Concentrated Animal Feed Lots-
Water and wastewater treatment at Pig farms or other animal feed lots and the associated odors are now a major concern for Farmers.
Agriculture is the largest segment of the United States economy, with sales of $174.4 billion. It is also the most unique in that about 2% of the population feeds the entire nation, and 70 million people abroad. This industry provides valuable jobs and sustains the economy in poorer counties.

Environmental issues as well as odor complaints from neighbors are forcing the Animal Feed lot industries, specifically the pork industry, to look closer at how they do business and to respond to the concerns brought up by these issues. These industries will have to address odors as well as water reuse and nutrient management issues.

Pork producers in every major pork production state are currently subject to detailed regulations for air, water and solids pollution and are leading the nationwide effort to develop additional, science-based regulations.
Below are some examples of N and P nutrients that occur in typical animal feed lot waste. Currently, many CAFO operators have addressed these issues, but lawsuits, business permit denials, new state rules and new EPA regulations are forcing all of the pork farmers to begin aggressively addressing these issues. The pork industry is subject to a full array of federal, state and local environmental regulations. Areas of typical regulation include: groundwater, surface water and coastal water; air quality; animal and manure disposal; land and soil quality; land use; and complaints.

Water use at an animal feedlot facility can be high.

Beneficial Reuse

EPA Office of Compliance Sector Notebook Project, Animal Feed Lots Industry or CAFO regulations.  More information can be obtained on the EPA website http://es.epa.gov/oeca/sector or by contacting Environmental Leverage

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) - Final Rule http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/afo/cafofinalrule

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There are tons of files containing information on every subject from A to Z on the internet with standards, benchmarks and industry BMP's.  The problems is, who has time to dig and find it all. It is not always in easy to find places.  We have tried to show you some of the ones we though might be useful. There are links to the places where we found some of them in case you want to dig deeper on a particular subject and find out more.

Dairies have numerous issues to deal with-Land and Water Considerations, Nutrient Management, Odors, Common Concerns Associated with Expansion, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations- CAFO regulations, permits and licensing, health and safety, Manure Storage and solids handling. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing regulations that will require dairy and other producers to control and contain runoff from their land, as well as regulate type and scope of livestock operations.
 
Production has been forced to become concentrated in fewer but larger dairies, and environmental concerns over the industry's waste products are placing increasing pressure on dairy operations. Heightened environmental concerns and need for resource conservation have caused implementation of water use permits and other possible regulatory actions in many states. These may include water intake limits, water effluent limits, permit restrictions, air quality restrictions or solids handling limitations.
 
Keeping cows clean and healthy requires continual pen and lane flushing in dairies, using thousands of gallons of water daily. The wastewater that is the end result has a high organic content which can be difficult to filter for reuse, but not impossible. Studies have been performed that show bioaugmentation of pond water or flush water reduced organics and ammonia levels. Benefits include odor control, reuse, recycle of water, reduction in health problems and less or no permit violations.

a Battye et al. (1994) stated that these composites appear to have been calculated using the incorrect number of swine in the Netherlands and are therefore too low; corrected values would be 4.0, 4.5, and 8.5 respectively.

The EPA has tons of information on Dairies, environmental impact, useful tools, etc. http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/impactwholefarm.html

Conventional on-site treatment for manure has included scraping the pens and stockpiling the manure for fertilizing adjacent crops. In contrast, a flush system uses dairy wash water to remove manure from the dairy cow feeding lanes. This method saves labor, but increases the quantity and nutrient loading of wastewater, which requires an improved wastewater treatment system for dairies with flush systems.
Treatment may include lagoons, runoff storage ponds, settling basins, aeration basins, constructed wetlands or discharge directly to a local POTW.

Cattle Production Efficiencies

United States cattle production illustrates the extraordinary efficiency and productivity of modern agriculture.
In fact, U.S. cattlemen produce approximately one-quarter of the world’s beef supply with less than 10 percent of the world’s cattle population. The American cattle industry continues to produce relatively steady supplies of beef, even when cyclical pressures downsize the nation’s cow herd.

Increased productivity has been achieved by developing cattle which, on average, are leaner and larger, with more meat and less trimmable fat per animal. A higher percentage of calves born each year in breeding herds, and processing fewer non-fed cattle and calves, contribute to increased efficiency. Feeding efficiencies and increased rate of gain have also improved productivity.
Improved efficiency means more beef from fewer cattle. Cattle in feedlots today require less than seven pounds of feed per pound of live-weight gain. Gain averages a little more than three pounds per day. In the past 25 years, beef production efficiency has increased 10 percent.
Because of increases in productivity, the cattle industry produced as much beef with a national herd of 100 million cattle in the early 90’s as it produced with a herd averaging 120 million in the 1970s. From 1979 to 1993, beef production increased 8 percent while beef cow inventory decreased 8 percent.

Although a greater proportion of slaughtered animals come from feedlots, and they’re being fed to heavier weights, there has been little change in the total amount of grain fed to cattle. Beef calves today are weaned at much heavier weights and are increasingly kept on pasture to even heavier weights before being placed on feed. Improved genetics and feeding technology have helped increase feed efficiency. Consequently, the amount of grain fed per pound of beef produced has declined as beef cattle have become leaner and more efficient. – Ron Gustafson, USDA Economist, 1994.

Whole-Farm Nutrient Balance

A "Whole Farm Nutrient Balance" evaluation is a tool that can be used to evaluate the potential for generation of excess nutrients on the farm and can form the basis for developing plans to deal with nutrient buildups. Nutrients are transported along multiple pathways and in a variety of forms in a livestock operation.
Source: Livestock and Poultry Environmental Stewardship
 
Nutrient management is critical at animal feed lots. Biological wastewater treatment can improve nutrient management efforts. This can increase the nutrient content into the solids for better value for land application, while removing nutrients from the water, thus enabling better water recycle.
 
Evaluating nutrient balance from a whole farm perspective provides a more complete picture of the driving forces behind nutrient-related environmental issues. The following four management strategies should help reduce nutrient imbalances:
1.    Efficient use of nutrients in crop production can offset fertilizer nutrient inputs.
2.    Alternative feed rations and efficient utilizer of on-farm feeds can offset nutrient inputs as purchased feeds and forages.
3.    Exporting of manure nutrients to off-farm users can increase managed nutrient outputs.
4.    Manure treatments allow disposal of manure nutrients. Some treatment options enhance the value of manure nutrients and complement manure marketing efforts.

What are some of the options to address these issues?

Water and wastewater treatment with the use of biological additive has been shown to be a relatively inexpensive treatment of pond water or waste pits.
Some of the benefits of using biological and odor products for treatment:
 
Cleaner ponds or pits- lower BOD, N and P and TSS
Cleaner Water available for reuse
Reduction in odor control
Reduction in ammonia levels in the barns, leading to less sore throats for the pigs, higher weight gain, lower vet bills and lower mortality rates
Reduction or elimination of fines
Pig Farm Case History

Odor Control and Water clarification for final effluents or recycle are the prime goals of these applications to help farmers.
Odor Control-
Target area- Perimeter and back end lagoons-
Mist application for nuisance control
Using Essential oils technology
Biological products for odors
Biological Oxygen supplement
Biological additives for organic removal and nutrient removal

Water clarification
Biological products
BOD, Nitrate and NH3 removal
BOD removal- carbonaceous bacteria
NH3- Nitrate- nitrifiers
Nitrate removal( Denitrification)- facultative bacteria

Chemical applications-
Equipment-
Mist technology applications
Biofeeders
Aerators

Meat Processing Overview

Meat processing includes slaughtering, processing, and rendering operations involving primarily cattle, hogs, and poultry.  Some plants handle only one type of operation, such as meat processing, but others carry out multiple operations including rendering., smoking, canning, freezing, and sausage making.

With annual sales of nearly $113 billion, the United States produces more meat for human consumption than any country in the world except China.  A third of all meat processing facilities are located in California, Illinois, Texas, and New York.  This industry has over 1,297 processing facilities that employ over 88,000 people and produces shipments greater than $22 billion each year.

The meat processing industry has been challenged in recent years by a variety of economic and safety issues.  It is an extremely volatile and competitive marketplace.  There has been rapid consolidation, high labor turnover rates, and some new federal safety rules such as HAACP regulations.  Public concerns over diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) and hoof and mouth disease, and increasing community and public opposition to meat processing operations have made operations difficult. 

The primary environmental impacts of the meat processing industry include pollutant releases to water, waste disposal, water use, and odors. Annually, the industry consumes about 150 billion gallons of water, at a cost of about $750 million. Wastewater includes significant amounts of biosolids such as particles of fat and blood (which may reach 20,000 tons annually at a large facility), as well as nitrogen and ammonia compounds, phosphorus, and chlorine.

DAF's of skimming tanks need to be adjusted to handle the solids loading and to capture the grease and oils at slaughter houses

Screens can be used to prevent solids from entering the treatment plant

Make sure that if you use a DAF or API, that you optimize all the variables, the skimmer speed and rotation, the oxygen, the flights, the chemicals used, etc.

Watch what color the foam is on your aeration tank if you have one. A change from brown, to light brown to a crisp white foam can indicate a recent surge in BOD loading and can significantly impact your treatment process. Change your wasting rates or RAS or adjust with the use of bioaugmentation to try to catch up with the F/M loading. 

Tanks onsite  can be retrofitted or brought in and can be used to pre-treat influent prior to being discharged to a local P.O.T.W. and significantly lower the surcharges that are incurred due to high BOD and TSS fluctuations that often exist at a food and beverage plant. We have worked with a number of plants that used onsite treatment, or small package plants to pretreat their influent and saved 1/2 to one million dollars a year in savings, not to mention headaches and upsets to the local POTW.

MicroClear 501 is a  powdered product that was developed for use in the biological wastewater treatment of for Animal Feed lots. This product helps digest the excess feed, fats, oils and grease that can cause problems with foaming and filamentous bacteria.

Audits and Onsite Training and Consulting

 In order to "Audit" or Troubleshoot an Animal Feed Lot wastewater treatment plant, a number of things need to be looked at. A physical walk-through of the plant needs to be conducted with visual observations noted. A microscopic analyses of the Biological portion of the waste treatment system needs to be conducted. Settleometer Testing needs to be conducted A sludge judge should be used on a Clarifier Examination of lab data- current testing procedures and results Walk through and correlation of process side to wastewater treatment plant operations A fully detailed final report is issued with process recommendations, system changes, areas for optimization and increased efficiency.

For a full onsite audit of your plant- Contact Environmental Leverage inc. 630-906-9791

More troubleshooting for Animal Feed Lots:

Troubleshooting Lagoon Systems

Wastewater in the Fall- Problems and Solutions