Animal mortalities

Amount of animal mortalities

Broilers (100 lb/1000 broilers)
=10 tons/flock
Turkeys (500 lb/1000 turkeys)
(650,000 tons in US)
Swine (40 pounds/sow) = 180,000 tons for US

Problems with animal mortalities

Disease (Biosecurity)
Nutrient and microbial pollution of water resources
Odors
Aesthetic quality
Gives a poor appearance of an operation

Illegal to drag animal out to be consume by scavenegers or to

dump into manure pits or lagoons

 Disposal methods
Rendering
Animals are picked up, hauled to rendering plant, and treated
with heat and steam to produce tankage
Can be used as animal feed

Requires a storage site for pick up

Need to store animals for up to 24 hours
Site should be away from buildings and lots
Site should not be visible from the road

Advantages

Gets dead animal off farm

Recycles nutrients from dead animals
Minimal capital investment unless freezing is required
Low maintenance

Disadvantages
Feeds charged for pick up, if available
Limitations of the use of rendered byproducts as animal feeds
Fears of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or
Scrapies being transferred
Ruminant byproducts cant be fed to ruminant animals
Products have variable quality
Dead animals must be stored until pick up
Rendering will have inadequate capacity in case of catastrophic
mortalities

 Recycling as a feed ingredient

Used for poultry
Dead animals are picked up, transported to processing plant,
heat-treated, and ground into a meal
Advantages
Recycles nutrients

Disadvantages
Requires preservation
Freezing
Fermentation
Treatment with phosphoric acid
Requires transportation to processing plant
Requires access to processing plant

 Composting
Done in structures, windrows or piles
Needs a hard surface to prevent contamination of groundwater

Requirements for composting

C:N ratio of 20:1 to 400:1
Straw, chopped corn, wood chips etc. can be added as sources of
C
Moisture concentration of 40 60%
May have to add water
pH of 6 to 8
Sufficient oxygen
In manure compost, this is usually obtained by frequent mixing
Mortality composts arent mixed until late in the degradation
process
In mortality composts, oxygen is maintained by layering the dead
animals between biomass materials like straw, chopped corn
stalks, or wood chips
Stack should be covered with biomass to act as a biofilter
1 ft for small animals
2 ft for large animals
Temperature must be greater than 122oF for at least 5 days
Process may be speeded by splitting animals
May be dangerous for workers

Rate
After 2 months, 90% of the tissue from a dairy cow was decomposed
After 7 to 10 months, only bones remained

 Advantages of composting

Recycles nutrients
Low odor
Environmentally safe
No need to store mortalities
Low long-term costs
May be used to handle catastrophic mortalities

Disadvantages of composting

High initial cost

Labor intensive
Requires monitoring and maintenance
Cropland is required for application of compost
Must be part of the Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan
Not effective at destroying the prions associated with
Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies like BSE or Scrapies

 Burial
Animals placed in pit and covered with soil
Iowa requirements
Depth
No deeper than 6 feet with a minimum of 30 inches of soil cover
Depth must be at least 2 feet above the highest water table

Site
Must not create a public health hazard
Soil must have moderate to slow permeability
No permeable soils or fractured bedrock
No poorly drained soils
Must be no evidence of seasonal high water tables
Must be outside the 100 year flood plain
Must be:
100 feet from a private well
200 feet from a public well
50 feet from a property line
500 feet from a residence
100 feet from a stream, lake or pond
Maximum buried/acre/year
44 hogs
7 growing-finishing cattle
73 sheep
400 poultry

 Advantages of burial
Capital investment limited to land and excavating equipment

Disadvantages of burial

Nutrients are wasted

Increases sanitation precautions
Land area may be significant
Cant be done when soil is frozen or muddy
Requires storage

 Incineration
Can be used for small animals
Advantages
Disposes of everything except the ashes
Sanitary, if done properly

Disadvantages
Initial costs
Requires a commercial engineered burner
Home-made burners are illegal
Burner must be in a building downwind from livestock facilities and residences
Fuel costs
Equipment maintenance and operation costs
Potential air quality problems
Requires permit
May cause aerial transmission of infectious agents
Loss of nutrients

Sanitary landfills
Advantages
Simplicity
No capital investment
No maintenance

Disadvantages
Few landfills allow it
Most in Iowa do, but must check
Disposal charges
Transportation costs and regulations