June 22, 2006

LINCOLN, Neb. — The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Livestock Producer Environmental Assistance Project continues to help small livestock producers make their operations more environmentally friendly.

With its second tour in six years, the project promotes methods to minimize the impact of livestock manure on the environment, said Chris Henry, UNL biological systems engineer.

"Vegetative treatment systems are excellent solutions for small to medium sized open lot livestock feeding operations," the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources engineer said. "They are composed of a solids settling basin, an outlet structure and a vegetative treatment area. The treatment area replaces the need for a conventional holding pond typically used in feedlots."

About 85 participants from six states attended a day-long tour to learn more about the benefits of vegetative treatment systems for small livestock operations.

Participants visited five sites across southeastern Nebraska and discussed system designs and how producers hope to contribute to a cleaner environment in the future.

"The projects we design and build are examples for producers, regulators and technical service providers to evaluate and learn from. Many of our solutions are contrary to traditional thinking and practice for run-off control," Henry said.

The project's two strongest supporters and team members are the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the Nebraska Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation has a leadership role in the overall direction, Henry said.

"By working as a team with producers and other stakeholders, the Livestock Producer Environmental Assistance Project hopes to develop solutions today that will become commonplace conservation practices tomorrow," said Jason Gross, project coordinator and technologist.

UNL Extension's Livestock Producer Environmental Assistance Project, a group formed to promote alternative methods of minimizing the impact of livestock on the environment, developed the tour to inform participants about vegetative treatment systems and the environmental challenges small producers face, Henry said.

The majority of producers who raise less than 1,000 head of cattle don't have the resources to take on large conservation projects themselves, Henry said. With assistance from the Livestock Producer Environmental Assistance Project, funded by the Nebraska Environmental Trust, and guidance from skilled professionals, small producers can take part in improving the environment, he said.

"They look simple and obvious after they are done, but are a challenge to design and build from scratch," Gross said.

Don Esau operates a 350-head cattle operation near Beatrice where one of the vegetative treatment systems was put to use. Esau said he based his decision on environmental motives.

"It was something that had to be done," Esau said. "We had to make a decision either to continue raising livestock or not to continue. It was just an environmental issue that needed to be taken care of. We figured if we could have some assistance with the design and financing, that was the way to go."

A vegetative treatment system is a multi-step system used to control livestock waste run-off, Henry said. The system collects the run-off and separates solids from liquids. The liquids are stored in the root zone of the vegetation until the plants in the treatment area can use the nutrients, Henry said.

Because the producer can control the timing of release, either by a pump or a valve, run-off entering the treatment area is evenly distributed, and little or no run-off should leave the treatment system and pollute streams or groundwater, he said.

Esau's vegetative treatment system collects run-off in a small debris basin where solids are allowed to settle out of the liquid run-off. This run-off then is pumped to a vegetative treatment area planted to alfalfa. The field next to the treatment area is flood irrigated, and the pump station doubles as a tail water recovery system for the field.

Vegetative treatment systems all follow the same general outline. However, the systems vary in style from one producer to the next based on their environmental challenges and the management style of the owner. The primary types of vegetative treatment areas shown on the tour include sloped, infiltration basin, terraced, constructed wetlands, sprinkler and tree treatment.

Some producers choose to combine two types of treatment areas for an added level of assurance. Doug Ferguson, who owns a small feedlot near Blue Springs, uses a combination of a sloped treatment area and an infiltration basin. After run-off is filtered down the sloped treatment area, it is further treated by vegetation in a shallow, level basin which decreases the threat of run-off leaving the treatment system.

The three remaining sites on the tour also incorporated sloped treatment areas into their systems. These sites included:

Southeast Community College in Beatrice – this proposed system will use a sloped vegetative treatment area to filter run-off from livestock facilities used for college courses.

Duane Burd's open lot dairy near Pleasant Dale – Burd uses an oversized sloped vegetative treatment area to filter run-off generated by his 60 head herd. He uses septic holding tanks and a small pump to transfer his milkhouse wastewater to the treatment area on a periodic basis.

Wayne Gruber's system near Waco – Gruber also uses a sloped treatment area and infiltration basin to collect run-off from his 400 head herd of beef cattle.

Regardless of environmental impacts, vegetative treatment systems also are appealing to producers for other reasons as well, Henry said. Although producers are generally responsible for the labor involved, management is relatively simple and loss of productive land is minimized because hay can be harvested from the treatment area, he said.

"All of the producers who have established a treatment system came to us as volunteers. None of the projects we installed are regulated activities by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality" Henry said.

Between the vegetative treatment system site stops, presentations were given by representatives from partner organizations including the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, Nebraska Environmental Trust, Kansas State University, Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. The presentations provided participants with updates from individual organizations and related research, as well as background on other vegetative treatment systems not visited on the tour.

The project and tour is sponsored through a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The trust is funded by proceeds of the Nebraska Lottery and private donations and has awarded more than $100 million to conservation projects in Nebraska since 1994.

6/22/06-KO

Chris Henry
Biological Systems Engineering
Extension Engineer
(402) 472-6529

Sandi Alswager Karstens
IANR News and Photography
(402) 472-3030

Department: Biological Systems Engineering