation Slides

Measuring Bioaerosols in Animal Environments

This presentation includes 91 slides (30 MB) and consists of a classroom lecure and a hands-on workshop or lab section. Download a copy of this presentation.

Acknowledgements

These materials were developed by the Air Quality Education in Animal Agriculture (AQEAA) project with with financial support from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2007-55112-17856 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For questions about the materials on this page contact Dr. Eileen Wheeler, Pennsylvania State University or the author, Dr. Lingjuan Wang-Li, North Carolina State University. For questions about the AQEAA project, contact Dr. Rick Stowell, Unviersity of Nebraska (rstowell2@unl.edu).

If you have presentations, photos, video, publications, or other instructional materials that could be added to the curricula on this page, please contact  Jill Heemstra (jheemstra@unl.edu).

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Manure Management 101 Curriculum Materials

For anyone involved in animal agriculture, manure will be an important issue. In the past few years, the perception of manure has gone from a “waste” product to a valuable fertilizer and potential source of renewable energy. These materials cover the basics of manure production, manure storage options, and manure uses.

Farmers, Ranchers, Ag Professionals

A self-study module will be released soon. This module will provide a certificate upon successful completion that can be submitted for continuing education requirements.

Teachers, Educators, Extension

Educators are welcome to use the following materials (download entire module in a single .zip file; 7 MB) in their classrooms and educational programs. Also check out more modules from this project.

Instruction Guide (Lesson Plan): includes links to additional information, connections to national agriculture education standards (AFNR Career Content Cluster Standards), application to Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects, sample quiz/review questions, and enrichment activities.

Presentation: 38 slides, Annotated, .pptx format (a preview is embedded at the bottom of the page)

Activity/Exercise: 3 exercises, docx. format Download

Preview Presentation Slides

Acknowledgements

Authors: Angie Rieck-Hintz, Iowa State University amrieck@iastate.edu

Reviewers: Rachel Klein, Iowa State University and Ann Ronning, Montana State University

Building Environmental Leaders in Animal Agriculture (BELAA) is a collaborative effort of the National Young Farmers Educational Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Montana State University. It was funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under award #2009-49400-05871. This project would not be possible without the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center the National eXtension Initiative, National Association of County Ag Agents (NACAA), National Association of Agriculture Education (NAAE), Farm Credit Services of America, American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS), and Montana FFA Association.

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Managing Manure Nutrients Curriculum Materials

Managing manure and manure nutrients is one of the most visible aspects of environmental stewardship for many farms. The materials on this page developed for use in classrooms and extension programs, and for self-study by farmer, and ag professionals.

Agriculture Professionals and Farmers

These materials were used to create a self study module which includes the option to receive a certificate upon successful completion of the quiz.

    • Manure Nutrients: Water, Regulations, and Nutrient Management Plans (NMPs) (50 minutes)

Teachers and Educators

Teachers and extension staff are welcome to download these materials and utilize them in your classroom or programs. To preview the materials before downloading, scroll below the table. View Lesson Plan.

If you utilize these materials please take 3 minutes and tell us if they are helpful. Thank you!! Go to survey…

Check out more educational modules available on livestock and poultry environmental stewardship.  These modules have been cross-referenced to the National AFNR career content cluster standards.

Lesson Plan

Clicking a link in this column will download all files in that section/row as a .zip file, except where noted.

 Download individual items using links in these columns
Fact
Sheet*		 Video(s)
.mp4		 Jeopardy
game
.ppt		 Review
Q&A
.docx
1. Nutrient Management Planning
(6 files; 22MB)		 PDF DOCx

Nutrient plan (2MB) Manure plan (18MB)

 Nutrient
planning		 17 questions
2. Nutrient Regulations
(5 files; 12MB)		 PDF DOCx Regulations (10MB) Regs &
Water
Quality		 8 questions
3. Water Quality & Nutrients
(5 files; 26MB)		 PDF DOCx  Water (24MB) 11 questions
4. Manure Storage, Agitation & Handling
(5 files; 26MB)		 PDF DOCx Storage (24MB) Storage &
Safety		 10 questions
5. Safety (Manure Gases)
(5 files; 65MB)		 PDF DOCx Gases (MB) 17 questions
6. Liquid and Solid Manure Application
(7 files; 65 MB)
Note: due to size, the “Surface Application” video is not in the ZIP file and needs to be downloaded separately.		 PDF DOCx Surface Application (47MB) Liquid Manure (23MB) GPS (20MB) N Stabilizers (19MB) Application 10 questions
7. Spreader Calibration
(3 files; 27MB)		 PDF Calibration (27MB) n/a 2 questions
8. Spill Response
(5 file; 26MB)		 PDF DOCx Spills (23MB) Spills & Public Relations 10 questions
9. Public Relations
(4 file; 20MB)		 PDF DOCx Public Image (16MB) n/a

*Use the .pdf format if you wish to print the fact sheets and use as-is. Use the .docx format if you want to edit the fact sheet.

Preview 1-3: Nutrient Management Planning, Regulations, Water Quality

Note: the activity preview only shows four (of 52) slides. The links (blue text) do not function in this preview, but they will work when you download the .ppt version.

For Additional Information

Preview 4-6: Manure Storage, Safety, Manure Application

For Additional Information

Preview Sections 7-9

For Additional Information

Acknowledgements

Authors:

    • Jerry Clark, Jerome.Clark@wisc.edu, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Extension, Chippewa and Eau Claire Counties
    • Carl Duley, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Extension, Buffalo County, Carl.Duley@wisc.edu
    • Ted Bay, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Extension, Grant County
    • Dave Lucinani, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Extension, dluciani@wisc.edu

Reviewers: USDA NRCS staff

Building Environmental Leaders in Animal Agriculture (BELAA) is a collaborative effort of the National Young Farmers Educational Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Montana State University. It was funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under award #2009-49400-05871. This project would not be possible without the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center the National eXtension Initiative, National Association of County Ag Agents (NACAA), National Association of Agriculture Education (NAAE), Farm Credit Services of America, American Registry of Professional Animal Scientists (ARPAS), and Montana FFA Association.

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Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture Curriculum Materials

Greenhouse gases and their contributions to climate change are some of the most studied topics in animal agriculture right now. What greenhouse gases are emitted by agriculture? How much is emitted in comparison to other industries?

Farmers, Ranchers, and Ag Professionals

Check out the self-study module “Greenhouse Gases and Agriculture“. When completed, you can receive a certificate or submit your completion for continuing education credits.

Teachers, Extension

The following materials were developed for teachers and educators to use in their classrooms and programs. The target age range is high school, jr. college and beginning farmer groups.

  • Instruction Guide (Lesson Plan): Includes links to additional information, connections to national agriculture education standards (AFNR Career Content Cluster Standards), application to Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects, activity and science fair ideas, sample quiz/review questions, and enrichment activities. PDF format (0.5 MB; best if you want to use it as-is) | RTF format (60 MB; best if you want to modify the file)
  • Presentation – 33 slides, Powerpoint 97-2003 format. Annotated. Preview in Slideshare | Download (14 MB)

Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture

View more presentations from LPELC

Acknowledgements

Author: Jill Heemstra, University of Nebraska

Reviewers: Crystal Powers, University of Nebraska; David Schmidt, University of Minnesota; Liz Whitefield, Washington State University

Building Environmental Leaders in Animal Agriculture (BELAA) is a collaborative effort of the National Young Farmers Educational Association, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Montana State University. It was funded by the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under award #2009-49400-05871. This project would not be possible without the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center and the National eXtension Initiative.

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Cayuga County Manure Digester Virtual Tour

Anaerobic digestion is a manure treatment system that produces biogas. There are many benefits of digestion such as reductions in: odor, pathogens, and greenhouse gases (climate change). Producing biogas from manure yields useful by-products.  The economics of digestion are dependent on state energy policies and co-digestion of off-farm wastes to generate revenue.

Cayuga County Regional Digester (New York)

This virtual tour highlights the Cayuga County Soil & Water Conservation District regional digester. This facility receives manure from multiple dairy farms. The regional digester model allows smaller farms (not large enough to build their own digester) or large farms unwilling to take on the complex management of a digester to participate.sign

For more information: Cornell case study (technical details) | NRCS Newsletter (construction photos and funding information)

  • Type of digester: Pressure differential (hydraulic mix)
  • Facility began operation: March, 2012
  • Feedstocks: dairy manure, food wastes, brown fat

How Does This Anaerobic Digester Work?

The hydraulic mix or pressure differential digester type is common in Europe, but is unique in the United States. The video below explains how the material moves through the digester.

Step By Step Through The Facility

Even though we refer to this facility as an “anaerobic digester” there are actually many pieces required to make this system work. The digester is one part. The presentation below works through the entire facility.

Virtual Tour Cayuga County Anaerobic Digester on Prezi

barn

The digester tank (photo above: left) has a capacity of one million gallons. It is estimated that 40-43,000 gallons will be added to the digester per day when it reaches full production capacity. The trucks carrying raw (undigested) manure from the farms enter on the right side of the building (photo above:right) and the manure is pumped into a holding tank (not visible in photo) and mixed with food waste.

To see the captions in the slideshow, select “full screen” (lower right side of the slide) and then click on show info (upper right corner). You can also visit this photo set at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/manure/sets/72157629690139615/

In the News

This digester has been in the news as the price of power has dropped and the financial side of the operation less viable.

  • Digester is shut down to re-evaluate business plan (Jan. 2015) More…
  • California company to take over Cayuga digester (June, 2015) More…

Recommended Reading on Anaerobic Digestion

Acknowledgements:

Author: Jill Heemstra, University of Nebraska Extension
Reviewers: Thomas Bass, Montana State University, David Schmidt, University of Minnesota and Liz Whitefield, Washington State University

A big thank you goes to the Cornell University dairy manure management team for organizing the 2012 “Got Manure?” conference that included a real life tour on which we were able to obtain the media for this virtual tour.

This virtual tour was created by the LPELC Beginning Farmer team through funding from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program under award #2009-49400-05871

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Animal Diet and Feed Management for Reducing Air Emissions

Air emissions from animal agriculture operations and manure storage include gases and particulate matter (dust). The amounts and types of gases can be affected by many different factors, including animal diet. Altering animal diets to reduce the levels of air emissions can be done by finding ways to more closely match animal needs with nutrients available in their diet.

The materials on this page were developed to assist educators and professors who include animal diet, feed management and air emissions topics in their classrooms or educational programs.

Fact Sheet

Scott Carter, Oklahoma State University; Al Sutton, Purdue (retired); Rose Stenglein, University of Minnesota

Archived Webinar

This archive includes embedded videos 10 to 14 minutes in length. Topics include: beef cattle, reducing nitrogen excretion, dairy cattle, and swine. Links are included to download the individual videos and PDF versions of the presentation slides.

Additional Information

You may also be interested in visiting the LPELC Feed Management section for short articles (use the printer-friendly link to create handouts), archived webinars, and a series of dairy fact sheets. Most of these resources are focused on nutrient management with less emphasis on air emissions.

Acknowledgements

These materials were developed by the Air Quality Education in Animal Agriculture (AQEAA) project with financial support from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2007-55112-17856 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For questions about the materials on this page contact Dr. Kevin Janni, University of Minnesota (kjanni@umn.edu). For questions about the AQEAA project, contact Dr. Rick Stowell, Unviersity of Nebraska (rstowell2@unl.edu).

If you have presentations, photos, video, publications, or other instructional materials that could be added to the curricula on this page, please contact Dr. Janni or Jill Heemstra (jheemstra@unl.edu).

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Ammonia Emissions from Animal Agriculture: An Introduction

Air emissions from animal agriculture operations consist of many different gases as well as suspended particulates (dust or microbes). One of these gases, ammonia, is gaining greater attention for its role in odor, but also as a precursor of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). PM 2.5 has implications in haze and visibility as well as human health. The materials on this page were developed to assist educators and professors who include an introduction to include ammonia emissions as a topic in their classrooms or programs.

 Fact Sheets

Alternate download: Ammonia from Cattle Operations part 1 (Introduction) and part 2 (abatement) combined in a single document (17 pages; PDF format)

Videos

Ammonia Deposition Alpine Ecosystems


A look at the growing concern about the impacts of ammonia deposition in Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Ammonia Emissions

Rick Todd, USDA ARS (10 minutes)

Presentation Slides

Acknowledgements

These materials were developed by the Air Quality Education in Animal Agriculture (AQEAA) project with with financial support from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2007-55112-17856 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For questions about the materials on this page contact Dr. Ron Sheffield, Louisiana State University Ag Center. For questions about the AQEAA project, contact Dr. Rick Stowell, University of Nebraska (rstowell2@unl.edu).

If you need to download a copy of a segment, submit a request.

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Photo (right): Ammonia is a precursor to fine particulate matter (also known as PM 2.5) which can lead to hazy conditions. These conditions are becoming a more common occurrence for visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Mitigating Ammonia Emissions from Animal Agriculture

Air emissions from animal agriculture operations consist of many different gases as well as suspended particulates (dust or microbes). One of these gases, ammonia, is gaining greater attention for its role in odor, but also as a precursor of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). PM 2.5 has implications in haze and visibility as well as human health.

The materials on this page were developed to be used by educators and professors who include this topic in their classrooms or educational programs.

Fact Sheet

Sharon L. P. Sakirkin, Texas AgriLife Research; N. Andy Cole and Richard W. Todd, USDA-Agricultural Research Service; Brent W. Auvermann, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas AgriLife Research

Alternate download: Ammonia from Cattle Operations part 1 (Introduction) and part 2 (abatement) combined in a single document (17 pages; PDF format)

Videos

Reducing Ammonia Emissions from Cattle Feedyards (5 min)

Andy Cole, USDA ARS

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Mitigation of Nitrogen Excretion Through Dietary Manipulations

Mark Hanigan, Virginia Tech (14 minutes)

Note: the pixelation present at the start cleans up at the 2:00 minute mark

Presentation Slides

Archived Webinar

This webinar contains four individual video segments (ranging from 10 to 27 minutes) that discuss current and future mitigation options for reducing ammonia emissions from poultry litter. Presenters are: Eileen Wheeler, Pennsylvania State University; Hongwei Xin, Iowa State University; and Robert Burns, University of Tennessee. The archive also includes handouts and links to additional information. If you have difficulties please see our webcast troubleshooting page. If you need to download a copy of a segment, submit a request.

Acknowledgements

These materials were developed by the Air Quality Education in Animal Agriculture (AQEAA) project with with financial support from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2007-55112-17856 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For questions about the materials on this page contact Dr. Kevin Janni, University of Minnesota (kjanni@umn.edu). For questions about the AQEAA project, contact Dr. Rick Stowell, Unviersity of Nebraska (rstowell2@unl.edu).

If you have presentations, photos, video, publications, or other instructional materials that could be added to the curricula on this page, please contact Dr. Janni or Jill Heemstra (jheemstra@unl.edu).

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Airborne Emissions in Animal Agriculture

Air emissions from animal agriculture operations and manure storage include gases and particulate matter (dust). Some of these are potentially hazardous (hydrogen sulfide and ammonia). Others are scrutinized because they are greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) and others because they are odorous. All in all, hundreds of gases can be emitted from manure and animal housing.

The materials on this page were developed to assist educators and professors who include an introduction to airborne emissions and their management as a topic in their classrooms or educational programs.

Fact Sheet

Neslihan Akdeniz and Kevin Janni, University of Minnesota; Wendy Powers, Michigan State University

Acknowledgements

These materials were developed by the Air Quality Education in Animal Agriculture (AQEAA) project with financial support from the National Research Initiative Competitive Grant 2007-55112-17856 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

For questions about the materials on this page contact Dr. Kevin Janni, University of Minnesota (kjanni@umn.edu). For questions about the AQEAA project, contact Dr. Rick Stowell, Unviersity of Nebraska (rstowell2@unl.edu).

If you have presentations, photos, video, publications, or other instructional materials that could be added to the curricula on this page, please contact Dr. Janni or Jill Heemstra (jheemstra@unl.edu).

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