Transcript Pit Foaming/Manure Management

Manure Pit Foaming in Deep Pit
Pig Finishing Barns
Presented at:
NPB’s In-service training, Atlanta, Georgia
Oct 2, 2013
Larry Jacobson and Chuck Clanton
Dept. of Bioproducts & Biosystems Engineering
University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
Foam Coming Through Slats
4 feet of foam
Foam above the slats!
Slides courtesy Dave Preisler, MPB
Foam Coming out of Pumpout
History of Manure Pit Foaming
• Reports of manure pit foaming
started 4 to 5 years ago
• During 2009 rash of barn
explosions and/or flash fires in
Midwest
• Pit foaming related to these
explosions/fire
Barn Explosion (fall, 2009) in same barn
Flash Fire (MN barn)
Iowa Barn Explosion – mid-Sept 2011
Worker fatality and1500 pigs lost
Common Foaming Situations
• Can occur in one pit or barn but not in
others on the same farm
• Becomes a problem over time (1-2 years)
although once established can be very fast
growing
Foaming Facts & Theories
• Reduces manure storage volume
• Pigs get dirty
• Foam captures methane . . .
Methane is flammable
• General Explanation–Microbial imbalance in manure pit
probably related to diet, water
source, climate, and other factors!!
Danger of Foam Disruption
Short Term Solution:
MPB & MAES Funding at U of MN
• Reducing pit foaming with addition of
sodium monensin (Rumensin™) or
poloxalene (Bloat Guard™) – Chuck
Clanton – lead PI
• Microbial analysis of foaming swine
manure to improve deep-pitted swine
barn safety – Bo Hu – lead PI
Foaming issue
• Borrowed from beef production
• Rumensin
– Alters biochemistry pathway in rumen
• Increased fatty acids
• Decreased methane
• Bloat Guard
– Reduces frothy bloat in grazing cattle
Experimental procedure
• Typical grow-finish buildings
– 1000-1200 pig capacity
– Single or double wide barn layout
– 8-ft deep pits
– Same or close sites / same producer
Experimental procedure
• Typical grow-finish buildings
• Rumenin-90
– 0 lb / 100,000 gallons (control)
– 2.5
– 5.0
– 10.0
Experimental procedure
• Typical grow-finish buildings
• Rumenin-90
• Bloat Guard
– Rumensin-90 (control)
– 60 lb / 100,000 gallons
– 100 lb
Bottom line
• Rumensin-90
– 5 lb / 100,000 gallons
• Lower rate may
– Take additional material
– Longer period
– About 10-14 days to see response
• Bloat Guard
– Not recommended
Long Term Solutions
• Microbial community analysis
• Lab foaming simulation and foaming
capability analysis
• Study of different manure components on
foaming
Microbial Analysis
• Microscopic picture of
manure. Red arrows point
to fibers or filamentous
bacteria.
• Based on work with waste
water treatment,
filamentous/actinomycete
species might be the
cause of manure foaming
in swine facilities
Microbial Community Analysis
• Illumina-pyrosequencing
analysis showed that no
differences were found on
the population of
actinobacteria from 44
manure samples
• Analysis did show a
difference between the
foaming manure and nonfoaming manure samples
on the population of
Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes
and Proteobacteria.
Foaming Index Development
• Stable foams need three
components: a gas, a
surfactant and a foam
stabilizer (hydrophobic
particles such as fine fibers
and filamentous bacteria)
• A volumetric cylinder used
to develop a simulation test
to evaluated the foaming
capacity of a given manure
sample, i.e. Foaming Index
(FI)
Different Components on Foaming
• Adding corn oil to the
foaming manure
immediately dropped
the FI reading of the
manure to almost zero.
• Other supplements,
such as DDGS & yeast
extract, to the foaming
manure, however, did
not affect the FI
FI of manure at the time of adding
supplements,
A: digested manure,
B: raw foaming manure.
Corn Oil impact on Foaming
• Dramatic increase in
FI when manure
samples with corn oil
addition were stored
for 4 weeks compared
to other additives like
yeast, DDGS, and
VFAs
Digested Oil (LCFA)
• Corn oil is broken
down into glycerol and
LCFA (oleic acid) by
pigs after ingested.
• Non-foaming manure
was quickly converted
to foaming manure (FI)
when Oleic acid was
present.
LCFA vs DDGS response
• FI reading of nonfoaming manure
jumped to more than
80 ml immediately after
addition of free LCFA
• Remained non-foaming
initially with addition of
DDGS, then converted
to foaming manure
after 2 weeks of
storage
Long chain free fatty acid analysis of
manure samples, mg/L
Conclusions
• No commonality found in incidence of
foaming and/or explosions/flash fires events
such as building type or age, feeder or
waterer style, manure characteristics, pit
additives, feed waste, genetics, diet, or
management.
• Short term solution - addition of monensin
(Rumensin® 90) directly into the pit at a rate
of 5 lb per 100,000 gallons of manure.
Conclusions
• Potential causes of foaming include:
– Increase in fatty acids in the manure of pigs fed diets
with DDGS and/or other by-products –surfactant
– higher levels of dietary fiber which would serve as a
foam stabilizer
– higher dietary fiber excreted is a significant factor for
biogas formation
For a full list of references cited in this presentation, please visit:
www.animalagclimatechange.org
This project was supported by Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant
No. 2011-67003-30206 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
USDA-AFRI-Funded Project
• University of Nebraska and five partners
– Washington State University
– Texas A&M System
– University of Georgia
– Cornell University
– University of Minnesota
• 5 year project (2011-2016)
• Extension-focused ‘capacity-building’
project
From Stowell, 2011 ASABE poster
Climate Change Team
WSU PI: Joe Harrison
Washington State Univ.
Western U.S.
U-MN PI: Larry Jacobson
Univ. of Minnesota
Midwest
WSU
Cornell PI: Curt Gooch
Cornell University
Northeast
U-MN
Cornell
LPELC
UGA
LPELC PI: Rick Stowell
University of Nebraska
Climate Change Team
TAMU
UGA PI: Mark Risse
University of Georgia
Southeastern U.S.
TAMU PI: Saqib Mukhtar
Texas A&M University
Southwestern U.S.
http://www.extension.org/pages/60702/animal-agriculture-and-climate-change#.UkscLT_3O5I
From Stowell, 2011 ASABE poster
Farmers are Asking
• How has the climate been changing and
what climate can we expect in the future?
• What are the climate impacts on animal
agriculture?
• How should farmers respond?
• What is the role of animal agriculture in
changing the climate?
• What will be the impact of carbon
regulations and carbon markets on animal
agriculture?
Online Course
•
•
•
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7 Lessons
15 hours
No travel time
Certificate of
Completion
Questions?
University of Minnesota
Manure Management and Air Quality
www.manure.umn.edu/applied/foam