Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Administrative Update: The NE-1044 project has been approved. The federal budget for Experiment Stations (Hatch budget) is still pending with big differences in the proposed House and Senate budgets. To gain more support for agricultural funding, one approach that may be pursued is to have one budget line for agriculture. Everything would be in one line, rather than multiple lines. The split between competitive funds and capacity-building funds is yet to be determined. There is also an increased emphasis on sustainability and whether we can continue to support our growing world population.

USDA Update: Steve Smith, our USDA representative, was unable to make it to the meeting.

Dave Combs will be chair next year. Will meet in Wisconsin next year. Marshfield is 3 hours north of Madison. Rhonda Miller will be secretary.

State Reports

University of Massachusetts

Tim Randhir: Current research work examines nutrient dynamics at a watershed scale. The effects of climate, water uncertainty, etc. are being examined.

Stephen Herbert: Research examines nutrient removal by cover crops. The cover crops utilize 40-50% more N if the cover crop is planted by Sept 1 vs Sept 15. This has been converted to GDD needed. Also examining the land area required to replace the energy used by electricity and potential solutions by mixing solar energy collection and pasture production. Solar panels have been mounted several feet above the ground with access for grazing below the panels. Study examines the spacing needed to maintain productive plant growth. Masoud Hashemi is taking over the work examining ammonia volatilization from manure application. Found that ammonia loss is reduced if manure application is delayed until later in the year when the temperatures are lower. Incorporation after application greatly reduced ammonia losses.

Louisiana State University

John Westra: Research modeling current land use to determine the effects of increasing pasture or perennial cover in beef and dairy systems. The impacts on capacity, sediment, nutrient loading, and farm income are being examined.

Vinicius Moeira: Research evaluates plant growth on artificial floating islands to improve multi-stage wastewater treatment systems. Goal is to treat water as much as possible to minimize transportation costs. Grew oats, rye, ryegrass, sunflower, sweet sorghum, corn, forage sorghum, and pearl millet in anaerobic lagoons, aerobic lagoons, and constructed wetland systems. Measured total dry matter, and nutrients including Ca, Mg, N, and P harvested per day. Aerobic lagoons had the best results for the cool season grasses. Corn did better than everything else in the anaerobic lagoons. Currently in the second year of the study. Future plans include examining plants that have deeper root systems.

Dairy Research Center, University of Wisconsin

Rich Muck: Research examines the effects of a silage inoculant on rumen microflora and milk production. Lactobacillus plantarum (Ecosyl MTD/1) alters the rumen microbial community, milk production, and efficiency of nitrogen utilization compared to untreated silage. This inoculant has had a large amount of research conducted on it. Ecosyl MTD/1 results in increased milk production even when no observed effect in the silage was present. When fed directly to the cows no effect was observed. Think the effect is occurring in the silo, resulting in an improvement in microbial biomass production. Monitoring the in vivo effects by sampling fluid at the omasum and by using PCR techniques to observe changes in the rumen microbial populations. Significant changes have been observed in ARISA populations, MUN, protein %, lactose. No effect on milk fat.

Other work going on at Marshfield includes paired watersheds and manure application practices, the effect of tannins on ammonia and GHG emissions, and some work with red clover looking at the effect of polyphenol oxidase and the impact on nitrogen utilization.

University of Wisconsin

Dave Combs: Work evaluates the comparative attributes of grazing, organic, and conventional management systems focusing on profitability and stewardship. Meadow fescue or tall fescue silage was fed in combination with alfalfa and corn silage to evaluate the effects on milk production and the potential to reduce sub-acute ruminal acidosis (SARA) in lactating dairy cows. This data indicates that high quality meadow and tall fescue silages can be fed to high producing dairy cows without a decrease in fat corrected milk production. Another study examined the impact of grazing experiences early in life on grazing behavior and performance of lactating dairy heifers in a 3-year study. GPS units were utilized to monitor cow movement. Those with no previous grazing experience tended to move around very little when grazing. Milk production was lowest initially for cows with no previous grazing experience. Results indicate that previous grazing experience can impact behavior and milk production during the first 3 days on pasture. After this time, experienced and inexperienced cattle presented a similar grazing behaviors and performance. Also working on a fiber digestion predictor to predict in vivo digestibility from the in vitro values. Are two parts to the spreadsheet:
1) Model that uses in vitro NDFD values to predict ruminal rates of NDF degradation. Ruminal and total tract fiber digestion coefficients are then determined.
2) Consultants tool to predict ration energy supply (NEI) and DDM value of tested forages.

Utah State University

Rhonda Miller: Working on a study with Dr. Scott Jones that is developing low-cost air quality sensors. Air quality emissions from manure storage facilities and from land application under various manure management practices will be examined in both dairy and beef systems.

Michigan State University

Santiago Utsumi: Kellogg Biological Station Dairy Project conducts long-term research examining ecosystem processes and impacts. Research includes simple versus complex mixtures, high-input versus low-input, forage intake, and animal movement in pastures, and the use of automatic milking systems on economic, social, and environmental factors.

USDA-ARS Pennsylvania

Al Rotz: Dairy Gas Emission Model (DairyGEM) calculates ammonia and hydrogen sulfide volatilization, GHG emissions, and carbon footprint. Working on adding VOCs. Are 100-150 types of VOCs from silage. Also adding an anaerobic digestor component, biogas use and electricity production. Most ammonia emissions occur during field application. Carbon footprint component shows that beef cow-calf operations are responsible for 70-75% of the total carbon footprint. Nitrate leaching was greater from pasture-based dairy. Ammonia and GHG emissions were greater from the confinement dairy. Carbon footprint of milk produced was similar for the pasture-based dairy and the confinement dairy. Carbon sequestration of the pasture-based system was slightly lower than that of the confinement dairy.

University of Pennsylvania

Zhengxia Dou: Two separate projects. One study looks at farm interventions and the resulting economic impact in 10 study herds (all confined) over 3 years. Dietary protein was generally 16-18% - more were decreasing protein % than increasing. Dietary P % - most holding steady or slightly decreasing, but one was increasing a lot. Fecal protein % - generally increasing, but highly variable. Fecal P % was decreasing slightly. Pregnancy rate % was generally improving. Estimated N excretion (g/kg milk) was highly variable. Estimated P excretion (g/kg milk) was generally decreasing. Second project examined the impact of manure pH and temperature treatment and the effect on pathogens (Salmonella Newport and E. Coli 157). Both pathogens can survive after manure excretion, and in soil for over 450 days. Under low pH (3.6 and 4.2) pathogens lived only about one week. Lived longer with a pH of 4.5 and higher. Unamended manure has a pH of 7.3. Newport died when the pH was increased to 11. At 42 degrees C both pathogens lived ~350 days, at 22 degrees C lived ~55 days.

Rutgers University, New Jersey

Mike Westendorf: Developing a series of videos for small livestock farms. Nutrient Mgt videos can be found at http://njaes.rugters.edu/animal-waste-management/videos.asp
Also developing an on-line composting school for small farms, and a program to aid small farmers in preparing nutrient management plans. Conducting Best Management Practice (BMP) demonstrations on small farms and the use of okara as a feed for ruminants. Okara is a by-product of the soybean and tofu industry.

Washington State University

Joe Harrison: Examining gaseous emissions from anaerobic digested lagoon vs raw manure and whether injected or surface applied.