Manure management is an essential component of dairy production. Nutrient-laden, field-applied dairy manure often serves as a fertilizer source, but can also pose environmental threats if not properly managed. The Haa...Manure management is an essential component of dairy production. Nutrient-laden, field-applied dairy manure often serves as a fertilizer source, but can also pose environmental threats if not properly managed. The Haak dairy farm, located in Decatur, Arkansas, was granted a permit by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to employ a unique method in treating and storing cattle manure generated during the milking process. This method includes minimizing water use in wash water, dry scraping solids to combine with sawdust for composting and pumping effluent underground into a sloped concrete basin that serves as secondary solid separator before transporting the manure effluent into an interception trench and an adjacent grassed field to facilitate manure nutrient uptake and retention. The Arkansas Discovery Farm program (ADF) is conducting research to evaluate the environmental performance of the dairy’s milk center wash water treatment system (MCWW) by statistical analysis, characterization of phosphorus (P) migration in soil downslope from the inception trench, temperature measurements, and nutrient analysis of a stored dry stack manure/sawdust mixture. Goals included determining possible composting effectiveness along with comparisons to untreated dairy manure and quantifying the use of on-farm water. Results from this research demonstrated that: 1) The MCWW was effective at retaining manure-derived nutrients and reducing field nutrient migration as the MCWW interception trench had significantly higher total nitrogen (TN) (804.2 to 4.1), total phosphorus (TP) (135.6 to 1.5), and water extractable phosphorus (WEP) (55.0 to 1.0) concentrations in milligrams per liter (mg⋅L<sup>-1</sup>) than the downhill freshwater pond respectively;2) temperature readings of the manure dry stack indicated heightened levels of microbial and thermal activity, but did not reach a standard composting temperature of 54°C;3) manure dry stack nutrient content was typically higher than untreated dairy manure when measured on a “dry basis” in ppm, but was lower on an “as is basis” in ppm and kg/metric ton;and 4) water meter readings showed that the greatest use of on-farm water was for farm-wide cattle drinking (18.77), followed by water used in the milking center (3.45) and then followed by human usage (0.02) measured in cubic meters per day (m<sup>3</sup>⋅d<sup>-1</sup>). These results demonstrate that practical innovations in agricultural engineering and environmental science, such as the Haak dairy’s manure treatment system, can effectively reduce environmental hazards that accompany the management of manure at this dairy operation.展开更多
A programme effort for SRI impact assessment has been undertaken in 20 project villages in the Narayanpet block. The villages have been pooled under four clusters, for which quantitative and qualitative analyses have ...A programme effort for SRI impact assessment has been undertaken in 20 project villages in the Narayanpet block. The villages have been pooled under four clusters, for which quantitative and qualitative analyses have been carried out on water usage, input cost, plant growth, farmer group collectivization, gross and net returns of SRI, and conventional paddy cultivation. The result shows that significant water saving was achieved for SRI, i.e., 8586 m<sup>3</sup>∙ha<sup>−1</sup> under tubewell irrigation over conventional. This approximation has served as an auxiliary to the number of pumping hours and number of irrigation days that have been reduced for SRI. Less utilisation of water and distance maintained in SRI has benefited in reducing the biotic and abiotic stress caused by snails and nutrient deprivation, respectively. The total yield for a sampled number of SRI farmers has been found to have a 22% increase for the total expenditure difference of Rs. 6153, i.e., 13% less than conventional paddy farmers, which highly impacts the SRI farmers’ net income, i.e., 69% more than the conventional returns. The SRI method has a lower labour deployment of 8 people/ha than the conventional method, which requires 16 people/ha with a constant price of Rs 250/person. Input cost saving in these two categories has ranked top and has fetched maximum production efficiency among the others. The seed cost at a fixed price of 32 Rs/kg was significantly (87%) reduced for SRI as 8 kg per ha was required rather than the conventional that required 62 kg/ha. Social benefits were listed based on the qualitative analysis and were transformed using the theory of planned behaviour.展开更多
文摘Manure management is an essential component of dairy production. Nutrient-laden, field-applied dairy manure often serves as a fertilizer source, but can also pose environmental threats if not properly managed. The Haak dairy farm, located in Decatur, Arkansas, was granted a permit by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to employ a unique method in treating and storing cattle manure generated during the milking process. This method includes minimizing water use in wash water, dry scraping solids to combine with sawdust for composting and pumping effluent underground into a sloped concrete basin that serves as secondary solid separator before transporting the manure effluent into an interception trench and an adjacent grassed field to facilitate manure nutrient uptake and retention. The Arkansas Discovery Farm program (ADF) is conducting research to evaluate the environmental performance of the dairy’s milk center wash water treatment system (MCWW) by statistical analysis, characterization of phosphorus (P) migration in soil downslope from the inception trench, temperature measurements, and nutrient analysis of a stored dry stack manure/sawdust mixture. Goals included determining possible composting effectiveness along with comparisons to untreated dairy manure and quantifying the use of on-farm water. Results from this research demonstrated that: 1) The MCWW was effective at retaining manure-derived nutrients and reducing field nutrient migration as the MCWW interception trench had significantly higher total nitrogen (TN) (804.2 to 4.1), total phosphorus (TP) (135.6 to 1.5), and water extractable phosphorus (WEP) (55.0 to 1.0) concentrations in milligrams per liter (mg⋅L<sup>-1</sup>) than the downhill freshwater pond respectively;2) temperature readings of the manure dry stack indicated heightened levels of microbial and thermal activity, but did not reach a standard composting temperature of 54°C;3) manure dry stack nutrient content was typically higher than untreated dairy manure when measured on a “dry basis” in ppm, but was lower on an “as is basis” in ppm and kg/metric ton;and 4) water meter readings showed that the greatest use of on-farm water was for farm-wide cattle drinking (18.77), followed by water used in the milking center (3.45) and then followed by human usage (0.02) measured in cubic meters per day (m<sup>3</sup>⋅d<sup>-1</sup>). These results demonstrate that practical innovations in agricultural engineering and environmental science, such as the Haak dairy’s manure treatment system, can effectively reduce environmental hazards that accompany the management of manure at this dairy operation.
文摘A programme effort for SRI impact assessment has been undertaken in 20 project villages in the Narayanpet block. The villages have been pooled under four clusters, for which quantitative and qualitative analyses have been carried out on water usage, input cost, plant growth, farmer group collectivization, gross and net returns of SRI, and conventional paddy cultivation. The result shows that significant water saving was achieved for SRI, i.e., 8586 m<sup>3</sup>∙ha<sup>−1</sup> under tubewell irrigation over conventional. This approximation has served as an auxiliary to the number of pumping hours and number of irrigation days that have been reduced for SRI. Less utilisation of water and distance maintained in SRI has benefited in reducing the biotic and abiotic stress caused by snails and nutrient deprivation, respectively. The total yield for a sampled number of SRI farmers has been found to have a 22% increase for the total expenditure difference of Rs. 6153, i.e., 13% less than conventional paddy farmers, which highly impacts the SRI farmers’ net income, i.e., 69% more than the conventional returns. The SRI method has a lower labour deployment of 8 people/ha than the conventional method, which requires 16 people/ha with a constant price of Rs 250/person. Input cost saving in these two categories has ranked top and has fetched maximum production efficiency among the others. The seed cost at a fixed price of 32 Rs/kg was significantly (87%) reduced for SRI as 8 kg per ha was required rather than the conventional that required 62 kg/ha. Social benefits were listed based on the qualitative analysis and were transformed using the theory of planned behaviour.
