Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community
Connecting agri-professionals advancing environmental stewardship in animal agriculture
Composting livestock and poultry carcasses is becoming a more common way to manage mortalities. There are several reasons for this.
Composting is relatively inexpensive when low cost carbon materials are utilized. The high temperatures generated during composting create a very biosecure process which eliminates pathogens and reduces disease transmission when properly managed. …
Research studies have been done to correlate the temperature of a compost pile containing livestock or poultry carcasses and the amount of pathogen kill achieved at those temperatures. How do you take the temperature of a compost pile? And how does that temperature correlate to pathogen reduction?…
Most bones break down when composting animal carcasses, but a few large bones will usually remain.
With proper composting, the bones will break down over time. This may take several months for larger livestock bones and as little as 60 days for smaller carcasses such as poultry. If large bones remain in the compost pile, they can be added to additional compost piles until completely degraded.…
There are many options available for disposing of livestock and poultry carcasses. Rendering is an option in areas where the service is offered, but has some limitations on the type of animals they will pick up.
Check out the other video FAQs on carcass management.
Author: Joshua Payne, Oklahoma State University
Reviewers: Shafiqur Rahman, North Dakota State University and Jean Bonhotal, Cornell University
…
For active decomposition of animal carcasses, compost microorganisms require a source of nitrogen (N) (dead livestock or birds), carbon (C) (straw, corn stalks, shavings, litter, etc.), oxygen, water and elevated temperatures. An ideal C:N ratio should fall between 15:1 to 35:1. Oxygen (air) can be introduced when turning the compost.…
One of the easiest air emissions to recognize from livestock and poultry farms is odor. It is also the most complex to characterize and study. Odors are a combination of hundreds of different emissions. Each person who smells odor interprets it differently than another person as well. With all of these variables, how can we communicate the issue of odor to students and ag professionals?…
Air quality concerns related to animal agriculture include ammonia. One area that this has become apparent is Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The park appears majestic and pristine. But is everything really in harmony?
Ammonia, which is a basic atmospheric gas emitted from livestock and other farms, combines with nitrogen oxides from cars and other combustion sources to create nitrogen particles which deposit in the park.…
Design of manure storage and treatment facilities requires an understanding of the operations involved in food animal production and engineering design principles. It also requires access to manure production data, climate data, as well as reporting and presentation software to put it all together.…