Treatment of Confined Feeding Cattle Wastes
KEITH NEWTSON, Director of Research
Thrive Centers, Inc.
Fairbury, Illinois
Beef cattle producers in many of the northern areas of the United States have
recognized the advantage to some degree of some type of shelter for their animals in
recent years. This trend toward a facility over and above open lot feeding has caused
producers building new facilities or those updating existing facilities to evaluate the
type of facility to be constructed in a critical manner.
A number of these newer facilities are of the totally confined style. These
barns confine the animals completely under roof at all times. These totally confined
barns may be open front cold environment barns or they may be fully insulated,
mechanically ventilated modified environment barns. Both styles of barns are being
constructed with increasing frequency in various areas of the Corn Belt.
A cattle producer building a confinement facility will in most cases want the
unit designed so it requires a minimum of labor to operate. At the same time, the
usual facility will be a larger size facility than previously existed on the farm. In turn
the larger the facility, the larger the waste handling problem.
Changes in cropping practices and in harvesting methods also have influenced
the design of these newer facilities. The absence of small grain production such as
oats and wheat in a number of areas has made the use of straw for bedding either an
expensive practice or out of the question. Picker-shellers for corn harvesting have also
reduced the availability of cobs at a reasonable cost. Industrial demand for cobs has
made even the limited supply of cobs ever more costly.
Many of the newer facilities are being constructed utilizing slotted floors and
liquid manure systems as a result. Gases from anaerobic decomposition in normal
liquid manure pits are harmful in lesser concentrations (1) and lethal in greater
concentrations (2, 3) to both animals and humans. Odors from many of these units
caused complaints and threats of lawsuits from nearby neighbors.
During these same years, the oxidation ditch concept of waste treatment was
being researched for degradation of swine wastes. The goal of this work in most cases
was odor control rather than a highly purified effluent. As the adaptation was being
made, the oxidation ditch concept proved to be especially appropriate as a handling
system as well as a control system. In addition, a considerable level of degradation
was achieved as a by-product of the main goal.
Researchers working with the ditch concept for swine were pressured to adapt
the process to beef wastes. Work at the University of Minnesota gave early indication
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