Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

S-1074 Webinar Summaries for 2019-2020

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.

• The first webinar was held September 20, 2019. Dr. Dan Anderson with Iowa State University presented his work on “A methodology for county level manure budgets in Iowa”. The method was used to assess whether livestock manure nutrients generated balanced crop nutrient needs at county levels in Iowa from 1974 to 2017.
• The second webinar was on November 15, 2019. Dr. Mahmoud Sharara with North Carolina State University talked about his work on “Watershed Nutrient Budgets: Approaches and end-goals.” 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.
• 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.
• The fourth and final webinar was on April 17, 2020. Dr. Al Rotz with USDA ARS presented his work “Evaluating the Sustainability of Animal Production Systems.” 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.

 Collective and multi-state accomplishments:

•  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 ± 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.
• 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.
• 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’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’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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Texas A&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.
• 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).
• A webinar was collaboratively offered by S1074 and the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community in September 2019 titled “Watershed Nutrient Inventories – Opportunities and Needs”. 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’s November 15 webinar for S1074, and introduced US EPA’s approach to nutrient inventories.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.  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.  A mobile macropore unit was constructed and successfully tested that enables the quantification of macropores.  A qualitative nutrient index for site-specific fertilizer application is currently in development. 
• 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.
• 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 (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 “Livestock and Poultry Mortality Management Best Management Practices”. The grant is provided by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP), and is 2018-2020.
• 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.
• 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.
• Nebraska team has collaborated with Minnesota and Iowa states in developing a survey on ‘Manure’s benefits and barriers’ with the goals of separating out the “challenges” associated with manure from the “true barriers” that prevent manure utilization and further refining our understanding of different audiences’ specific perceptions of manure’s benefits, challenges, and service requirements.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. 
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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 “Modeling Fluxes, Fate and Transport of Ammonia Emission from Egg Production and Manure Management Facilities”. 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.
• 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 “Electrostatic Precipitation Air Cleaning of Particulate Matter (PM) Emissions at Animal Production Facilities”. 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.
• Researchers led by Koziel from Iowa State University continued to improve mitigation technologies for odor and gaseous emissions from swine and poultry operations. Koziel’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.
• 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.
• Koziel from Iowa State University led the effort to valorize biowaste (manure, DDGS, brewer’s spent grains) by torrefaction and the potential for ‘waste-to-energy’ and ‘waste-to-carbon’.
• 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.
• Researchers led by Koziel (Iowa) continued to improve mitigation technologies for odor and gaseous emissions from swine and poultry operations. Koziel’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.
• 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.
• Rodríguez, 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 infews-er.net, 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.

Short term outcomes

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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’ floor distribution and behaviors in commercial facilities.