Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Reports

Steve Smith Report: Dr. Catherine Woteki is the undersecretary of agriculture for research, education, and economics. Dr. Roger Beachy is the director for NIFA. Five primary areas of focus are climate change, bioenergy, food safety, nutrition and childhood obesity, global food security.

Timothy Randhir and Stephen Herbert, University of Massachusetts

A web-based crop decision support system for cover-crop planting is being developed. As part of this, the effects on N loss of manure application in both the fall and the spring are being examined. The results showed that 70.25 lbs N is lost by delaying planting one week, 76.62 lbs by delaying 2 weeks, and 81.33 lbs by delaying 3 weeks. This is affected by the amount of rainfall in the fall. Was better to plant an early season corn (95-day) so it can be harvested earlier and get the cover crop planted on time. Cover crops also help protect against erosion  can plant a cover crop up to 2 weeks later than desired and still get decent erosion protection.

Field trip.

Vinicius Moreira, University of Louisiana

• Dairy Wastewater Treatment Evaluation System (DWTES). Bottom loading appeared to increase solids digestion in anaerobic lagoons.
• Effect of Wetland Flow Rates. Storage capacity may be the most limiting condition, but whenever possible slower flow rates are recommendable.
• Floating Island Vegetative Filter Systems. Very little solids accumulation at bottom of lagoon. Most of E coli at end was from wildlife, not cows. Ratio of N2 gas production to NO2 production will be a critical component.

Rick Kohn, University of Maryland

Using Milk Urea Nitrogen (MUN), to improve dairy herd nutrition. Urine N is very well correlated with MUN. Most of the variation in MUN is based on the amount of protein fed. Tend to overfeed protein  especially when doing precision feeding. Have reduced feed from 18% CP to 16.5% and havent lost any milk production. Can probably go lower. Target MUN is 8-11 mg/dl.

Thermodynamic Equilibrium in Biological Systems. Working on models that integrate kinetics and thermodynamics such as found in the rumen and manure digestors.

Rich Muck, Dairy & Forage Research Center, Wisconsin

Comparing silage treated with inoculants vs untreated silage. Found no difference in DMI, but observed pH differences, and a 2 lb milk production increase with the treated silage. Silage inoculants can improve milk production by about 3%.

Mark Powell, Dairy & Forage Research Center, Wisconsin

Examining dairy slurry application methods (no, partial, and complete incorporation) and the effect on ammonia emissions and nitrate leaching. Finding large variation from year to year. Generally no incorporation treatment resulted in more ammonia loss; whereas, injection resulted in more nitrate leaching. Overall, the greatest N loss from partial incorporation, the least from injection.

Joe Harrison, University of Washington

Examining anaerobically digested manure versus undigested manure. Aerators used to apply manure, with the manure being applied right behind the tines that punch the holes. Finding lower carbon content and increased N2O in the anaerobically-digested manure. Plots performed similarly regardless of manure type or application method. Soil nitrate levels in the control plots were much lower. Also examining manure treatment methods and the effect on pathogens.

Rhonda Miller, Utah State University

Steel slag study. Examining the feasibility of using electric arc furnace (EAF) steel slag to remove P from lagoon effluent. Bench-scale study looked at the effect of temperature, warm and cold, and high organic matter content on P removal capabilities. Steel slag was able to remove ~70% of the P from the effluent over the four-month study. Cold temperature treatment removed more P than the warm temperature treatment.

Notes

Final report due in 60 days. Please see Final Report attached, in lieu of Minutes.

Ask Mike Westendorf to be chair again. Rick Kohn will be secretary. Joe Harrison will host the next meeting.