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The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has revised its standard on manure storage safety.
The revised standard, ASAE EP470.1, Manure Storage Safety, reflects field research on worker safety and proper removal of waste from confined manure storage structures. Additional changes include information on confined space entry with references to a relatively new ASABE safety standard, ANSI/ASABE S607, Ventilating Manure Storages to Reduce Entry Risk.
At a special AgSTAR seminar held at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, a number of dairy producers and anaerobic digester operators came together to speak openly about their systems by responding to audience questions.
In recent years dairy farms have grown in size and efficiency. When more livestock are housed in one location, the volume of stored manure and the manure hauling distance to reach the land base needed for application also increase.
As a technology, anaerobic digestion offers many potential environmental and economic benefits for dairy farms. However, anaerobic digestion can pose significant health and safety hazards when not operated properly.
Chaput Family Farms is a partnership between brothers Reg and Mike Chaput in North Troy, Vermont. The farm includes 950 cows, 900 heifers, 1,100 acres of tillable land and an anaerobic digester.
The concept of nutrient management is not new, as agricultural producers have always gone through some version of logically deciding the amount, source, placement, form and timing for nutrients delivered to their crops.
It is to the farmer’s advantage to think this through and make good crop nutrition and soil fertility decisions, as crop productivity and farm profitability are impacted.
Demand for compost products is on the rise, presenting a viable value-added product for farmers. Yet few farmers take advantage of this opportunity, often lacking the time or marketing skills to explore turning compost into a marketable commodity.
Compost marketing plan
Successful marketing of compost requires a foundation of knowledge about compost – benefits to potential customers, uses for compost, the composting process and compost characteristics. It helps to assure customers that your facility is legitimate and dependable.
Dairy production in the U.S. is coming under closer scrutiny because of concerns about the environmental quality impacts from all phases of the production system.
There are multiple phases of a dairy production system that range from forage or grain production, facilities for feeding, housing and milking cows, manure management and potentially pastures for animal grazing.
As stewards of the environment, many dairy producers are concerned about their impact on the land, water and air. Much has been learned and understood about land and water, but producers still feel ill-equipped to deal with air emissions.
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