ANBI 375
Near Infrared spectroscopy Advantages-
Advantages- rapid, relatively inexpensive What can it measure: -Moisture -Protein -Amino Acids -Digestibility -In line (on the horizon)
Diet content =
Animal requirements -Meeting nutrient needs while minimizing nutrient deficiencies and excesses
Pesticide Usage
Billions of pounds made in US each year over 300 pesticides in use in US >50% of use is non commercial -many benefits, including higher crop yields and better health (malaria, west nile virus)
Animal Genotype
Continuously changing Egg production selection (Hyline) -One pure like over 36 years -Egg number to 60 weeks +2.1 -Liveability 0.17% -FCR -0.014
Pesticides -
Endocrine disrupting compounds Any substance or mixture of substances that is intended for -preventing destroying, repelling, mitigating pests Insecticides Herbicides Fungicides Avicides Molluscicides rodenticides
Climate Change Impacts on Crop Production
Environmental effects; frequency and intensity of soil drainage, soil erosion, reduced crop diversity Changing agricultural practices; changing irrigation patterns, changing use of herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers Altered productivity; measured in terms of quality and quantity of crops Adaptation; by organisms that become more or less competitive over time.Humans may develop more competitive organisms such as drought resistant varieties
Once the TOEF is calculated, the _________ of the odour occurrences at various distances from the farm site can be estimated
Frequencies
Characteristics of Animal Wastes: Total Organic carbon (TOC) Nutrients: Heavy Metals:
Nutrients: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, copper Heavy Metals: lead, arsenic, Cadmium
Saskatchewan Agricultural operations act
Passed in 1995 -Mechanism to resolve nuisance disputes - Files, dust, noise, odours, rodents -Provides protection to farmers using accepted ag. practices - review board, mediation -Guidelines for management practices- hogs, dairy, poultry, beef, sheep, goats , horses, crop production
Thermal Conversion-Challenges;
Potential to create air emissions - technology exists to control emissions BUT expensive -Variability of manure -Costs
Diet Processing
Reducing particle size -Grinding - grind feed to uniform particle size -Flanking/rolling/cracking- improve digestibility >10^% Conditioning with heat and moisture -Pelleting- improves protein digestibility 3.7% in pig -Expanding/ extruding - can improve pellet quality and digestibility for some ingredients * Important particularly for low quality ingredients*
Methods of Waste Management Thermal conversion(TC): Direct Combustion: (DC) Pyrolysis (P): Gasification (G): Technology only for solid manure
TC: -Burning waste to produce energy to treat waste to produce fuels DC: -Burning with excess air to produce heat P: - Thermal treatment with no air --> pyrolysis oil and low BTU gas G: -Thermal treatment at hight temp in an O2 restriction environment to produce low to med. BTU gas
Toxicology
The science of poisons
Diet
Variability in nutrient content of ingredients -Cultivar -Environment where crop was grown -Processing technique -Ingredient variability in nutrient digestibility P-phytate, N-protease inhibitors -Processing of ingredients, P- minor effects, N- heat and moisture encourage millard reactions - reduces content and digestibility
VOC's
Volatile organic compounds: hydrocarbon comps that have low boiling points, usually less than 100C and therefore evaporate readily. Some are gases at room temp. -Reactive inorganic gases such as NH3 and hydrogen sulphide also generate odours, and are emitted from animal wastes -Odorants can be present at levels known to cause irritation and heath effects - The irritation both inflames the tissue, and activates various sensory signals and responses
Weather vs. Climate
Weather - Includes sunshine, rain, cloud, wind, hail, snow, freezing rain, thunder.... Measured over a short time -Day to day state of the atmosphere and its short term variation. Collecting statistical data. Meteorology CLIMATE- includes precipitation, temperature, humidity, sun, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost and hail over long period of time -Statistical weather info that describes the variation of weather at a place for a specific time interval -Climatology
Livestock Pollution Who owns the Problem: Scope of the problem: Characteristics of waste:
Who owns it -Producers, Public, municipalities, legislators Scope of the problem: Location an number of animals, other wastes Characteristics of waste: Measurement methods, Organic matter, nutrients, methane, Odour
Persistence in the environment
Zeranol has been found in low concentrations in sewage discharges -TBA metabolites stable in animal waste with a half- life of 267 days in liquid manure -MGA present in soil 195 days after fertilization with solid manure
Biogas
-1 cow produces 600 BTU x 43lb = 26 000 BTU - this is ~1/3 heat amount/hr of furnace in a 3bdrm house (SK) -1L gas (91 octane) gets about 32000 BTU -1 cow produces equiv of 0.8L of gas/day -Standby farm generator w/ output of 4000W uses about 0.7L gas/hr There is ~100% variation in estimates of dairy manure CH4 production
Skeptic vs. Denier
-A 2007-2008 gallup polls survey of 127 countries found >1/3 of worlds pop. was unaware of global warming -In US 53% of Americans view changed as a serious concern
Surprise
-A challenging task is to estimate the prob. of coincidental events that might happen in conjunction with global warming, spanning the range b/w low prob. catastrophic events (Surprises) and high prob gradual changes in climate and associated w/ environmental effects
Climate Change
-A long-term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years -May be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average ex. greater or fewer extreme weather events
Surprise (2)
-A seemingly small change in one variable-- for example, rainfall may trigger a major unsuspected change in another or droughts or floods might possibly disrupt the transport of grain on rivers.
CanPARTAKE
-A tool to help livestock producers asses their on-farm drought preparedness through a series of questions relating to water supplies and grazing management It provides users with: -A map showing areas of land at higher risk during a drought -The opportunity to evaluate their stocking are -A list of potentially useful BMP's
Composting
-Aerobic decomposition of organic material by bacteria and fungi -This process: increases humus, C:N ratio decrease 30:1-40:1 to start, 10:1, pH neutralizers -Composting occurs in 2 ranges -Mesophilic- 10-40C, Thermophilic - over 40C
Available water
-Agriculture of any kind is influenced by water -climate change will modify rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and soil moisture storage -Changes in total seasonal precipitation or in its pattern of variability are both important -The occurrence of moisture stress during flowering,pollination, and grain-filling is harmful to most crops and particularly to corn, soybeans and wheat
Climate Change Scenarios
-Any assessment of plausible impacts of climate change must be based on an appraisal of what future climate will look like and how variable it will be. -Scenarios are typically used to estimate the impact of climate change on crop development and yield
Climate Gate
-Began in 2009 when the climate research unit at the Uof East Anglia was hacked prior to the Copenhagen summit on climate change. The identity of the hackers is not known -thousands of emails and files were shared widely across the internet and discussed widely by climate change deniers as evidence of data manipulation -8 committees evaluated the evidence and found none of fraud or scientific misconduct
Anaerobic Digestion - Benefits
-Biogas production -Include better control over emissions from lagoons
Phase feeding
-Changing nutrient content to match changing animal requirements Growth Reproduction
Agriculture land Base
-Climate change will likely increase in total area of arable land by eliminating areas of frozen landscape -there increases in area may be offset by losses through drought and other extreme climate -many crops have become adapted to the growing season dat lengths of the middle and lower latitudes and may not respond well to the much longer days of the high latitude summers
Methods of Waste Management
-Collection & containment -Storage -Processing: thermal conversion, solid- liquos separators, composting, anaerobic digestion, aerators/ mixers, nitrification/dénitrification -Disposal
Nutrient Management
-Complex area with many factors affecting the impact of manure on the environment -
Human health Implications CAFO?
-Concentrated animal feeding operations near schools may pose asthma risk to children who attend school new large scale livestock farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO's) may be at higher risk for asthma, according to a study by Uof Iowa -411 compounds have been associated with odorous emissions from industrial pig production facilities alone.
Solid- liquid Separators
-Due to increased use of slurry manure handling system and concerns w/ odours and nutrients- removal of solids from manure is more attractive -Solid-liquid separation Concentrating a portion of the org. solids and nutrient elements in the manure into a small fraction -Liquid effluent will have lower organic contents - lower odour during application and storage
Climate Change Scenarios (2)
-Each scenario is defined as a set of climate variables derived from generally accepted projects (often use the average of multiple models and/or the extremes) -Scenarios often include data and expert opinion
Solid Liquid Separators (2)
-Effect separation can remove significant amounts of organic matter, N, and P -Does not reduce total farm nutrients -solids (70% moisture) -Still needs management
Nitrogen
-Essential building block for protein synthesis required for body metabolism, growth and reproduction -Second largest part of the diet after energy components -Diet sources - Protein, crystalline amino acids -Non protein nitrogen (ruminants)
Diet matches requirements
-Feed additives that enhance digestibility Enzymes - endo-xylanase, Phytase
Grouping animals according to requirement
-Grouping for production, stage of growth, or wt. range -Dairy cow stage of lactation -Split sex feeding in pigs -barrows require more energy for maintenance than gilts -increase energy to protein ratio of the feed for barrows
Balance of nutrients (amino acids)
-Ideal protein ratio (balanced protein) -Low protein diets -Crystalline amino acids (Met, Lys, The, Trp, Val, Iso, Arg)
Monitoring and mitigating effects
-Improve tracking or pesticides and manure applications --> amounts, locations, and timing -evaluate the effects of management practices on concentrations and transport of ag. contaminants -Observed environmental concentrations of ECDs need to be placed into the context of actual biological -Identify sensitive wildlife species to serve as environmental sentinels -Sensitive analytical and bioassay techniques need to be developed and incorporated screening procedures
Endocrine Disrupting Compounds
-Is an exogenous substance that causes adverse health effects in an intact organism or its progeny, secondary to changes in endocrine function
Anaerobic Digestion- Challenges
-Land base for application of solids - P -Long term reliability of the system and associated operating and maintenance costs -Dealing with local electric companies
Feed intake in laying hens
-Level of nutrient in the diet should be based on the feed intake of animals
Effects of Higher Temperature
-Longer potential growing season will lead to earlier seeding, earlier harvesting. -may have two or more cropping cycles during the same season -When temp exceed the optimal for biological processes, crops often respond negatively with a steep drop in net growth and yield -If nighttime temp minima rise more than do daytime maxima-- as it expected from GHG warming projections- heat stress during day may be less severe than otherwise, but increased nighttime respiration may also reduce potential yields
Ideal protein concept
-Lowering protein -All excess amino acids above requirement have no value for proteins synthesis and undergo catabolism -Excess is absorbed at the small intestine -Protein in deaminated in liver; C skeleton used for energy and the NH4+ grp is converted to urea --> pee -Feeding less leads to less urea (uric acid) -Reduced urea excretion decreases manure N & NH3
Livestock Pollution
-Major source of environmental degradation from animal feeding operations is waste products (manure, urine and bedding material) -Pollution from animal waste includes runoff of nutrients, organic matter, and emissions of fine particulates.
Endocrine Disruption: modes of action
-Mimic activity of endogenous hormone (agonist) -Inhibit activity of endogenous hormone (antagonist) -Alter hormone synthesis, metabolism or transport -modify hormone receptor levels
Uncertainty (2)
-More uncertainties come from the fast pace and under predictable directions of future social, economic, political and technical changes. - Its not entirely clear how many ppl on earth will need to be fed by the agriculture system -What technology changes are forth coming?
Source of Odour Issues
-Most offensive odours are created by the anaerobic (oxygen-free) decay of wet organic matter such as manure, feed, or silage. Water + Organic matter + warm temp = Potentially foul odours
Anaerobic Digestion
-Natural process which bacteria break down OM in an O2 free environment - moisture content >85% -Process produces biogas- CH4, CO2 and trace amounts of other gases including hydrogen sulfide (H2S) -Can be burned to produce heat to power an electrical generator
Zeranol Trenbolone Acetate (TBA) Melengestrol acetate (MGA)
-Non-steroidal, synthetic estrogen -Administered by implantation of continuously releasing hormone pellet TBA- Synthetic androgen -Administered by implantation of continuously releasing hormone pellet (MGA) - Synthetic progestin -Administered in cattle feed -Also used for estrus synchronization and supplementation
hockey stick graph
-Numerous attempts to refute the hockey stick graph-highly political --Many 14- paper support the warmest decade in at least 1300 years was at the end of the 20th century. -July 2015 was the warmest month EVER
Safety Margins
-Nutrient levels are generally higher than actually required to account for Variation in the content and digestibility of amino acids Variaitions in requirement b/w animals of different genotypes
Aeration
-O2 is introduced into the lagoon to assist in the digestion and stabilization of organics and miners/ and or to reduce odours and potentially reduce N -Routinely utilized in the municipal wastewater industry -Goal is to reduce BOD and suspended solids to permit requirement levels for discharge into surface water
Uncertainty
-Of in predictions is v important feature of climate change - Early studies "best estimate" scenarios that were based on the mid- points of the predicted range of expected change in temp, precip, or other parameters. Including the entire range from the upper to the lower bounds of predicted effect is a more prudent and realistic approach, which may clarify the way that uncertainty can propagate throughout a modelled or real system
Thermal conversion; benefits:
-Offers potential to: -Substitute manure for fossil fuels -Stimulate local economy -Reduce nutrients that have to be managed by land -Reduce/ eliminate pathogens & odour -Ash by-product concentrates phosphorus and salts -Industrial products
Phosphorus (P)
-One of the major mineral elements required by animals -required for -skeleton system, biochemical reactions (ATP/ADP) Diet sources- Di and mono calcium phosphates, animal protein meals, plant ingredients -60-75% in form of phytate,is a major P storage compound in plants
Atrazine
-One of the most widely used herbicides in the world -Produced by Syngenta Crop Protection -Market is over $400M/yr -Sprayed on ~70% of corn acreage in US -Measurable in nearly all US surface waters, though typically 3 pp. levels set. by EPA -Debate over its effect on amphibians - potential endocrine disruptor
Phytate (physic acid)
-P i poorly available to mom-gastric (pigs, chickens) -Well utilized by ruminants -Binds to other cationic minerals: @ neutral pH -Zn2+ -Can directly or indirectly bind to protein and starch -Can be hydrolysed by the enzyme 'phytase' -plant, microbial, animal
Diet palatability
-Pelleting for pig feed- reduces feed waste ~5% -Dry feed is not very palatable - augments feed waste -Selective consumption - dairy cows
Skeptic vs. Denier
-Perspectives from those not fully supportive of climate change may be classified as: -Naive-(doubt but don't know or care ) -Doubter (don't hold any strong views) -Agnostic (generally doubt any and all claims of knowledge ) -Skeptics (acknowledge science but thoughtfully maintain doubt based on small evidence or logic) -Deniers (ignore the scientific evidence and or distort and lie about the science; demonstrate no understanding of the science)
Increased emphasis on environment
-Poultry Fair Share act -Maryland proposed legislation, tax of 5 cents per chicken -Maryland governor vows to veto chicken tax bill --3 bill dollar industry
Feed wastage
-Proper feeder care and adjustment can reduce feed waste drastically -Can be an important factor in the nutrient content of manure as well as efficiency of production
Koyoto Protocol
-Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change with the goal to address climate change -Adopted on Dec 1997, entered into force in 2005 -191 States have signed and ratified -Canada is #9 highest emitter of GHG producing 2% of the global total - In 2011 Canada withdrew -other UN member states which did not ratify the protocol are Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan
Aeration -Benefits:
-Reduces BOD, eliminate odour and greatly reduces solid content and lagoon maintenance
Composting - Challenges:
-Requires pre-treatment -Doen not remove N and P -Potential Odours -Land requirement , protection, runoff controls -Processing times (5d-3 wks) -CO2, ammonia and volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Livestock Waste Management Programs (3)
-Saskatchewan Agricultural operations act- linked to other acts such as Highways Dept. and the Canada water act -The Canada- Saskatchewan Environmental Farm Plant (EFP) program- part of the ag. policy framework administered by the provincial council of Ag. Development and Diversifications Boards (PCAB) -CFIA Codes of good practice
Quality Control
-Setting nutritional specifications for suppliers to narrow variability (min pro. content) -Chemical analysis to ensure that diets have beed formulated will supply required nutrients -Used to confirm nutrient specifications in formulation package not change formulation -Slow and expensive -Spectroscopy
Strategic Denial
-Studied by Jacques,Dunlap and Freeman 2008 -Analyzed 141 climate change skeptic books from 1972-2005 >92% of the skeptic books are linked to conservative think tanks -there are well documented and extremely well funded effort globally to obscure and confuse the issue of climate change, primarily to avoid taking action
Characteristics of Animal Wastes: Chemical Oxygen demand(COD)
-Test commonly used in indirectly measure the amount of organic compounds in water. Most applications of COD determine the amount of organic pollutants found in surface water (e.g. lakes and rivers) making COD useful to measure water quality. (mg/L) which indicates mass of O2 consumed per litre of solution
Available water (2)
-The demand for water for irrigation is projected to rise in a warmer climate, leading to more comp b/w ag. for water (is already biggest user, Urban and industrial) -Falling water tables and the resulting increase in the energy needed to pump water will make the practice of irrigation more expensive esp. when there are drier conditions (need more/ acre) -Intensified evaporation will increase the hazard of salt accumulation in the soil
North America
-The international panel on climate change in 2007 projected with high confidence that over the first few decades of this century, moderate climate change would increase aggregate yields of rain-fed agriculture by 5-20% but with important variable among regions -Major challenges were projected for crops that are near the warm end of their suitable range or which depend on highly utilized water resources
Challenges to precision feeding
-Variation in feed ingredient composition -Variation in nutrient digestibility or bioavailability -Formulation and processing precision -Knowledge of nutrient requirements -Delivering feed to animals in an acute fashion
Diet anti-nutritional factors
-Wheat -fibre component (arabino-xylans) -Soybeans - protease inhibitors -Plant ingredients- phytate - Mycotoxins
Odour Issues
-When discussing odour problems related to animal agriculture, the following questions arise: -How far does odour travel -Are animal numbers or animal species accurate predictors of nuisance odours -How much odour control is needed to solve the problem from an existing facility? -The odours impact from a new facility be predicted
Saskatchewan Agricultural operations act (2) (ILU)
-defines an intensive livestock unit (ILU)- Space/ animal less than 370 m^2 (~4000 ft^2) -Provisions -waste management plan, waste storage system -Penalties (minister of Ag)- Fined up to $50 000, daily penalty of up to $1000/day
Mitigating heat stress
-identify animals most susceptible (dark hide, largest) -Provide adequate clean/ cool water -Feed in late afternoon/ evening when its cool -Find moving air (mounds, away from wind barriers) -Shade (riparian areas) -provide bedding -Control Flies -Avoid moving or shipping animals during hot times
Match diet to animal Knowledge of requirements
-maintenance requirements; affected by sex, age, and wt. Performance potential- gain and composition of gain, product yield and composition -Gestation -Health status -Environmental conditions- cold increases energy but not protein requirement -Physical activity
Composting - Benefits:
-reduces odours, kills pathogens and stabilizes manure for easier handling -N from compost is not as available as fresh manure, but P,K and other micronutrients are more available -Compost can be removed from the site- reduction of on farm nutrients
How much energy is produced from Biogas:
1 cow prodcuces 2 cu ft of manure per day (124lb ,56kg) -Of this only 43lb is fermented to CH4 600 x 43 = 26000 BTU -Each lb of manure produces 1ft3 of biogas over 20d - Biogas is 55-56% CH4 and 30-35% CO2
The impact on water quality by pesticides is associated with the following intrinsic factors:
1. Active ingredient in the pesticide formulation 2. Contaminants that exist as impurities in the active ingredient 3. Additives that are mixed with the active ingredient (wetting agents, diluent or solvents, extenders, adhesives, buffers, preservatives and emulsifiers) 4.Degradate that if formed during chemical, microbial or photochemical degradation of the active ingredient
How do we measure water quality
1. Chemical indicators 2. Biological indicators - Aquatic indicator species (health of sensitive species) -biodiversity (the number of species and the number of individuals of each species) -Functional diversity (range of species that perform different ecosystem functions)
Total Odour Emissions Factor (5 Steps used to estimate the odour emissions from the farm site)
1. List all the odour sources on the farm site in column (CA) A of Table 1(T1) 2. Use tables 2 and 3 to determine the odour emission number for each odour source. Enter these in CB in T1 3. List the area of each odour source in CC of T1 (sq ft) 4. Enter any odour control factors from T4 in CD of T! 5. Fill in CE of T1 by multiplying the values in C-B,C,D and divide by 10 000 (to make numbers easy to work w/) Sum all the numbers in CE to determine the total odour emissions factor (TOEF) of the farm site
Environmental Toxicology
1. Movement of compounds within the environment (air, water, soil) 2. effects of compounds on biota
10 Important things to know about climate change:1
1. The earth is warming -
The impact on water quality by pesticides is associated with the following extrinsic factors
1. Weather conditions 2. time elapsed between pesticide being applied and rainfall events 3. Physical and chemical properties of the soil 4. Slope of the field 5. Crop production practices
Criteria for a Wicked Problem
1. the Problem is difficult of impossible to define 2. The wicked problems have no stopping rules 3. Solutions are not true/ false but are better/worse 4.No immediate and no ultimate solution 5.Each problem is unique
Basic classes of pesticides: 5
1.Insecticides; organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamate 2. Herbicides; Triazine 3. rodenticides 4. Fungicides 5. Fumigants
10 Important things to know about climate change: 10
10. There have been international attempts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions but Canada is actively undermining these efforts and has failed to participate in. Canada is a major part of the problem - Kyoto Protocol
10 Important things to know about climate change:2
2. The primary cause of global warming is human activity -CO2 (from burning coal, oil, natural gas, cars, forest clearing) -Methane (from rice paddies, both ends of cows, rotting garbage, landfills, mining operations , dammed water) -Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) -N2O (fert.) -has 310x capacity to trap heat in the atmosphere compared to CO2
10 Important things to know about climate change: 3
3. There is an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is real, is human caused and presents serious challenges) -Most authoritative source is UN intergovernmental panel on climate change (lots of scientists around) -Since 2001, 32 national science academies have come together to issue joint declarations confirming anthropogenic global warming, and urging the nations of the world to reduce emissions of green house gases
10 Important things to know about climate change: 4
4. There is a difference between weather and climate
10 Important things to know about climate change:5
5. The ozone hole doesn't cause global warming - ozone depletion is a separate problem caused primarily by CFC's
10 Important things to know about climate change: 6.
6. Global warming will have significant impacts on people and nature - extreme weather events -Dramatic changes in precipitation
10 Important things to know about climate change: 7
7. Ocean levels have already risen due to global warming and are projected to rise much more -Water expands as it warms -Glaciers all over are melting -Already risen over 12cm over the past 100 years due to global warming -Will probably rise at least another >40 cm by 2100
10 Important things to know about climate change: 8
8. Changes to human behaviour can help
10 Important things to know about climate change: 9
9. Protecting the world's climate by stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of green house gases will require enormous reductions in current global emissions
Phase feeding reduces waste More phases =
= more accurate nutrient delivery, less waste and cheaper diets -However more hassle; higher capital costs -Compromise between number of phases and benefits achievable Potential for in line mixers/ liquid feeding systems allow for continuously changing the diet composition without increasing hassle