Location: Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research
Title: Evaluating swine wastewater reuse for forage bermudagrass productionAuthor
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Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only Publication Acceptance Date: 3/13/2024 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Abstract only Technical Abstract: In the Southeast Coastal Plain of the United States, the traditional swine waste management systems use open-air lagoons where raw manures are collected for an anaerobic decomposition of organic compounds and the reuse of the wastewater (effluent) for forage production. This reuse of swine wastewater allows nutrient recycling and avoid unnecessary freshwater resource usage for crop irrigation. However, there is barely any quantitative information on the swine wastewater reuse potentials from swine operations across the Southeast Coastal Plain watersheds. To address this knowledge gap, the present study used a modeling approach to evaluate the water reuse potential of conventional lagoon-based swine operations across the State of North Carolina. Explicitly, biomass and nitrogen (N) yields data from a high-rate N fertigated Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.)) cultivar Tifton 85 experiment, were used to calibrate the Root zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM2) for forage production. The Model was cross-validated using both a medium-rate N and swine wastewater fertigation data. The study is still on-going, a decade forage production will be simulated using different environmental conditions and used to estimate the average annual swine wastewater reuse per animal head. The results will be upscaled to portray the swine wastewater reuse potential at the level of watersheds. Outcomes will provide quantitative wastewater reuse information to include in hydrologic budgets. |
