Annual/Termination Reports:

[07/20/2019] [07/10/2020] [07/25/2021] [06/30/2022]

Report Information

Participants

Daniel Andersen Iowa Iowa State University
Lide Chen Idaho University of Idaho
John Classen North Carolina North Caroline State University
Erin Cortus Minnesota University of Minnesota
Amor Ines Michigan Michigan State University
Kevin Janni Minnesota University of Minnesota
Edward Kick North Carolina North Caroline State University
Jacek Koziel Iowa Iowa State University
Rebecca Larson Wisconsin University of Wisconsin
Teng Lim Missouri University of Missouri
Zong Liu Texas Texas Agrilife Research
Deanne Meyer California University of California Davis
Jactone Ogejo Virginia Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Shafiqur Rahman North Dakota North Dakota State University
Luis Rodriguez Illinois University of Illinois
Steven Safferman Michigan Michigan State University
Dan Steward Illinois University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign
Xinlei Wang Illinois University of Illinois
Ruihong Zhang California University of California Davis
Lingying Zhao Ohio Ohio State University
Jun Zhu Arkansas University of Arkansas
Ken Casey Texas Texas Agrilife Research
Kristen Foster Reed New York Cornell University
Amy Schmidt Nebraska University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Kevin Wagner Oklahoma Oklahoma State University
Wendy Powers California
Ron Lacewell Texas
Charlotte Baer USDA NIFA

Participants Not Registered in NIMSS
Rick Koelsch Nebraska University of Nebraska Lincoln
Anna-Maria Marshall Illinois University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
April Leytem Idaho USDA-ARS
Jovana Vukovic Florida Broward College
Quirine Ketterings New York Cornell
Mart Ros New York Cornell
Al Heber Indiana Purdue University
Jiqin Ni Indiana Purdue University
Zifei Liu Kansas Kansas State University

Brief Summary of Minutes

The 2019 S1074 Annual Meeting was held at the Big Ten Conference Center, 5440 Park Place, Rosemount, IL, May 21-22, 2019. The annual meeting theme was nutrient imbalance.

• The meeting was chaired by Kevin Janni, S1074 vice-chair. Fifteen project members attended the meeting. Project officers for 2019-2020 will be: Kevin Janni, Chair; Lide Chen, Vice chair; Zong Liu, Secretary; and Zifei Liu, Past chair. Their terms begin October 1, 2019. Plans for the annual report and future webinars and possible locations for 2020 S1074 annual meeting were discussed. Zifei Liu volunteered to lead the effort to develop a conference proposal targeting 2020.


• Wendy Powers provided guidance on the annual report and informed us about plans of relocating USDA headquarters and employees, potential NIFA program matching funds policies, and healthy multi-state hatch projects.


• Attendees introduced their research related to this project.


• Erin Cortus and Kevin Janni led an activity to develop draft scenarios for realizing nutrient balance for a cycle that included a feed source, animal production, manure, and soil. Four groups discussed and described nutrient sources and inputs, losses by leaching, air emissions or erosion, accumulation over time and linkages or rare limiting processes. Four groups reported their discussions back to the meeting attendees. The attendees were asked to identify past or existing technologies, practices and policies that are contributing to nutrient imbalance problems. The attendees were also asked to propose ideas to accomplish nutrient balance throughout the cycle.


• Erin Cortus led the committee as a whole in a discussion to identify next steps and important challenges to address nutrient imbalance. The committee plans are to (1) 2019/2020-Define what the committee means by a nutrient balance considering different scales and identify a threshold for action when an area is out of balance; (2) 2020/2021-Identify solutions to address nutrient imbalances.


• Kevin Janni agreed to organize an online meeting to work on skeletal outlines drafted by Becky Larson and John Classen.


• John Classen led a mini workshop based on INFEWS-ER learning modules. The INFEWS-ER project was funded by NSF and a number of S1074 committee members are on the project. During the mini workshop time, attendees worked on a worksheet entitled “Stakeholder Analysis Matrix Template”, discussed a “Community Capitals Framework Model”, “Communicating Science”, and “Communication plans”. Alison Deviney presented “Graphical Abstracts”.


• S1074 is planning to hold four webinars. The proposed dates are: the 3rd Friday of September, November, February and April. The dates are: September 20, 2019; November 15, 2019, February 21, 2020 and April 17, 2020. The times will be: 11 am Eastern time, 10 am Central time, 9 am Mountain time and 8 am Pacific time.


• Topics and ideas for more investigation and Tasks for 2019-2020 were discussed. The plan is to continue work on Nutrient Imbalance. The group also agreed to support the Livestock in Community INFEWS-ER cohort activity for the 2019-2020. This effort will help identify needs under the Next Generation Livestock Housing Issue Topic in the S1074 project proposal.

 

Accomplishments

<p><strong>S1074 Committee Accomplishments for this reporting period include</strong>:</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ol><br /> <li>An S1074 shared drive was created for sharing information.</li><br /> <li>Nutrient Imbalance was identified as the first topic issue the group will focus on in 2018-2019.</li><br /> <li>S1074 organized a webinar by Dr. April Leytem from USDA ARS in Kimberly Idaho. Dr. Leytem presented her work related to Nutrient Imbalance. Online poll questions asked webinar participants if there were nutrient imbalances at four levels (i.e., individual farms, counties, state, and multi-state region). Poll results indicated that 83%, 77%, 53%, and 69% respondents indicated that there were nutrient imbalances at individual farms level, county level, state level, and multi-state region level, respectively. Webinar participants answered a question about their interest in nutrient imbalance and a nutrient imbalance issue team. The results were: 8% were interested in some leadership of the group; 75% were interested in active participation; 8% wanted to be kept me informed; and 8% had little or no interest.</li><br /> <li>S1074 organized a webinar by Dr. Quirine Ketterings, Cornell University. Dr. Ketterings presented her work on &ldquo;Cornell&rsquo;s Experiences with Application of Whole Farm Nutrient Balance Assessments on New York Dairies&rdquo;.</li><br /> <li>S1074 had a fruitful annual face-to-face meeting. Next steps and challenges related to nutrient imbalances were identified. Topics and ideas for further investigation and tasks for the next year were discussed (refer to summary of 2019 S1074 annual meeting minutes above).</li><br /> </ol><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p><strong>Collective and multi-state accomplishments by project objectives:</strong></p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>Objective 1. Create networks and engage network participants</p><br /> <ol><br /> <li>Several S1074 members participate in a multi-institutional National Science Foundation project to develop the Innovations at the Nexus of Food Energy and Water Systems &ndash; Educational Resources (INFEWS-ER): A Virtual Resource Center for Transdisciplinary Graduate Student Training at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water. The Virtual Resource Center for INFEWS-ER has developed unique learning resources for graduate students wanting to develop their transdisciplinary skill set.<br /> <ol><br /> <li>The project produced learning experiences to develop critical soft skills supporting transdisciplinary competencies. The INFEWS-ER &ldquo;Toolbox Modules&rdquo; enhance the performance of transdisciplinary collaborators.</li><br /> <li>Two graduate student cohorts of approximately 5&ndash;10 graduate students were recruited from different disciplines and institutions to complete a 3 credit hour course in a semester based system for 1 to 2 semesters. The cohorts under the guidance of mentors work collaboratively on &ldquo;wicked problems (Levin et al., 2012). Each cohort identified a specific challenge and student product that would result from their experience. The students&rsquo; products resulting from the first two cohort challenges were presented at the spring 2019 INFEWS-ER Symposium.</li><br /> </ol><br /> </li><br /> <li>Several S1074 members are active in the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community (LPELC), an eXtension learning network. LPELC includes Extension specialists and professionals across multiple universities that maintain and develop new materials for the LPELC website and their programs.</li><br /> <li>Several S1074 members lead and participate in i(AM)Responsible: A Nationwide Network for Engaging Consumers and Agricultural Producers in Addressing Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) The nationwide multi-disciplinary team of research and extension professionals with expertise in livestock production, veterinary medicine, food safety, communication strategies and environmental management has the capacity to design and deliver nationwide extension programming focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The principal activities of the project to date have involved curating, translating and disseminating agricultural, environmental, and food safety-related AMR research outcomes via social media and short extension articles for blog and print outlets.</li><br /> <li>Several S1074 members organized and participated in Waste to Worth 2019 which was held in Minneapolis, MN, April 22-26, 2019. Waste to Worth is a biennial conference that highlights science and innovative outreach geared toward animal agriculture and the environment. The 150 participants represented University and/or Extension (40%), USDA agency staff (24%), Regulatory agency staff (9%), Farmers/Ranchers (6%), Agribusiness (6%) and others. Conference participants came from a broad set of backgrounds in animal science, soil science, agricultural engineering, microbiology and agronomy. The conference&rsquo;s opening session focused on animal livestock sustainability.</li><br /> <li>Some S1074 members have collaborated with colleagues at Washington State University, USDA ARS, Utah State University, Oregon State University, Montana State University to organize a regional conference focusing on Nutrient Recycling and Food Safety in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest which will be held in October 2020 in Boise, Idaho.</li><br /> </ol><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>Objective 2. Collate metrics and tools to evaluate sustainable animal systems</p><br /> <ol><br /> <li>Some S1074 members are leading and participating in a pilot-project underway to evaluate &ldquo;Environmental Footprints for Regional Swine Production Systems Now and in the Future&rdquo;. Faculty at the University of Minnesota and University of Nebraska are: 1) Engaging regional producers in Environmental Footprint calculations; 2) Measuring the change in knowledge, interest and trust in environmental sustainability and related metrics following engagement with local educators; and 3) Evaluating strategies that have potential to help local producers reach sustainability metric goals.</li><br /> <li>Some S1074 members are leading and participating in a multi-state collaborative effort between University of Minnesota, South Dakota State University, North Dakota State University and several USDA-ARS stations to examine the linkages between beef cattle production and corn production in the Northern Great Plains. The team is comparing and integrating the barn and land application data to the Integrated Farm System Model (Rotz et al. 2016), to provide a broader platform for decision making that incorporates nutrient cycling, economics and crop and animal production.</li><br /> </ol><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>Objective 3. Address knowledge gaps and potential solutions</p><br /> <p>Several S1074 members and their colleagues are conducting research to address knowledge gaps or potential solutions that will inform the committee&rsquo;s work on nutrient imbalances for diverse animal agricultural systems and situations that can impact nutrient management.</p><br /> <ol><br /> <li>Researchers in Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, Ohio, and Colorado collaborated on an integrated USDA-NIFA project: Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology.</li><br /> <li>Faculty from Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, Maryland, and agency personnel collaborated to form an expert panel, for producing recommendation and report on &ldquo;Livestock and Poultry Mortality Management Best Management Practices&rdquo;. The project was funded by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP).</li><br /> <li>Research has been done to develop advanced liquid anaerobic digestion systems for dry poultry litter treatment with valorization. New information on the optimal total solids level for digestion was obtained.</li><br /> <li>Liquid manure solid/nutrient separation is an important manure management process and. Tests on flushing liquid dairy manure solid and nutrient distributions were conducted. The data was incorporated to extension materials and presented at several conferences and producer workshops.</li><br /> <li>Research on the transport of soluble phosphorus was done to produce an index that provides guidance on the use of manure and fertilizers that maximizes beneficial plant uptake and minimizes environmental risk. The research included examining the extent and impact of macropores in different soil types, soluble phosphorus leaching from the freeze/thaw of cover crops, impact of manure application timing on soluble phosphorus release, and computational modeling of the fate of nutrients applied to crop soil.</li><br /> <li>Research was done using nanoparticles (nZnO and nAg) to determine their effectiveness in mitigating gaseous emissions and total gas production. The nanoparticles tested in this study reduced the cumulative gas volume by 16 to 79% compared to the control. Only nZnO consistently reduced GHG concentrations by 37 to 97%. Reductions in H2S concentrations ranged from 87 to 97%.</li><br /> <li>Research was done that demonstrated that manure pellets could provide nutrients to crops as a slow-release fertilizer. This strategy could improve the flexibility in applying animal manure where needed, restoring the animal-crop production integration while improving crop productivity, environmental stewardship, and farm profitability.</li><br /> <li>Research was done on emissions of greenhouse gases, particularly nitrous oxide, from manure management systems at beef cattle feed yards. The results are being incorporated into analytical tools that produce a better inventory of total and seasonal emissions together and identification of potential mitigation approaches.</li><br /> <li>Work was done with county based dairy extension agents to identify education topics of interest to stakeholders around the dairy community centered on management of manure and other agricultural waste.</li><br /> <li>Research was done to monitor and collect environmental (local weather) data that impacts management of manure nitrogen on farms to better inform recommendations made to producers to manage to manage manure efficiently.</li><br /> <li>Research is being done to decipher producer perceptions on manure technology use and adoption on farms with a use improved and efficient manure management practices that conserve or minimizes manure nitrogen loss post excretion before use as fertilizer.</li><br /> </ol>

Publications

<p>Lin, H., S. Wu, J. Zhu. 2018. Modeling power generation and energy efficiencies in air-cathode microbial fuel cells based on Freter equations. Applied Science 8(10):1983.</p><br /> <p>Shen, J., J. Zhu. 2018. Kinetics of poultry litter in a leach bed reactor with agitation based on two mechanisms: enzymatic hydrolysis and direct solubilization. Biochemical Engineering Journal 135 (15): 115-122.</p><br /> <p>Wu, S., L. Chen, J. Zhu, M. Walquist, D. Christian. 2018. Pre-digestion to enhance volatile fatty acids (VFAs) concentration as a carbon source for denitrification in treatment of liquid swine manure. J. Environ. Sci. Health Part A 53(10): 891-898.</p><br /> <p>Lin, X, Z. Han, H. Yu, Z. Ye, S. Zhu, J. Zhu. 2018. Struvite precipitation from biogas digestion slurry using a two-chamber electrolysis cell with a magnesium anode. Journal of Cleaner Production 174: 1598-1607.</p><br /> <p>Niraula, S., Rahman, S., Chatterjee, A., Cortus, E. L., Mehata, M.*, &amp; Spiehs, M. J. (2019). Beef Manure and Urea Applied to Corn Show Variable Effects on Nitrous Oxide, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, and Ammonia. Agronomy Journal, 111(3), 1448. doi: 10.2134/agronj2018.08.0547 <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/agronj2018.08.0547">doi: 10.2134/agronj2018.08.0547</a></p><br /> <p>Cortus, E. L., B. Kasu, J. Jacquet, N. Embertson, A. M. Schmidt, T. T. Lim, and J. Heemstra. 2018. Relevant information sources in the vast and complex manure nutrient management network. Journal of Extension. 56(3): Feature 3FEA6</p><br /> <p>Nogueira, R. G. S., Lim, T. T., Perna Junior, F., &amp; Rodrigues, P. H. M. (In-press). Performance, microbial community analysis and fertilizer value of anaerobic co-digestion of cattle manure with waste kitchen oil. Transactions of ASABE.</p><br /> <p>Powers, C., R. Stowell, J. Heemstra, J. Harrison, E. Whitefield, D. Smith, S. Mukhtar, J. Risse, P. Knox, G. Hawkins, C. Gooch, J. Pronto, D. Schmidt, and L, Jacobson.&nbsp; 2018.&nbsp; Building capacity to address animal agriculture in a changing climate.&nbsp; J. of Extension 56(1): Article # 1FEA8.</p><br /> <p>Bulet, E., D. Baral, X. Li, G. Erickson, A. Schmidt, J. Schmidt and B. Wang. 2019. Fate of antibiotic resistance in the environment: From beef cattle production through manure storage and land application. Proceedings of the 2019 Annual Meeting of International Association for Food Protection, Louisville, KY, July 21-24, 2019.</p><br /> <p>Rodr&iacute;guez, L., Marshall, A.-M., Cotton, D., Koelsch, R., Koziel, J.A., Meyer, D., Steward, D., Heemstra, J., Padmanabahn, A., Classen, J., Meyer, N.J., Ruddell, B., Ryan, S.M., Cai, X., Habib, E., &amp; Saundry P.D. (2019). The development of the INFEWS-ER: a virtual resource center for transdisciplinary graduate student training at the nexus of food, energy, and water. Frontiers in Environmental Science, doi: <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.frontiersin.org_articles_10.3389_fenvs.2019.00038_abstract&amp;d=DwMFAw&amp;c=Cu5g146wZdoqVuKpTNsYHeFX_rg6kWhlkLF8Eft-wwo&amp;r=LPn0lt8cx6s6AVDZFJ1qAnuMibZR2fprKZ1iOIspEpI&amp;m=ib6pJtPuFzOT6Q5HEH7-RCwSqq49K6DNHaLIoEpbfTk&amp;s=GDWDubBIZdjU9tWaoFqfCvTnyWpZhQqe3D4vQeIqYNY&amp;e=">10.3389/fenvs.2019.00038</a>.</p><br /> <p>Sarker, N. C., Md. Borhan, A. Fortuna, and S. Rahman. 2019. Understanding gaseous reduction mechanisms in swine manure resulting from nanoparticle treatments under anaerobic storage conditions, Journal of Environmental Sciences. 82: 179-191</p><br /> <p>Sarker, N. C., S. Rahman, Md. Borhan, P. Rajasekaran, S. Santra, and A.Ozcan. 2019. Nanoparticles in mitigating gaseous emissions from liquid dairy manure stored under anaerobic condition, Journal of Environmental Sciences, 76: 26-36.</p><br /> <p>Sarker, N. C., F. Keomanivong, Md. Borhan, S. Rahman, and K. Swanson. 2018. In vitro evaluation of alfalfa and maize silage with nano zinc oxide (nZnO) in mitigating enteric gaseous emissions, Journal of Animal Science and Technology, 60:27.</p><br /> <p>Liu, Z. and X. Wang. Manure Treatment and Utilization in Production Systems. Animal Agriculture 1st Edition, Sustainability, Challenges and Innovations. Elsevier, 2019. In press.</p><br /> <p>Han, S., S.C. Long, T. Runge, C. Dong, and Z. Liu. Impact of Dairy Manure Processing Using Polyacrylamide on Antibiotic-Resistant Bacterial Level. Water, Air, &amp; Soil Pollution, 2019. 230(3): 58.</p><br /> <p>Han, S., Y. Huang, and Z. Liu. Bacterial indicator reduction in dairy manure using hybrid zero-valent iron (h-ZVI) system. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2019. 26(11): 10790-10799.</p><br /> <p>Liu, Z., J. Howe, X. Wang, X. Liang, and T. Runge. Use of dry dairy manure pellets as nutrient source for tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) growth in soilless media. Sustainability, 2019. 11(3): 811.</p><br /> <p>McDonald, M. D., K. L. Lewis, G. L. Ritchie, P. B. DeLaune, K. D. Casey, and L. C. Slaughter. 2019. Carbon dioxide mitigation potential of conservation agriculture in a semi-arid agriculture region. AIMS Agriculture and Food. 4(1): 206-222. http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/agrfood.2019.1.206</p><br /> <p>Parker D. B., H. M. Waldrip, K. D. Casey, B. L. Woodbury, M. J. Spiehs, K. Webb and W. M. Willis. 2018. How do temperature and rainfall affect nitrous oxide emissions from open-lot beef cattle feedyard pens? Transactions of the ASABE 61(3): 1049-1061. http://dx.doi.org/10.13031/trans.12788</p><br /> <p>Parker, D. B., B. Meyer, T. Jennings, J. Jennings, N. A. Cole, and K. D. Casey. 2018. Enteric nitrous oxide emissions from beef cattle. The Professional Animal Scientist 34(6): 594-607. http://dx.doi.org/10.15232/pas.2018-01769</p><br /> <p>Sharma, S., N., Rajan, S. Cui, S. J. Maas, K. D. Casey, S. Ale, and R. Jessup. 2019. Carbon and evapotranspiration dynamics of a non-native perennial grass with biofuel potential in the Southern U.S. Great Plains. Agricultural and Forestry Meteorology. 269-270: 285-295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.01.037</p><br /> <p>Wang, L., L. Chen, S. Wu, and J. Ye. 2019. Non-airtight fermentation of sugar beet pulp with anaerobically digested dairy manure to provide acid-rich hydrolysate for mixotrophic microaogae cultivation. Bioresource Technology 278 (2019) 175-179. (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2019.01.075">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2019.01.075</a>)</p>

Impact Statements

1. 3) The 2019 Waste to Worth conference produced meaningful collaborations among participants that transcended discipline and stakeholder boundaries. All participants left the conference with at least one potential future collaborator, 48% left with three to four, and 22% left with five or more, based on a survey at the conclusion of the conference. Over 94% of participants were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the quality of information and science shared at the conference. The 2019 Waste to Worth conference information and research will feed into the data, tools and communication methods used to evaluate and discuss animal protein supply chain sustainability efforts and metrics.

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Report Information

Participants

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

<p><strong>S-1074 Webinar Summaries for 2019-2020</strong></p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>S-1074 organized four online webinars during the past year. The three research webinars were recorded. Links to the recordings are available in the S-1074 shared drive.</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>The first webinar was held September 20, 2019. Dr. Dan Anderson with Iowa State University presented his work on &ldquo;A methodology for county level manure budgets in Iowa&rdquo;. The method was used to assess whether livestock manure nutrients generated balanced crop nutrient needs at county levels in Iowa from 1974 to 2017.</li><br /> <li>The second webinar was on November 15, 2019. Dr. Mahmoud Sharara with North Carolina State University talked about his work on &ldquo;Watershed Nutrient Budgets: Approaches and end-goals.&rdquo; The approach was used in Wisconsin to analyze a watershed with excess phosphorus and identify technologies to export excess nutrients. Dr. Sharara concluded that geospatial datasets can be used to develop nutrient budgets and balances for watersheds and that these budgets can be used in other watershed models. Also, there are data availability and messaging challenges.</li><br /> <li>A third webinar was presented by a graduate student cohort with students from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Carolina who were participating in an INFEWS-er Cohort Challenge in which S-1074 members participate. The cohort challenge was to explore food animal production and local community relationships. The cohort used information from South Dakota counties as case studies to examine past and present economic, social and regulatory patterns that influence changes in livestock production at the local level. The students shared their approach and findings to date, and opened a discussion on translating the approach to other states. The cohort advisors and S-1074 members were: Erin Cortus, John Classen, Allison Deviney, and Jacek Koziel.</li><br /> <li>The fourth and final webinar was on April 17, 2020. Dr. Al Rotz with USDA ARS presented his work &ldquo;Evaluating the Sustainability of Animal Production Systems.&rdquo; His results indicated that greenhouse gas emissions from cattle are a relatively low contributor to long-term global warming; and energy consumption in livestock production is not a major impact even though conservation is still important. Reactive nitrogen (ammonia) emissions from cattle and other livestock are a concern because that are significant contributors on a national basis. And water consumption is a major concern; especially in western regions.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;<strong>Collective and multi-state accomplishments:</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>&nbsp;In Arkansas state, research was conducted to pave the way for developing advanced liquid anaerobic digestion systems to treat dry poultry litter treatment for value-added byproducts and nutrient management. Parameters studied included total solids level, ammonia effect, pH, and carbon/nitrogen ratios to explore the optimal operating conditions for the anaerobic digestion process. In addition, digestion of swine manure with brewery wastewater to produce concomitantly produce hydrogen and methane was also studied using an integrated, two-phase system with different organic loading rates (OLR) under mesophilic conditions. The two-phase system removed 75.54 &plusmn; 0.19% of COD from the influent. Besides, research on nitrogen removal from poultry litter using anammox was also planned and experiments will be conducted in the coming year.</li><br /> <li>Evaluation of solid/nutrient separation efficiencies of centrifuges and screens was conducted by Idaho state researchers. This test data is incorporated into extension materials and presentations. They have also collaborated with colleagues at Washington State University, USDA ARS, Utah State University, Oregon State University, Montana State University to organize a regional conference focusing on Nutrient Recycling and Food Safety in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest which will be held during October 27-29, 2020 in Boise, Idaho.</li><br /> <li>In order to advance solutions which significantly contribute to sustainable animal protein systems and food security, our members in Oklahoma have launched an assessment of new virtual fencing technology at OSU&rsquo;s Bluestem Ranch. Much of 2019 involved negotiating a contract with a U.S. startup company based in California to test and evaluate their system. The system was installed in February 2020 and since then we have conducted numerous experiments to evaluate virtual fencing&rsquo;s utility for implementing rotational grazing systems and buffers to protect riparian and other sensitive areas. Riparian assessments have been conducted in conjunction with the virtual fencing experiments to document the effectiveness of virtual fencing in protecting riparian areas. Currently, our Oklahoma group are working with Kansas State University to provide a virtual multi-state Extension program for county educators on virtual fencing.</li><br /> <li>At North Dakota State University, several studies on manure management and greenhouse gas mitigation are on-going. One of the studies is on anaerobic co-digestion of manure, where corn stover is pretreated with different alkaline treatments (NaOH, NH₄OH, and Ca(OH)₂) and nanoparticles were also added to enhance biogas production. Total gas volume, VFA and CH₄, CO₂ and H₂S concentrations, and other important parameters for anaerobic digestion were measured. Among the pretreatment, calcium pretreated corn stover blended with dairy manure resulted in the highest methane yield (176 L / kgVS) under a reduced retention time (79 days). Addition of nanoparticles further enhanced methane yield and minimized digester upset and reduced retention time to 52 days.</li><br /> <li>A study on Precision poultry farming: an automatic method for evaluating animal behaviors, health, and welfare was conducted at the Poultry Research Center at the University of Georgia. The goals of this study were developing a machine vision-based method for monitoring broiler chicken floor distribution and testing the new machine vision-based method in terms of its ability to identify the distribution of broiler chickens in the feeding and drinking zones of a research poultry facility. This study provides the basis for devising a real-time evaluation tool to detect broiler chicken floor distribution and behavior in commercial facilities.</li><br /> <li>Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research is researching the production of greenhouse gases from manure management systems at intensive livestock facilities. Our goals include improving the estimates of the magnitude of these emissions, improving the understanding of the processes involved in the production of particularly nitrous oxide, and identifying potential mitigations strategies that could be implemented by intensive livestock facility managers. While most of our research has been conducted in the Texas High Plains, similar issues are encountered through the southern high plains regions where the most of the fed cattle production is located. In 2018, we travelled to Nebraska to make GHG emission measurement in a feedyard there with local collaborators. A model of nitrous oxide emissions from feedyard pens has been developed and collaborators in the development of this model include Dr Erin Cortus (MN), a member of the S1074 project.</li><br /> <li>Manure treatment and handling experiment results demonstrated that manure pellets could provide nutrients to crops as a slow-release fertilizer. This strategy could improve the flexibility in animal manure management applying nutrients where needed. It is the key to restoring the animal-crop production integration while also improving crop productivity, environmental stewardship, and farm profitability. As Extension effort, our manure management team created digital learning platforms for animal waste extension including virtual reality (VR) Extension, TAMMI website, TexasManure Twitter, Texas Manure YouTube channel, AggieXR mobile app, and online Extension courses. VR Extension project was filmed in Texas and New York, plan to film in Minnesota, Utah, Idaho, and California (currently on hold).</li><br /> <li>A webinar was collaboratively offered by S1074 and the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community in September 2019 titled &ldquo;Watershed Nutrient Inventories &ndash; Opportunities and Needs&rdquo;. Presenters were Robert Sabo with US EPA, Mahmoud Sharara (NC), and moderated by Erin Cortus (MN). The webinar topic arose from discussions and ideas generated by S1074 around Nutrient Imbalance. This webinar supported Dr. Sharara&rsquo;s November 15 webinar for S1074, and introduced US EPA&rsquo;s approach to nutrient inventories.</li><br /> <li>Food Production and Local Community Relations Cohort Challenge was offered through the multi-state INFEWSer project. The challenge arose in an attempt to understand relationships between economics, social acceptance, rule-making, and other undetermined factors with respect to the rate of change of livestock development. Four S1074 members (Cortus (MN), Koziel (IA), Classen and Deviney (NC)) advised the cohort of seven students from four states. The cohort focused efforts on data gathering and analysis for five counties in South Dakota that historically experienced increases or decreases in livestock numbers. The students presented to other cohorts in a modified symposium (online, due to COVID-19) in March, and are continuing to work towards a journal publication.</li><br /> <li>South Dakota group collaborated with Dr. Erin Cortus at the University of Minnesota to test the effectiveness of an EPI Air Filter system in mitigating gas and dust emissions from swine barns. One trial has been done at the South Dakota State University research farm and more tests are scheduled in the coming year.</li><br /> <li>South Dakota group collaborated with the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska, and Iowa State University in hosting the Minnkota meeting in Sioux Falls, SD and gave two presentations to livestock producers, barn builders, and farm finance staff. We also held three CAFO trainings last year to ~80 livestock producers from South Dakota. Lectures were given to introduce the environmental issues and regulations related to livestock production and the technologies available to address the challenges.</li><br /> <li>Our South Dakota group continued our efforts in developing next generation biofilters to control odor emissions from livestock farms, and disseminating the technology to producers. We tested the distribution of airflow and moisture across two vertical biofilters and finished the remodeling of one biofilter. We also developed a prototype air quality monitoring system for livestock barns, based on Internet-of-Things and low-cost sensors. We also developed a similar system to monitor the operating status of equipment (e.g., ventilation fans) inside livestock barns. A preliminary test of the systems has been done and more tests will be conducted in the coming year.</li><br /> <li>South Dakota group are in process to update the South Dakota Odor Footprint Tool (SDOFT). Meteorological, terrain and land-use data required for odor dispersion modeling have been compiled and processed with AERMET, the meteorological preprocessor of AERMOD. We also updated the user manual of the existing SDOFT.</li><br /> <li>South Dakota group collaborated with Dr. Gary Anderson at the South Dakota State University to develop a photobioreactor for cultivating microalgae using the ammonia-laden exhaust gas from confinement livestock barns.</li><br /> <li>Michigan State University is researching the transport of soluble phosphorus with the goal of producing an index that provides guidance on the use of manure and commercial fertilizers that maximizes beneficial plant uptake and minimizes environmental risk. Although the research is exclusively being conducted in MI results apply to the Great Lakes Region of the country.&nbsp; Research components include examining the extent and impact of macropores in different soil types, soluble phosphorus leaching from the freeze/thaw of cover crops, impact of manure application timing on soluble phosphorus release, and computational modeling of the fate of nutrients applied to crop land.&nbsp; A mobile macropore unit was constructed and successfully tested that enables the quantification of macropores.&nbsp; A qualitative nutrient index for site-specific fertilizer application is currently in development.&nbsp;</li><br /> <li>Teng Lim (Missouri) collaborated with other faculty from in-state and other states including Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas to address the need for regional coordination and leveraging of existing disaster preparedness and recovery resources. This four-state network is a logical partnership due to the rural nature of the communities, similarities in the type of extreme events being dealt with, natural resource similarities, geographic proximity, socio-economic similarities, and an extensive history of these land grant institutions successfully working together. The grant is USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Smith-Lever Funding, for 2018-2021.</li><br /> <li>Teng Lim and Joseph Zulovich (Missouri) collaborated with Richard Stowell and Amy Schmidt (Nebraska), and other faculty from Arkansas, Ohio, and Colorado to work on an integrated USDA-NIFA project. The title of the project is Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology, and is for 2018-2023. This extension program works with stakeholders in the national agricultural community to encourage systematic evaluation of manure nutrient management, and adoption of nutrient water recycling technology.</li><br /> <li>Teng Lim (Missouri) collaborated with faculty from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, Maryland, and agency personnel to form a team of expert panel, for producing recommendation and report on &ldquo;Livestock and Poultry Mortality Management Best Management Practices&rdquo;. The grant is provided by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), and is 2018-2020.</li><br /> <li>North Carolina team have begun a comparative case study of two large scale investigations to evaluate swine manure management alternatives in Missouri and North Carolina. Factual information from legal documents and interpretative information from news articles will be used to assess information gathered through interviews of individuals with experience from different perspectives in one or both of these cases to discern what seemed to be effective or not.</li><br /> <li>The Virtual Resource Center for INFEWS-ER, a collaborative project of 7 universities, has developed three unique learning resources for graduate students wanting to develop their transdisciplinary skill set. Dairy Nitrogen Cohort Challenge (DNCC) was organized by INFEWS-ER, in collaboration with Deanne Meyer. Equal emphasis was placed on development of team transdisciplinary skills and technical information related to nitrogen management. Sixteen weekly 2-hr vs. two-hour webinars followed by an end of project cohort challenge symposium with two additional cohorts were used to share the educational experience.</li><br /> <li>Nebraska team has collaborated with Minnesota and Iowa states in developing a survey on &lsquo;Manure&rsquo;s benefits and barriers&rsquo; with the goals of separating out the &ldquo;challenges&rdquo; associated with manure from the &ldquo;true barriers&rdquo; that prevent manure utilization and further refining our understanding of different audiences&rsquo; specific perceptions of manure&rsquo;s benefits, challenges, and service requirements.</li><br /> <li>A manure value library, which contains 135 recommended resources targeting educators and advisors has been developed by our Nebraska group. Content is organized by 1) social media, 2) short news articles and web pages, 3) educational publications, 4) decision support tools; and 5) recommended research articles.</li><br /> <li>Eight on-farm research projects focused on manure vs fertilizer agronomic and soil quality comparisons are being implemented in Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa in 2020.</li><br /> <li>Land App Site Selection Game, a highly interactive educational experience was piloted in Nebraska and Minnesota this past winter. This provided an interactive opportunity to discuss manure application sites based upon soil health, soil fertility value, cost of transportation/application, water quality risks and minimizing neighbor odor risks.&nbsp;</li><br /> <li>In California, a research project was completed with the goal of quantifying the potential reduction of methane emissions from lagoons by using various solid-liquid separation technologies and to determine the cost implications for deploying these separation technologies on dairies. four mechanical (screen) separators, one weeping wall, and one advanced multistage separation technology were studied across various seasons on six dairies. The performance of these separators was assessed with respect to total and volatile solids (TS and VS) removal efficiencies and methane potential reduction for flushed manure prior to lagoon storage and the economics of these separators was analyzed.</li><br /> <li>Group in California collaborated with Wisconsin and California stakeholders to develop and disseminate CA centric tips for bulk milk disposal on dairy farms as a result of COVID-19. We also developed information for CA dairy producers who needed to dispose of bulk milk due to supply chain management issues.</li><br /> <li>A multi-state effort was launched with the leadership of Wisconsin group to develop definitions and methodologies for use nationwide for developing nutrient balances at the farm, watershed, and larger regional scale. Thus far, the framework has been outlined and additional updates are being integrated for review by the committee.</li><br /> <li>The 2019 Midwest Manure Summit was organized by Wisconsin group as a regional conference for producers, industry personnel, and government representatives designed to provide information on manure management and processing. This event used extension and research personnel from S1074 to deliver scientific-based information to improve outcomes related to livestock manure management</li><br /> <li>The Ohio State University (OSU, Ohio) and Purdue University (Indiana) researchers (Lingying Zhao, Albert Heber, Gil Bohrer, Jiqin Ni) had collaborated on a USDA AFRI grant project &ldquo;Modeling Fluxes, Fate and Transport of Ammonia Emission from Egg Production and Manure Management Facilities&rdquo;. The project aims to develop the NH₃ models for estimation of fluxes, fate and transport of N nutrient in the form of ammonia (NH₃) emissions from poultry egg production to support sustainable poultry production. The project outcomes include an ammonia emission database, a fundamental mechanistic AEM, a farm-scale, processed-based AEMs, and dispersion models of PALM and AERMOD for NH₃ emissions from poultry facilities and subsequent transport and deposition.</li><br /> <li>An experienced multi-state (Ohio and Iowa) and multi-disciplinary team (Lingying Zhao, Heping Zhu, Hongwei Xin, and Jiyoung Lee) with uniquely expertise was formed to address the challenging dust emission problem with support of a USDA AFRI grant &ldquo;Electrostatic Precipitation Air Cleaning of Particulate Matter (PM) Emissions at Animal Production Facilities&rdquo;. The team developed two innovative electrostatic PM control systems that demonstrated promises of high PM collection efficiency, low air resistance, capacities in disinfection of airborne pathogens, and relatively low cost. So far, the project team has conducted field measurement to characterize key PM parameters and airflow conditions in typical poultry houses that affect electrostatic PM mitigation; developed and optimized ESP (Electrostatic Precipitators) dust control modules; and developed and tested full-scale prototypes of ESPs and Electrostatic Scrubbers (ESSs) in labs. Currently ESP and ESS devices are being tested in a poultry farm to evaluate their performances and economic feasibilities for PM control technologies at commercial poultry facilities.</li><br /> <li>Researchers led by Koziel from Iowa State University continued to improve mitigation technologies for odor and gaseous emissions from swine and poultry operations. Koziel&rsquo;s team developed and tested UV light-based systems for treatment of odorous emissions on lab and pilot-scales. Research continues to bring this technology to farm-scale.</li><br /> <li>Koziel (with Andersen, co-PI) from Iowa State University completed testing the performance of 12 marketed pit manure additives for mitigation of odor emissions from stored swine manure.</li><br /> <li>Koziel from Iowa State University led the effort to valorize biowaste (manure, DDGS, brewer&rsquo;s spent grains) by torrefaction and the potential for &lsquo;waste-to-energy&rsquo; and &lsquo;waste-to-carbon&rsquo;.</li><br /> <li>Andersen in Iowa is working with collaborators from Nebraska and Minnesota to identify barriers to manure transfers from livestock to cropping producers. Timing and cost were identified as main barriers identified from a comprehensive survey.</li><br /> <li>Researchers led by Koziel (Iowa) continued to improve mitigation technologies for odor and gaseous emissions from swine and poultry operations. Koziel&rsquo;s team developed and tested UV light-based systems for treatment of odorous emissions on lab and pilot-scales. Research continues to bring this technology to farm-scale.</li><br /> <li>Andersen (Iowa) developed and implemented a hands-on training curriculum for manure applicators in Iowa that addressed stockpile location to maximize efficiency and manure value.</li><br /> <li>Rodr&iacute;guez, from the University of Illinois, has led a multi-state team of collaborators to develop and deliver cohort challenges to students interested in transdisciplinary learning targeting grand challenges in food, energy, and water. This effort has created the INFEWS-ER a virtual resource center targeting graduate training. The primary outward facing website describing this effort is available via <a href="http://infews-er.net/">infews-er.net</a>, learning modules developed are housed in the Learn@Illinois Moodle, where content is password protected. During the most recent year of this project we have completed mentoring efforts of our first cohort of students, recruited a new cohort of students and hosted a virtual symposium closing their primary efforts. Three cohorts of students are currently recruited. And some topics are being considered for the second round of cohort challenges.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p><strong>Short term outcomes</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Research done by Arkansas can have direct impact on the treatment of poultry litter and other wastes from animal rearing operations. Cost-effective technology to treat poultry litter and recycle nutrients for the poultry industry in Arkansas, and in the nation as well, is not readily available.</li><br /> <li>Studies done by Idaho increased knowledge on performance of on-farm centrifuges and screens in separating solids and nutrients from liquid dairy manure. Producers want to know more about this kind of information that facilitates upgrading on-farm solid and nutrient separation technologies.</li><br /> <li>The preliminary data collected by Oklahoma State is supporting a grant application for USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant funds to provide a more in-depth evaluation of this promising technology.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Pretreatment of corn stover is beneficial for co-digestion with manure. It was observed that calcium pretreatment of biomass and the addition of nanoparticles (magnetite) likely to enhance biogas production and reduce retention time. Thus, it will have environmental benefits, as well as economic benefits.</li><br /> <li>Texas state group have disseminated accumulated data, observations, and Extension materials to stakeholder groups through research committee meetings, interactions with key industry contacts, Extension workshops, and online platforms. This information has also been shared with fellow professionals though journal articles and conference presentations.</li><br /> <li>Poultry industry in the US and the world is facing grand challenges such as animal health/welfare issues in concentrated animal housing environment. In commercial poultry houses, animal floor uniformity and distribution in drinking, feeding, and resting zones are critical for evaluating flock production, animal health, and wellbeing. The proper distribution of chickens is an indication of a healthy flock. Currently, daily routine inspections of broiler flock distributions are done manually in commercial grow-out houses, which is labor intensive and time consuming. This task requires an efficient system that can monitor chicken floor distribution and behavior automatically, to provide information for the early detection of potential problems. In the study done by Georgia State University, a machine vision-based method was developed and tested in an experimental broiler house. This study provides the basis for devising a real-time evaluation tool to detect broiler chickens&rsquo; floor distribution and behaviors in commercial facilities.</li><br /> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

1. • The research project by Ohio and Iowa teams develops effective and economically feasible PM control technologies that will enable the poultry industry to effectively mitigate PM emissions, which will result in improved health, reduced outbreaks of foodborne diseases, reduced losses due to outbreak of infectious disease in poultry production, enhanced environmental quality, and sustainable animal production. The project will contribute innovative PM control solutions for a competitive and sustainable egg production industry in the U.S.

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Accomplishments

<p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <h2>Webinar Series for 2019-2020</h2><br /> <p>S-1074 organized four online webinars during the past year. The three research webinars were recorded. Links to the recordings are available in the S-1074 shared drive.</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>The first webinar was held September 18, 2020. Dr. Joel Peterson with University of Wisconsin-River Falls presented his work on &ldquo;Change in livestock nutrient excretion due to changes in productivity and diet from 1987 to 2007&rdquo;. He highlighted impacts of changes in livestock diets in the past 30 years, particularly the increased use of distiller&rsquo;s grains and microbial phytase and their consequences for manure excretion values. He highlighted the substantial variability, spatially and temporally, dairy manure nutrients that should be considered in large-scale nutrient flux analyses. In the swine sector, increases in manure nutrient excretion have been offset by increase in efficiency which reduced nutrient fluxes per animal unit.</li><br /> <li>The second webinar was on November 20, 2020. Dr. Lingjuan Wang-Li with North Carolina State University talked about her work on &ldquo;Air Quality &amp; Animal Production Systems Engineering for Enhancement of Sustainability.&rdquo; The presentation reviewed Dr. Ling&rsquo;s project focusing on developing an updated inventory of NH₃ emissions in animal agriculture systems, characterization of aerosols and particulate matter (PM) in various agricultural and urban regions, and the advancement of understanding fate, transport, and transformation of NH3 emissions from animal feeding operations across the soil-air-water systems.</li><br /> <li>A third webinar was presented by Ms. Lori P. Miller from USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Her presentation title is &ldquo;Mortality Management and Biosecurity Capabilities Overview&rdquo;. The presentation focused on animal health emergencies and provided an overview of decontamination and disposal response capabilities in relation to avian influenza (AI), African swine fever (ASF), as well as COVID19-related disruption in the supply-chain the relevant depopulation and mortality disposal needs.</li><br /> <li>The fourth and final webinar was on April 16, 2021. Dr. Sara Crawford from the National Pork Board. Dr. Crawford&rsquo;s presentation highlighted the NPB priorities and initiatives to advance sustainability and biosecurity in the swine production system. She also highlighted key research needs including more advanced decision-support tools for producers to advance sustainability, as well as more options to facilitate carcass disposal and management in response to routine and catastrophic mortality events.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <h2>Accomplishents (multi-state and collective aligned with S1074 goals)</h2><br /> <ul><br /> <li>In Arkansas, researchers at the University of Wisconsin built a lab-scale liquid anaerobic digester (16-L capacity) and tested it on a mixture of diluted dry litter and straw and found it to be performing well and producing methane at about 132 mL CH₄ per gram of volatile solids (VS) at a concentration ranging from 49 to 61% in the biogas. The testing run with C/N = 15, TS = 4%, and HRT = 11 d showed the highest methane production efficiency (161.79 &plusmn; 12.20 mL CH4/ g VS added), while that with C/N = 20, TS = 6%, and HRT = 7.59 d had the largest COD removal efficiency (39.49% &plusmn; 4.57%). In addition, a significant increase in magnesium (Mg) release after digestion was also observed which could help subsequent struvite generation process. These results prove anaerobic co-digestion of poultry litter and wheat straw can be a feasible approach to treat poultry litter and recover nutrients if it is coupled with other technologies.</li><br /> <li>In Texas (Texas A&amp;M), the manure management team created digital learning platforms for animal waste extension including virtual reality (VR) Extension, TAMMI website, TexasManure Twitter, Texas Manure YouTube channel, and online Extension courses. In addition, 30 VR headsets were shared with California group for educational purposes to replace cancelled field trips. VR footages and videos have been shared with several states within the S-1074 group.</li><br /> <li>In California (UC Davis), researchers developed compost (windrows, 12-week) from dairy manure solids and residual woody biomass from almond processing plants. Finished compost was assessed for differences between dairy-almond and dairy-alone windrows. Finished composts was pelletized and land applied to almond orchards (4 dry tons per acre). Data currently being analyzed and prepared for publications.</li><br /> <li>California researchers also worked collaboratively with collaborators from IL, OH and CA to develop and deliver a graduate food waste cohort challenge and engaged with INFEWser management team to provide leadership for the INFEWser project and annual graduate student symposium to train the next generation of scientists.</li><br /> <li>In Georgia (University of Georgia-Athens), Dr. Chai developed a machine-vision based method to reconstruct images of broiler chicken that are occluded by equipment and pipes in the vision field. The performance of the developed algorithm, overlap rate (OA), false-positive rate (FPR) and false-negative rate (FNR) were 0.8150, 0.0032, and 0.1850 respectively, was found to be satisfactory and provides a new method to aid vision-based machine predictions.</li><br /> <li>In Iowa, Koziel led the effort of publishing the summary and overview of the odor regulations worldwide with 18 scholars representing 17 countries on 5 continents. 10.3390/atmos12020206. Koziel leads the ASTM Workgroup to develop a new standard for environmental odor assessment. Koziel-lead (with Andersen, co-PI) published the results of testing the performance of 12 marketed pit manure additives for mitigation of odor emissions. The narrative was also published in the National Hog Farmer and Farm Journal. Andersen working with team members from Nebraska and Minnesota helped develop the &ldquo;Value of Manure Library for Educators and Advisors&rdquo;. Andersen demonstrated pilot-scale anaerobic digestion with biochar positively impacted methane production.</li><br /> <li>In Ohio, Ohio state team has been focused on developing model tools to predict air emission generation, distribution, and dispersion and evaluate air emission mitigation technologies. In 2020, we have been working on two projects related to the objective of S-1074. In collaboration with Dr. Alber Heber and Dr. JiQin Ni, Professors at Perdue University, we worked on A NIFA Foundational grant project "Modeling Fluxes, Fate and Transport of Ammonia Emission from Egg Production and Manure Management Facilities". Acheivements from this project were: (a) A fundamental mechanistic Ammonia Emission Model (AEM) for ammonia emission from manure-belts of poultry facilities developed in the previous year was published as a journal article, (b) a practical farm-scale AEM for ammonia emission from manure-belt poultry houses developed in the previous year was published as a journal article, (c) preliminary AERMOD simulations were performed for estimation of dispersion and deposition of NH3 emission from typical manure-belt layer facilities at Ohio. The model still needs to be validated using data from field measurement. Equipment and methods for field measurement were investigated, but the field test was delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic, and (d) literature review of precious ammonia emission studies were conducted for a meta-analysis of ammonia emission data.&nbsp;</li><br /> <li>In collaboration with Dr. Heping Zhu, Agricultural Engineer at USDA ARS Application Technology Research, Ohio researchers worked on a NIFA grant project &ldquo;Electrostatic Precipitation for Air Cleaning of Particulate Matter (PM) Emissions at Animal Production Facilities.&rdquo; Achievements from this project were: (a) COMSOL computer simulation model has been developed to simulate and optimize electrostatic precipitators for collection of dust particles. Validation tests for the COMSOL model performance had been conducted. A journal article will be submitted soon, (b) developing prototype of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and electrostatic spray scrubber (ESS) PM control technologies based on the COMSOL simulation and optimization results. Laboratory performance tests have been conducted.&nbsp; Journal papers have been drafted, and (c) partially conducted field performance test of prototypes of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and electrostatic spray scrubber (ESS) for dust control at poultry layer houses. Materials and energy costs of the ESP and ESS operations were recorded. Techno-economic analyses for both the optimized ESP and ESS devices will be conducted based on the long-term field test data</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>Researchers in Idaho (Univ. of Idaho) conducted performance evaluations of solid/nutrient separation efficiencies of centrifuges and screens with performance data incorporated into extension materials and presentations. Liquid manure solid/nutrient separation is an important step for better uses of manure nutrients and reducing overall manure handling costs. They also collaborated with colleagues at Washington State University, USDA ARS, Utah State University, Oregon State University, and Montana State University on holding a regional conference focusing on Nutrient Recycling and Food Safety in the Pacific and Mountain Northwest during October 27-29, 2020 in Boise, Idaho.</li><br /> <li>At Michigan State University (MI), researchers are evaluating transport of soluble nutrients to produce an index for guidance on maximizing beneficial plant uptake and minimizing environmental risk when applying manure, biosolids, and commercial fertilizers. This year, the research emphasized the impacts of the nutrient type, loading, and environmental conditions using column testing and computational fluid dynamics modeling.</li><br /> <li>At the University of Minnesota, S-1074 members are Co-PIs on a USDA NIFA Award 2020-67021-32465 to design and implement a scalable and dynamic database and management system for collecting and combining manure analysis results from around the U.S. Ultimately, the database will provide up-to-date, aggregated information on animal manure nutrient composition in user selected terms: spatially, temporally, and by animal system source. In addition to nutrient management planning, this database will support regional nutrient balance models, and life-cycle analyses.</li><br /> <li>S-1074 MN member, Dr. Cortus, co-mentored two graduate student cohorts as part of the INFEWSer project to address two challenges: [1] identifying economic, governance and societal factors thought to be related to increases and decreases in livestock production in five South Dakota counties, and [2] identifying stakeholder roles in the adoption of non-traditional manure management practices in North Carolina.</li><br /> <li>In Missouri, Teng Lim and Joseph Zulovich collaborated with Richard Stowell and Amy Schmidt (Nebraska), and other faculty from Arkansas, Ohio, and Colorado on an integrated USDA-NIFA project titled &ldquo; Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology&rdquo; (2018-2023). This extension program works with stakeholders in the national agricultural community to encourage systematic evaluation of manure nutrient management and adoption of nutrient water recycling technology.</li><br /> <li>At North Carolina, Co-PI John Classen, is advising a graduate student who is developing a GIS model to assess and quantify the flood risk of lagoons in the state. Co-PIs Mahmoud Sharara and John Classen have developed in collaboration with S-1074 members from WI, MN, and NE, a topic review focusing on overarching topics relating to nutrient imbalances in US animal agriculture, various scales of approaching the topic, and recommendations for research, outreach and education to address these challenges. Co-PI Sharara has contributed to the 2021 Manure Summit with a webinar on manure pelleting technology as part of farm, regional, and national nutrient planning efforts. Also, in reaction to the COVID-19 disruptions of meat supply, Dr. Sharara developed a training program on mass depopulation methods and considerations, enlisting participation from experts in VA and MS. The training aimed at providing industry stakeholders with information and recommendations on safe and compliant depopulation. Sharara coordinated and lead an S-1074 workshop focusing on nutrient imbalances and next-steps. This workshop engaged another researcher network, NRCS LTAR Manuresheds group, to synthesize approaches and develop recommendations for approaching nutrient challenges at a systematic level.</li><br /> <li>At North Dakota, several studies on manure management and greenhouse gas mitigation are on-going. One of the studies is on anaerobic co-digestion of manure, where corn stover is pretreated with different alkaline treatments (NaOH, NH4OH, and Ca(OH)2) and nanoparticles were also added to enhance biogas production. Headspace gases were collected in 2-6 day intervals during the experimental period and were analyzed for methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and H2S concentrations. Total gas volume was recorded. VFA and other important parameters for anaerobic digestion were measured.</li><br /> <li>At Nebraska, Dr. Schmidt is leading A nationwide team of research and extension professionals with expertise in livestock production, veterinary medicine, food safety, communication strategies and environmental management to develop capacity to design and deliver nationwide extension programming focused on AMR. The project title, &ldquo;iAMResponsible&rdquo;, is intended to convey that everyone has an obligation to understand AMR and learn how they can adapt to using science-based practices to mitigate AMR and preserve the efficacy of antibiotics for future generations. Essential to the awareness campaign was the identification of an expanding group of content experts whose work is the foundation for the media materials created for the campaign and for much of the educational materials being developed for extension outreach programming. The iAMResponsibleTM Project team further expanded their online course, AMR from a One Health Perspective, with emphasis on developing scientific communication skills in young STEM professionals. During the Spring of 2021, twenty-four students at five universities &ndash; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, North Carolina State University, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, Washington State University &ndash; participated in the multi-institutional graduate course led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The iAMResponsibleTM Project team will continue efforts to identify educational needs, produce and curate research-based content intended to improve public awareness about AMR, and improve access among producers, consumers, and stakeholders to research-based information about potential AMR-related food safety risks. In the coming year, public awareness efforts will be coupled with an examination of producer attitudes toward AMR and antibiotic use and an evaluation of audience needs to identify gaps in informational materials and outreach methods. The team will utilize these results to further refine our outreach efforts towards improving the ability among producers, consumers, and stakeholders to assess and adopt practices to mitigate potential AMR-related risks.</li><br /> <li>At Oklahoma, the researcher team launched an assessment of new virtual fencing technology at OSU&rsquo;s Bluestem Ranch. This technology employs GPS-enabled collars on individual cattle that provide auditory and electric stimulus as needed to control cattle location and implement critical area protection and rotational grazing (alternating periods of grazing and rest) to prevent overgrazing and ensure vigorous vegetation. It is hypothesized that this new virtual technology will improve the water quality and ecosystem services (e.g., soil health, wildlife and pollinator habitat) of grazinglands by effectively controlling the distribution of cattle on the landscape without the disadvantages of traditional physical fences. Much of the work over the last year involved performing short-term trials to evaluate the utility and effectiveness of virtual fencing, presenting findings, and applying for grants to expand on our research. We have begun an in-depth analysis of data collected to date and plan to submit a paper for publication later this year describing our results. We also evaluated how virtual fencing impacted cattle cortisol levels (an indicator of stress), compared to electric fence, and found no significant difference in stress indicators among the fencing types. This research will be presented at the American Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting in July 2021. We have also initiated development of a user&rsquo;s guide based on our lessons learned from using the technology over the last year. This will support expanded adoption of the technology by both ranchers and conservation agencies. Interest is certainly growing in Oklahoma and nationally, among both ranchers and the conservation community. We have recently begun meeting with a multi-state group to discuss and coordinate research and outreach efforts. Additionally, in an effort to propose solutions, research and Extension directions to significantly contribute to sustainable animal protein systems, grazing goats alongside cattle were evaluated. Goats decrease the encroachment of woody plant species such as cedar trees. This improves rangeland. Goats can also be sold for additional income for the producer without having to decrease stocking rate. Base level economic cost-benefit analysis was conducted to determine if goats could be grazed alongside cattle in a profitable way. This work resulted in a presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association meeting, a masters thesis, and a journal article. A fact-sheet outlining the economic findings of this research is currently under review.</li><br /> <li>In South Dakota, the research team We collaborated with the University of Minnesota (the leading institution), the University of Nebraska, and Iowa State University in hosting the Annual Minnkota Meeting online. The audience included livestock producers, barn builders, farm finance staff, etc. We held three South Dakota CAFO trainings last year to ~90 livestock producers. Lectures were given to discuss the environmental issues and regulations associated with livestock production, as well as technologies or best management practices to address relevant challenges. We finished the remodeling of one demonstration vertical biofilter and are in progress to remodel another one. Both the biofilters are used to control odor emissions from swine confinement buildings. We are writing an article about vertical biofilter construction and operation. We finished the conversion of the South Dakota Odor Footprint Tool (SDOFT) from an Excel spreadsheet to a web-based tool. The tool is being internally tested and will be posted on South Dakota State University (SDSU) Extension Program web servers. We collaborated with Drs. Anderson and Min at SDSU in cultivating algae for phosphorus removal/recovery from swine wastewater. Through this effort, the SDSU has regained its capability of manure analysis. We tested multiple flocculants and coagulants regarding their effectiveness in solid separation from liquid swine manure. We are collaborating with Drs. Min and Wei at SDSU in developing environment-friendly flocculants for liquid manure pretreatment. We collaborated with Dr. Brennan at SDSU in developing an Internet-of-Things (IoT) based rangeland water tank monitoring system and have done the field testing of the system. We are working with Mr. Zilverberg at SDSU in developing an affordable smart scale system for cattle feedlots. Similar efforts also included a recently finished undergraduate research &amp; extension project that aimed to use commercial IoT sensors to remotely monitor the thermal environment in swine barns. An extension article is being drafted based on the project outcome.</li><br /> <li>In Virginia, Dr. Ogejo and his team collected about two and a half years of manure temperatures during storage. This work is part of our larger effort to understand the microbial transformation of nitrogen in dairy manure during storage periods. We synthesized the data to (1) discern the spatial and temporal manure temperature tendencies during storage and (2) assessed the suitability of machine learning algorithms as an alternative tool for predicting manure temperature during storage in different storage structures. Our results showed that, in general, the stored manure temperature lagged but followed a similar trend as the ambient air temperature and solar radiation. The average manure temperature was higher than the ambient air temperature for most of the year. Depth influenced the manure temperature; manure in the top layers had a higher temperature during warm periods than the bottom layers, and vice versa during cold seasons. The random forests and bagged tree ensembles machine learning algorithms were the best performers.</li><br /> <li>At Wisconsin, multiple members of the team presented at the Midwest Manure Summit 2021 to stakeholders on animal agriculture and improving livestock manure systems to achieve improve economic, operational, and environmental sustainability. Also, an initiative was developed for multiple state members to develop manure processing fact sheets. Six are currently in development to guide livestock manure processing improvements.</li><br /> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

1. In Ohio, outcomes of research on ammonia (NH3) emissions mechanisms is expected to provide decision support tools for the animal industries and governmental agencies to enable fair assessment and effective control of NH3 emissions for improved health, egg production, and sustainable agroecosystems from animal farms. In addition, research on PM mitigation and control is expected to reduce PM adverse impacts on animal health, occupational safety and health, and food safety concerns. PM emission is recognized as a transmitter of diseases through carrying and transporting of airborne pathogens, such as Salmonella, Campylobacter, pathogenic E. coli, which contribute to domestically acquired foodborne illnesses resulting in death in US, and antibiotic resistance bacteria, which is linked to at least 23,000 human deaths annually in the US alone. These effective and economically feasible PM control technologies that will enable the poultry industry to effectively mitigate PM emissions will result in improved health, reduced outbreaks of foodborne diseases, reduced losses due to outbreak of infectious disease in poultry production, enhanced environmental quality, and sustainable animal production.

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Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

<p><strong>[1] S-1074 Webinar Summaries for 2021-2022</strong></p><br /> <p>&nbsp;The S-1074 program organized four online webinars last year. All the research webinars were recorded. Links to the recordings are available in the S-1074 shared drive.</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p><br /> <ul><br /> <li>The first webinar was held on September 24^th, 2021. Drs. Ganesh Bora and Frank Siewerdt from the USDA NIFA introduced the current programs under NIFA, focus areas, funding opportunities, and collaboration ideas. In particular, they highlighted the multidisciplinary programs recently established to encourage multi-state, multidisciplinary collaboration and holistic solutions to existing and future food production challenges such as sustainability and climate change.</li><br /> <li>The second webinar was held on November 19^th, 2021. Dr. Maude Cuchiara from North Carolina State University talked about an ongoing multi-state, multidisciplinary project &ldquo;NSF Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability Center &ndash; Introduction to Convergence Research.&rdquo; Dr. Cuchiara currently serves as the executive director of the NSF Center. Dr. John Classen, an S-1074 participant, leads the outreach effort of the Center, further elaborate on education, research, and extension activities.</li><br /> <li>The third webinar was held on February 28^th, 2022. Dr. Gary Anderson from South Dakota State University gave a presentation about his research work titled &ldquo;Different Perspective: Design of Livestock Buildings.&nbsp;State of the Science Review on Methane Emissions from Manure Storages.&rdquo; Dr. Anderson&rsquo;s presentation covered a broad range of research projects that he participated in, including post-frame structure, built environment ventilation, microalgal cultivation in photobioreactors, and the application of microalgae for waste and air quality management.</li><br /> <li>The last webinar was held on April 22^rd, 2022. Dr. Wendy Powers (the administrative advisor of S-1074) from the University of California talked about the status of S-1074, renewal of the program, and possible administrative changes. Dr. Julie Smith (a new participant of S1074) from the University of Vermont introduced her research and extension work in Vermont, particularly biosecurity, disease transmission, and antibiotics. She further called for collaboration research on these topics across the S-1074 community.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <p><strong>&nbsp;[2]&nbsp;Accomplishments (multi-state activities align with the goals and objectives of S1074)</strong></p><br /> <ul><br /> <li><strong>In Arkansas,</strong> the research and extension effort focus on Objective 3 &ldquo;propose solutions, research and extension directions to significantly contribute to sustainable animal protein systems and food security with forecasting of future trends&rdquo;. The major activities of this project in the past year included operating two lab-scale liquid anaerobic digesters made of acrylic tubing running side by side to co-digest dry litter and straw and collecting performance data of the digester system. The results showed that the anaerobic digester system was working well in producing biogas from the co-substrates of chicken litter and wheat straw based on methane yield. Other performance data such as chemical oxygen demand removal and magnesium ion release via digestion were also collected. The purpose of determining magnesium ions level is because the effluent was supposed to be used as the influent for an electrolytic reactor to produce struvite, a slow-release fertilizer. In this way, the value of poultry litter can be recovered. The results from the major activities of the project appear to prove that anaerobic co-digestion of poultry litter and wheat straw can be a feasible method to treat poultry litter and recover nutrients if it is coupled with other technologies. Obviously, these activities are necessary to achieve the goals and objectives described in the non-technical summary of the project. A significant amount of work is planned for the next reporting period. The digestion experiments with poultry litter and wheat straw are ongoing with a total of 20 experiments to be completed and data collected to determine the optimal operating condition for the anaerobic co-digestion of poultry litter and wheat straw for biogas production and magnesium release. Since this project is part of a big project funded by NIFA/USDA/AFRI to develop a system for treating poultry litter using liquid digestion technology, the digesters developed and evaluated in this project will be incorporated into the overall system to form a complete treatment process that will have the capability of not only removing the nutrients from the litter but also generating struvite as a slow-release fertilizer and cleaning the digester effluent that can be recycled to dilute incoming poultry litter to feed the anaerobic digester for continuous operation.</li><br /> <li><strong>In California (CA),</strong> the team has conducted research and extension for all three project objectives. For objective 1, they worked collaboratively with students who participated in last year&rsquo;s graduate student food waste cohort challenge to encourage continued work on refining their process and findings for preparation of journal article. They engaged with INFEWser management team to provide leadership for the INFEWser project to train the next generation of scientists and strengthened the next generation of thinkers to engage in animal protein sustainability discussions. The team participated in multiple events/activities, including the INFEWser (NSF) funded virtual resource center for graduate students, webinar sessions of S1074 on nutrient imbalance, and the Annual S-1074 meeting to share information and experiences with Regional Research group participants. They converted previously published work on forage and solid manure sampling into extension bulletins, and developed collaboration among UC Davis, Texas A&amp;M and other universities on the use of VR videos in teaching animal waste management. A Research and Extension Proposal entitled &ldquo;A Intuitive Waste Management and Farm Design Powered by Virtual Reality: Thriving &ldquo;Community Friendly&rdquo; Animal Feeding Operations&rdquo; was submitted to USDA AFRI with the PIs from multiple universities, including UC Davis, Texas A&amp;M, Iowa State Univeristy, University of Florida, Utah State University, and Cornell University. For Objective 2, the team worked with CA collaborators (cooperative extension advisors and dairy operators) to measure nutrient composition of effluents from dairy manure treatment technologies. They completed research to quantify the nutrient composition of effluents from advanced manure treatment technologies to inform potential use of additional treatment technologies. Waste streams from vacuums, anaerobic digesters, mechanical solid liquid separation, and chemical flocculation system and solids from compost bedded pack barns were evaluated in two seasons to capture extremes in total solids and nutrient concentrations. Particle size and nutrient analyses of effluent streams will prove useful to identify potential use of additional treatment technologies to further remove nitrogen and salts for export off-farms. They also collaborated with Los Alamos and Berkeley National Laboratories and University of California researchers at Riverside, Irvine, Davis and Berkeley to evaluate multiple methods to measure and estimate methane emissions from agricultural sources specifically dairy operations. Simultaneous top down and bottom up sampling campaigns measure gas concentrations and estimate emissions. This work continues under a different funding mechanism to evaluate a facility post installation of anaerobic digestion. For Objective 3, understanding the barriers to manure management modification is a key driver to a project evaluating practices co-funded by the Alternative Manure Management Program. Additionally research was conducted to convert dairy manure into valuable compost products for application in almond orchards with a goal to significantly increase the use of dairy manure in almond orchards as a nutrient-rich and safe organic amendment to achieve carbon sequestration and provide economical and sustainable benefits for the soil, crop, and environment. The overall project goal is to identify strategies to optimize animal production for future scenarios by balancing environmental, social, and economic drivers and effects. Compost was produced from manure solids and their mixture with almond biomass sticks. The initial bulk density for dairy manure and almond shell debris were 27.3 and 28.6 lb/cubic feet. The compost was pelletized using a pilot scale system. The produced pellets had a moisture content ranging from 20.2% to 28.1%. The bulk density of the pellets produced from manure alone and manure and stick was 53.5 and 47.7 lb/cubic feet. This densification of nutrients may lend itself to off-farm transportation and use in an economical fashion. The pelleted products were applied to the almond orchard for the second year. The yield of almond kernels was determined (dry lb/acre): 3,188, fertilizer with synthetic fertilizer (control); 3,435, manure compost; 3,282, manure-stick compost; 3,071, pelletized manure compost, and 3,492,pelletized manure stick compost. They developed compost (windrows, 12-week) from dairy manure solids and residual woody biomass from almond processing plants. Finished compost was assessed for differences between dairy-almond and dairy-alone windrows. Finished composts was pelletized and land applied to almond orchards (4 dry tons per acre). Data currently being analyzed and prepared for publications. They also worked collaboratively with collaborators from IL, OH and CA to develop and deliver a graduate food waste cohort challenge and engaged with INFEWser management team to provide leadership for the INFEWser project and annual graduate student symposium to train the next generation of scientists.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Georgia,</strong> Dr. Chai is leading a collaborative research project entitled &ldquo;A machine vision-based method optimized for restoring broiler chicken images&rdquo; funded through the USDA-ARS cooperative grants and an Egg Industry Center competitive grant. The objectives of this study were to (1) develop an imaging processing strategy for removing equipment and restore occluded chicken areas; (2) test the effect of the optimized method to remove equipment areas; (3) evaluate the efficiency of different image restoration methods used in this study for two primary occlusion scenarios.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Iowa,</strong> the team (Drs. Koziel and Anderson) performed a review of impermeable covers for manure storages for methane capture and utilization. Model integrates economics of biogas utilization, carbon credits, improved nitrogen retention, and increased hauling costs. They evaluated impact of swine manure application timing impacts of corn yield and water quality. Dry conditions led to similar yields between fall and spring application timing and almost no loss to nitrogen leaching. The also developed extension modules on manure impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and applicability of mitigation techniques.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Idaho,</strong> liquid manure solid/nutrient separation is an important step for better uses of manure nutrients and reducing overall manure handling costs. Evaluation of solid/nutrient separation efficiencies of centrifuges and screens was conducted. We incorporated the test data into extension materials and presentations. The team collaborated with colleagues at Texas A&amp;M and dairy producers on making a few videos about manure solids/nutrients separation and anaerobic digestion of dairy manure.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Ohio,</strong> the team&rsquo;s efforts fitting into the objectives of multi-state project S-1074 have been focused on developing model tools to estimate air emission generation, distribution, and dispersion, and air emission mitigation technologies. In 2021, they have been working on two projects. In Project 1: A NIFA Foundational grant project "Modeling Fluxes, Fate and Transport of Ammonia Emission from Egg Production and Manure Management Facilities", AERMOD simulations were developed for estimation of dispersion and deposition of NH3 emission from typical manure-belt layer facilities in Ohio. Field measurement campaigns for NH3 dispersion were conducted in a commercial manure-belt layer farm in August and October of 2021. Extensive data on ammonia emission rates from various type of the poultry layer facilities, including production houses, manure composting facilities, manure storages, and wastewater processing lagoons, were successfully obtained. Ammonia concentration data at upwind location and 20 downwind locations over 10 days were collected along with the on-site weather condition data.&nbsp; The AERMOD model was validated using the data collected from field measurement.Equipment and methods for field measurement of low level of ammonia were investigated. In Project 2. A NIFA grant project &ldquo;Electrostatic Precipitation for Air Cleaning of Particulate Matter (PM) Emissions at Animal Production Facilities,&rdquo; they primarily conducted field performance tests of electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and electrostatic spray scrubber (ESS) prototypes for dust control and pathogen deactivation at poultry layer houses. Materials and energy costs of the ESP and ESS operations were recorded. Techno-economic analyses for both the optimized ESP and ESS devices were conducted based on the long-term field test data. A Ph.D. dissertation on mitigation of dust emission at poultry layer facilities using ESP and ESS had been finished in 2021.&nbsp; A M.S. graduate study on control of pathogens using the ESP and ESS devices had also been started in 2021. A journal article on A COMSOL computer simulation model to simulate and optimize electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) for collection of dust particles has been published. A journal article on optimization of ESS has been submitted. An extension workshop on PM control at poultry facilities using electrostatic precipitation technologies has been developed and will be offered at the 2022 Waste to Worth Conference in April, 2022.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <ul><br /> <li><strong>In Michigan,</strong> research supported the objective &ldquo;Synthesize data, analytical tools and communication mechanisms to evaluate and discuss animal protein supply chain sustainability metrics on various spatial and temporal scales&rdquo; and &ldquo;Propose solutions, research and Extension directions to significantly contribute to sustainable animal protein systems and food security with forecasting of future trends&rdquo;. Specifically, research is being conducted on the transport of soluble nutrients with the goal of producing an index to provide guidance on maximizing beneficial plant uptake and minimizing environmental risk when applying manure, biosolids, and commercial fertilizers. This year, the research emphasized the impacts of the management technique for biosolids, loading, and environmental conditions using column testing. It is anticipated that animal manure behaves similarly. A field demonstration is in progress. An additional project entails researching water quality impacts from the mesophilic surface composting of animal mortality resulting from emergency supply chain disruptions. Regulatory concerns are that nutrients and natural soil metals, which can be mobilized from high organic soil loadings, will leach into ground water. Column studies to examine the impacts of swine and poultry remains, loadings, soil type, and environmental conditions are complete. A field demonstration is in progress.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Minnesota,</strong> the team has made progress for all three project objectives. For Objective 1, since the fall of 2019 through present, two graduate student cohorts were formed around the premise that economics, social acceptance, and community demographics influence the rate of change of livestock development in a region. The two cohorts were challenged to understand the relationships in South Dakota (2019-2020) and North Carolina (2020-2021), respectively. All cohort developers and advisors were S1074 members, from MN, NC and IA, and part of the INFEWSer project. By engaging with stakeholders affiliated with livestock development, Extension, and community leadership in South Dakota, the first cohort, identified a series of economic, governance and societal factors thought to be related to increases and decreases in livestock production in five South Dakota counties. The cohort adapted Comparative Qualitative Analysis (a Boolean approach) to correlate the existence of these factors to growth or decline in cattle and swine numbers among the counties over time. The second cohort focused on stakeholder roles in the adoption of non-traditional manure management practices in North Carolina. The cohort posited that the means, motives, opportunities and alignment of stakeholders can be collectively assessed to model past and present actions. For Objective 2, Minnesota S-1074 members are co-PIs for a USDA NIFA Award 2020-67021-32465 to design and implement a scalable and dynamic database and management system for collecting and combining manure analysis results from around the U.S. Ultimately, the database will provide up-to-date, aggregated information on animal manure nutrient composition in user selected terms: spatially, temporally, and by animal system source. In addition to nutrient management planning, this database will support regional nutrient balance models, and life-cycle analyses. The database schema is developed, and the first sets of lab data are being entered. Minnesota S-1074 members also co-authored a review paper (Sharara et al. 2022) examining nutrient balance approaches from field to regional scale. Some key needs to further improve nutrient balances for the protection of agriculture, water quality and air quality, are data transparency, thresholds for action, and continued outreach and knowledge exchange. For Objective 3, producer participation in industry-led or consumer-driven sustainability initiatives requires literacy in popular sustainability metrics, and measurements to demonstrate metric benchmarks and/or changes over time. An integrated research and Extension project was proposed to the USDA NIFA Foundational Critical Agriculture Research and Extension program to encourage these critical conversations about environmental sustainability metrics between generations and within the agricultural community, to promote engagement and broaden opportunities for continuous improvement. A stakeholder group with livestock industry representatives, 4-H leadership and sustainability researchers from Minnesota and beyond supported this proposal. The project was not funded, but conversations with stakeholders continue to build regional capacity in livestock industry sustainability initiatives.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Missouri,</strong> Teng Lim (Missouri) collaborated with other faculty from in-state and other states including Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas to address the need for regional coordination and leveraging of existing disaster preparedness and recovery resources. A website has been created for this effort: https://heartland-disaster-resilience.extension.org/. This four-state network is a logical partnership due to the rural nature of the communities, similarities in the type of extreme events being dealt with, natural resource similarities, geographic proximity, socio-economic similarities, and an extensive history of these land grant institutions successfully working together. The grant is USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Smith-Lever Funding, for 2018-2022. Teng Lim and Joseph Zulovich (Missouri) collaborated with Richard Stowell and Amy Schmidt (Nebraska), and other faculty from Arkansas, Ohio, and Colorado to work on an integrated USDA-NIFA project. The title of the project is Water and Nutrient Recycling: A Decision Tool and Synergistic Innovative Technology, and is for 2018-2023. This extension program works with stakeholders in the national agricultural community to encourage systematic evaluation of manure nutrient management, and adoption of nutrient water recycling technology. Teng Lim, Zong Liu (Texas), and Linda Schott (Idaho) collaborated to organized a special invited speaker session for the 2022 ASABE Annual International Meeting, for the NRES-27 subcommittee, &ldquo;Regional Manure Nutrient Balance, Guest Speaker Session&rdquo;. The session will take place Tuesday, July 19, 2022.</li><br /> <li><strong>In North Carolina,</strong> Dr. Sharara in collaboration with S1074 members developed a review publication that was published in the Journal of the ASABE. The paper summarizes multi-year deliberative work by the project team to improve nutrient management in animal agriculture by identifying key needs and opportunities. Dr. Sharara in collaboration with colleagues in other land-grant universities developed, and published a factsheet series summarizing manure management technologies to promote sustainable options for manure utilization (see Extension and Outreach section). An NC team member (Dr. Sharara) served on committees planning the Waste to Worth 2022 Conference in Maumee Bay, Ohio, program and planning committees. In addition to bringing together experts in waste management for animal protein industry, the event served as an opportunity to plan the 2022 Annual Project Team meeting, which was hybrid.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Nebraska,</strong> the team focused its research and extension effort on antibiotic resistance in the past year. Antimicrobial resistant infections have been recognized globally as a significant threat to public health. While research to characterize antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in microbial populations on livestock production systems has progressed since launching the AFRI Food Safety AMR Program, a nationwide coordinated effort among university outreach programs to convey science-based knowledge on AMR dynamics to stakeholders, including agricultural producers, food safety experts, educators, consumers, medical professionals, and policymakers, remains undeveloped. Because misinformation and ambiguous terminology contribute to misunderstandings about risks to human health associated with &ldquo;AMR&rdquo;, in general, communicating the level of risk associated with AMR in clinical and nonclinical settings is recognized as an essential component to be addressed through this outreach project.A nationwide team of research and extension professionals with expertise in livestock production, veterinary medicine, food safety, communication strategies and environmental management (Figure 1) has assembled to develop capacity to design and deliver nationwide extension programming focused on AMR. The project title, &ldquo;iAMResponsible&rdquo;, is intended to convey that everyone has an obligation to understand AMR and learn how they can adapt to using science-based practices to mitigate AMR and preserve the efficacy of antibiotics for future generations. Essential to the awareness campaign was the identification of an expanding group of content experts whose work is the foundation for the media materials created for the campaign and for much of the educational materials being developed for extension outreach programming. The target audience for the iAMResponsible^TM Project&rsquo;s outreach efforts include livestock producers, food safety experts, extension educators, consumers, veterinarians, medical professionals, and policymakers. Approximately 4,000 persons are following one or more of the iAMResponsibleTM social media profiles with strong representation by medical professionals, educators, and AMR researchers worldwide. The iAMResponsible^TM team continues its collaboration with the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community (LPELC). Cooperative efforts with the LPELC included an expansion of research-based resources on AMR for community members and the development of a new focus area for iAMR outreach efforts: science communication; specifically, the provision of both training and resources to extension and other STEM professionals to empower their communication efforts on AMR. Four on-line social media outlets for the dissemination of AMR related materials are managed with monthly, weekly, or multi-weekly outputs. Over 50 new pieces of outreach content were created during the reporting period for distribution on social media and added to the existing library of some 400 pieces of media and research related to AMR curated by the iAMR team and available to the public on the LPELC website. During the spring of 2021, the team conducted a series of social media surveys to assess audience knowledge and attitudes toward AMR, food safety, and toward the iAMR Project. Survey results indicate that the team has utilized social media effectively to build a recognized and trusted brand among medical professionals, educators, and AMR researchers worldwide and audience members indicated that they were motivated to change at least some personal behaviors to address growing AMR. However, outreach on social media has proved less effective for reaching audiences previously unaware of AMR and its potential impact on food safety. Engagement events for social media content totaled just over 4,000 during the period of July 2021 to June 2022. Thus far, the principal activities of the project have involved curating, translating, and disseminating agricultural-, environmental- and food safety-related AMR research outcomes via social media (Figure 2) and short extension articles for blog and print outlets. Social media outlets for the project include:</li><br /> <li>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/i_AMResponsible">https://twitter.com/i_AMResponsible</a></li><br /> <li>Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/iAMResponsibleEDU">https://www.facebook.com/iAMResponsibleEDU</a></li><br /> <li>Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/iamresponsibleedu/">https://www.instagram.com/iamresponsibleedu/</a></li><br /> <li>YouTube: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4cO1Gr80Y8skUWYk_try3g</span></li><br /> <li>Website: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">com</span> (in development): A repository of more than 500 AMR-related scientific resources, primarily focused on agricultural AMR and AMR-related food safety, has been created that includes refereed research publications, graphical resources, videos, and short media articles. This database is intended to provide ready access to team members of AMR-related information for use in extension programs and publications nationwide. Portions of the database are also available to the public at: <a href="https://lpelc.org/antimicrobial-resistance-resource-library/">https://lpelc.org/antimicrobial-resistance-resource-library/</a>. The iAMResponsible^TM Project team further expanded their online course, <em>AMR from a One Health Perspective</em>, with emphasis on developing scientific communication skills in young STEM professionals. During the Spring of 2022, twenty-three students at six universities &ndash; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, North Carolina State University, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, Washington State University, and Oklahooma State University &ndash; participated in the multi-institutional graduate course led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The iAMResponsible^TM Project team will continue efforts to identify educational needs, produce and curate research-based content intended to improve public awareness about AMR, and improve access among producers, consumers, and stakeholders to research-based information about potential AMR-related food safety risks. In the coming year, public awareness efforts will be coupled with an examination of producer attitudes toward AMR and antibiotic use and an evaluation of audience needs to identify gaps in informational materials and outreach methods. The team will utilize these results to further refine our outreach efforts towards improving the ability among producers, consumers, and stakeholders to assess and adopt practices to mitigate potential AMR-related risks.</li><br /> </ul><br /> <ul><br /> <li><strong>In Oklahoma,</strong> the team focused on Objective 3 &ndash; Solution Development. In order to advance solutions which significantly contribute to sustainable animal protein systems and food security, we are evaluating the use of virtual fencing technology to improve grazing management and ecosystem services. This technology employs GPS-enabled collars on individual cattle that provide auditory and electric stimulus as needed to control cattle location and implement critical area protection and rotational grazing to prevent overgrazing and ensure vigorous vegetation. The team was awarded an $877,569 grant from EPA in May 2021 for the project titled &ldquo;Virtual fencing to control cattle for improved ecosystem services&rdquo; With funding from this grant, OSU is implementing virtual fencing evaluations on OSU research ranges and demonstrations on cooperative private ranches in the Stillwater Creek and adjacent areas. At these research and demonstration ranches, the team is evaluating the effectiveness of the technology in implementing grazing management systems and the resulting ecosystem benefits to stream water quality and health, as well as wildlife and pollinator habitat. Work completed includes initiating the contract, setting up accounts, holding monthly project meetings, and developing and submitting a Quality Assurance Project Plan to the EPA. The first demonstration ranch was identified and virtual fencing installed. Virtual fencing was also installed at the OSU research ranges and stream visual assessments were conducted quarterly at the four watershed sites located on research ranges. Temporary water quality monitoring equipment was installed at the four watershed sites while flumes are being fabricated. The first year of measurements are focused on tracking cattle movement and collecting baseline water resource and stream health data. This baseline date will be compared to data collected once rotational grazing and riparian protection are implemented to evaluate how the technology impacts cattle movement, water quality and quantity, and habitat. Finally, the team also evaluated how virtual fencing impacted cattle cortisol levels (an indicator of stress), compared to electric fence, and found no significant difference in stress indicators among the fencing types. The research outcome was presented at the American Society of Animal Science Annual Meeting in July 2021.</li><br /> <li><strong>In South Dakota</strong>, the team collaborated with Dr. Erin Cortus from the University of Minnesota in hosting the 2022 Minnkota Meeting at the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Sioux Falls Extension Station and gave an oral presentation about their research and extension activities. The team, through collaboration with the SDSU Computer Science Department, finished the conversion of South Dakota Odor Footprint Tool (SDOFT) from an Excel spreadsheet file to a web-based calculator, and is currently in process to build a smart phone app. They finished the design and construction of a low-cost, open source smart scale system for improved cattle management, through collaboration with Dakota Lakes Research Farm. The team continued a collaborative research project with Drs. Anderson, Zhang, and Min at SDSU in cultivating algae for livestock wastewater treatment and mitigation of gas emissions from livestock barns. They developed several natural flocculants from agricultural by-products and are testing them for flocculation removal of suspended solids from livestock wastewater. The SDSU team finished a very comprehensive literature review report (183 pages) about particulate matter in swine confinement buildings.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Texas</strong>, the Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research/Extension manure management team continued to improve the flexibility in animal manure management applying nutrients where needed. As an extension effort, the team created digital learning platforms for animal waste extension including virtual reality (VR) Extension, TAMMI website, TexasManure Twitter, Texas Manure YouTube channel, and online Extension courses. VR videos of animal manure and mortality management were filmed and produced in Idaho, Utah, and Texas with S-1074 members. These VR footages and videos have been shared with several states within the S-1074 group. Another team is researching the production of greenhouse gases from manure management systems at intensive livestock facilities. Their goals include improving the estimates of the magnitude of these emissions, improving the understanding of the processes involved in the production of particularly nitrous oxide, and identifying potential mitigation strategies that could be implemented by intensive livestock facility managers. While most of the research has been conducted in the Texas High Plains, similar issues are encountered through the Southern High Plains regions where most of the fed cattle production is located. They are one of the research sites in the US Dairy Net Zero Initiative &ndash; Dairy Soil Water Regeneration project, which also involves other members of S1074 at other research sites.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Virginia</strong>, Dr. Ogejo and his team contributes to objective 2. They have about four years of manure temperature data at different depths with associated local weather parameters during storage on a dairy farm. This work is part of a larger effort to understand the microbial transformation of nitrogen in dairy manure during storage periods. They synthesized the data to discern the spatial and temporal manure temperature tendencies during storage and developed a physics-informed neural network approach to provide an improved method for predicting manure temperature during storage in different storage structures. Their results showed that, in general, the stored manure temperature lagged but followed a similar trend as the ambient air temperature and solar radiation. The average manure temperature was higher than the ambient air temperature for most of the year. Depth influenced the manure temperature; manure in the top layers had a higher temperature during warm periods than the bottom layers, and vice versa during cold seasons. They also found that the physics-informed neural network model performed better and was more accurate in generalizing manure temperature prediction across different types of manure storage structure types compared to purely data-driven neural networks and purely physics-based models.</li><br /> <li><strong>In Wisconsin,</strong> Dr. Larson and her team held the 2021 Midwest Manure Summit with speakers presenting on sustainable livestock manure handling practices, and completed a fact sheet series with several S1074 members on sustainable manure processing systems.</li><br /> </ul>

Publications

Impact Statements

1. Collective and multi-state accomplishments: • In Arkansas, since Arkansas is the top state in the nation that produces broilers, the impact of this research on the poultry industry in the state is immense. At the moment, the broader impact from the project rests with its providing ongoing information on the new treatment technology under development that can alleviate the concerns of the public about the environmental pollution problems associated with poultry production. In the past, the Arkansans were really plagued by the broiler production waste due to the lack of cost-effective techniques to handle a major waste stream generated from producing animal protein operations. With the progress made by this project, such concern could be palliated to some extent because the environment can possibly be protected when the anaerobic digestion system is fully developed, tested, and deployed by the poultry industry. • In California, research results have high impact, especially at this time when fertilizer prices have skyrocketed and farmers are experiencing the hardship due to fertilizer shortages. Utilization of animal manure effectively as biofertilizer resource is important. The research results have been disseminated to the research community and industry groups and published in YouTube videos and presented at conferences. Research results have been reported to California Department of Food and Agricultural, California Air Resources Board, and California Dairy Research Foundation, providing the scientific data for policies and regulations. Nutrient management results have been shared with the Central Valley Dairy Representative Monitoring Program managers and are incorporated into planning for roll-out of educational programming for dairy operators. Compilation of Alternative Manure Management Program information aids dairy owners determine which practice to implement and reduces challenges associated with implementation. • In Georgia (GA), Dr. Chai is working on multiple precision poultry production projects. Currently, daily routine inspections of broiler flock distributions are done manually in commercial grow-out houses, which is labor intensive and time consuming. This task requires an efficient system that can monitor chicken floor distribution and behavior automatically, to provide information for the early detection of potential problems. As the top poultry producing state in the U.S., Georgia is home to many nationally ranked poultry production and processing companies, as well as a multitude of companies supplying poultry technologies to the world. The 2021 Georgia Precision Poultry Farming Conference provided a training and information exchange opportunity for stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities related to future of poultry farming. The conference was initiated by Dr. Chai with 322 registered participants for the first conference). This Extension conference will be hosted annually. GA-based projects provide the basis for promoting the development and application of automatic evaluation tools for monitoring poultry floor distribution and behaviors in commercial facilities. Considering the contribution to engineering system design and precision poultry farming. Research conducted in Georgia has direct impacts on performance of U.S. poultry industry. • In Missouri, the collaborations within and beyond the UMR campus are to engage multi-state researchers and agricultural stakeholders develop practical understanding of pollution mitigation, nutrient recycling potentials, and identify the challenges and opportunities of implementation. Many teams have been working closely with members of this committee and industry partners on improving the management of animal manure and byproduct productions, and air and water quality improvements. Such collaboration has allowed us to stay in touch with the industry, and to learn more about new information, and continue working on grants and extension projects. • In Iowa, the team used manure application timing information to develop proposal on Sidedressing manure onto standing corn to improve nitrogen utilization efficiency as a farm demonstration, and successfully convinced collaborating farmer to invest. • In Idaho, increased knowledge on performance of on-farm centrifuges and screens in separating solids and nutrients from liquid dairy manure. Producers want to know more about this kind of information that facilitates upgrading on-farm solid and nutrient separation technologies. • In Michigan, The final output from the column and modeling studies is the development of an index for farmers to evaluate each field for the potential loss of nutrients. Use of this resource will reduce the loss of valuable nutrient resources, increasing sustainability and reducing environmental impacts. Preliminary research results from the mortality composting project indicate that pollutants originally in the compost and soil minerals that become mobilized do not significantly move within the soil when the standard NRCS mortality composting protocol is used. A field demonstration is planned to verify these results. A current study is examining the same environmental impacts to groundwater resulting from the land application of meat processing wastewater. Anticipated results from both projects are the selection of technologies and operating parameters that are protective of ground water. • In Minnesota, The graduate student cohorts in the INFEWSer project exemplify transdisciplinary work. The students entered the cohort challenges with a problem to address, but no concrete guidance on how to solve it. Rather, as a team, they collectively assessed and further defined the challenge, then charted their own course to improve the situation. Two peer-reviewed publications resulting from the graduate student cohorts provide methodologies for community (Welles et al., 2021) and stakeholder-based research (Bird et al., 2022) in the future. • In North Carolina, Dr. Sharara served on a national panel composed by the National Pork Board (NPB) to develop an RFP focused on nutrient flows in swine production (RFP finalized and will be distributed in summer 2022). This contribution is directly linked to the activities and accomplishments in the nutrient balances focused efforts by the S1074 team in preceding years. • In Nebraska, the collective impacts of the team effort lasts year include: (1) Approximately 1,100 extension educators, university faculty and professionals in animal agriculture and allied fields were reached through professional conference outputs; (2) Over 4,000 persons are following one or more of the iAMResponsibleTM Project social media accounts with strong representation by medical professionals, educators and AMR researchers worldwide; (3) Nearly 500 pieces of graphical content have been created for distribution on social media and via printed material. These infographics are intended to help illustrate and highlight scientific research findings related to AMR, spread awareness of the basic scientific principles of AMR, describe the current public health concerns related to AMR, and disseminate information that improves confidence among the intended audience of action they can take to minimize potential AMR-related risks; (4) Online surveys through social media indicate that the team has established the project as a recognized and trusted source of AMR information among audience members and 23% of respondents indicated that they are now motivated to change at least one personal behavior to address AMR; (5) Surveys of participants in one or more LPELC webinars (n=82 responses) who report advising approximately 4,300 agricultural producers annually revealed that 100% experienced improved knowledge of manure treatment and application practice impacts on AMR in soil and water; and 100% reported improved understanding of how manure management and conservation practices discussed mitigate the movement of antibiotics and resistance genes in the environment; (6) Engagement events for social media content totaled just over 4,200 during the period of July 2021 to June 2022; (7) In three years of offering, 56 students have participated in the multi-institutional graduate course led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln titled, “AMR from a One Health Perspective” representing seven U.S. institutions and eight academic disciplines:  85% of course participants valued engagement with students from other institutions and disciplines and reported improved understanding of how AMR is perceived and addressed outside their field.  77% of course participants experienced an increased appreciation for the value of sharing scientific information using research-based methods.  Students commented that “this class is great for networking!”…“I didn’t really understand Extension before taking this course”…and “I liked the numerous aspects we got…on such a multidisciplinary issue.”  Instructors valued the integration of research and outreach highlighted in the course, appreciated their knowledge gain as an instructor (100%), committed to contributing AMR-related outreach content to the iAMResponsibleTM Project (67%), and reported plans to begin disseminating iAMResponsibleTM Project content (83%).  Institutions wishing to offer the course continues to rise, with at least ten institutions committed to offering the course in spring 2023. • In Oklahoma, one producer, two students, two staff, and three faculty members at OSU have been trained on using the virtual fencing technology. Training included fitting and installing virtual fencing collars on cattle and installation of base stations. Further, the team was trained on the use of Herd Manager, the desktop application used to track cattle and implement grazing management. The work strongly contributes to the USDA’s mission to improve the sustainability of agricultural systems and US. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef sustainability goals. Grazing livestock production is expected to increase as a result of optimization of grazing. Nutrient cycling is expected to improve as a result of better distribution of grazing and fecal pat deposition throughout grazed pastures. Nutrient losses are expected to decrease as a result of protection of crtical areas and increased infiltration and filtering of runoff resulting from improved forage health. • In Ohio, the outcomes of the Project 1 include a fundamental mechanistic air emission model (AEM), a farm-scale, processed-based AEM, and the dispersion model AERMOD for NH3 emissions from poultry facilities and subsequent transport and deposition. These decision support tools for the animal industries and governmental agencies are expected to enable fair assessment and effective control of NH3 emissions for improved health of public, farm worker, and animals. In addition, the outcomes will contribute to sustainable egg production and agroecosystems. The outcomes of the Project 2 include effective and economically feasible PM control technologies that will enable the poultry industry to effectively mitigate PM emissions, which will result in improved One Health (health of people, animal, plant, and the environment), reduced outbreaks of foodborne diseases, reduced losses due to outbreak of infectious disease in poultry production, enhanced environmental quality, and sustainable animal production. The project will also contribute innovative PM control solutions for a competitive and sustainable egg production industry in the U.S. • In South Dakota, the team’s work on IoT farm monitoring systems has been reported by multiple media (e.g., swineweb.com) and received requests from producers, builders, and other stakeholders. The web SDOFT that the team created improves the user experience of odor footprint tools and enables the further incorporation of additional functions or more advanced simulation models into the toolkit. The literature review (PM in swine barns) that the team finished has attracted many requests and questions from researchers from different disciplines and countries/regions. It also forms the basis of a recent RFP announced by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), calling for further examination of PM in and near swine farms. • In Texas, the online Extension platform has been very effective. It is proved to be a great supplemental delivery method of animal manure management nationally. Over 2,000 views of the newly added 20 videos from July 2021 to June 2022. They have disseminated accumulated data and observations to stakeholder groups through research committee meetings and interactions with key industry contacts. This information has also been shared with fellow professionals though journal articles and conference presentations. • In Virgina, the outcome of the team is intended to (1) improve the accuracy of decision support tools and models for nutrients accounting on farms and (2) inform the development of suitable emission mitigation strategies to support more sustainable manure management practices. Currently, there is no standard method to predict manure temperature during storage and commonly, the decision support tools and on-farm nutrient cycling models use ambient air temperature as a surrogate for manure temperature. The improvement method of estimating manure temperature during storage will therefore lead to more accurate outcomes of decision support tools and other farm assessment activities where manure temperature is an input parameter. • In Wisconsin, the Midwest Manure Summit reached a large audience in person and online with recorded presentations made available to the group to increase knowledge and science-based decision making on manure management systems. The fact sheet series was completed and has been downloaded by many users to increase knowledge and science-based decision making on manure processing system integration.

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