Liquid manure spreader at Werktuigendagen 2009

Liquid manure is a mixture of animal waste and organic matter used as an agricultural fertilizer, sometimes thinned with water. It can be aged in a

slurry pit A slurry pit, also known as a farm slurry pit, slurry tank, slurry lagoon or slurry store, is a hole, dam, or circular concrete structure where farmers gather all their animal waste together with other unusable organic matter, such as hay and wat ...

to concentrate it. Liquid manure was developed in the 20th-century as an alternative to fermented manure. Manure in both forms is used as a nutrient-enriched

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

for plants, containing high levels of

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

, and

potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...

present in farm animals' excretions and originating from the food they consume.

History

Amy Bogaard Amy Bogaard Fellow of the British Academy, FBA is a Canadian people, Canadian archaeologist and Professor of Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Education Bogaard earned a PhD from the University of Sheffield in 2 ...

, an archaeobotanist at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, suspects that even as early as the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...

farmers had noticed the improved fertility of manured land. Her team investigated European digs for crops of cereals such as wheat and barley, as well as

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

such as peas and lentils. Modern-day scholars think that the

Babylonian Chronicles The Babylonian Chronicles are a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They are thus one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles were written in Babylonian cuneiform, fr ...

and

Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

report manuring practices, while

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

and

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...

describe similar

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and

Teuton The Teutons ( la, Teutones, , grc, Τεύτονες) were an ancient northern European tribe mentioned by Roman authors. The Teutons are best known for their participation, together with the Cimbri and other groups, in the Cimbrian War with th ...

practices. Current American fertilizer practice dates back to the

Post–World War II economic expansion The post–World War II economic expansion, also known as the postwar economic boom or the Golden Age of Capitalism, was a broad period of worldwide economic expansion beginning after World War II and ending with the 1973–1975 recession. The U ...

era. Powerful motorised tractors allowed farmers to haul large, heavy tanks on trailers around their fields, allowing liquids such as liquid manure to be easily and evenly applied near the plant root. Professional liquid manure spreaders may be costly and may require adherence to strict regulations, which has made renting the equipment attractive to some farmers.

Role in disease transmission

Since at least 1982, health authorities have recognised that the O157:H7 bacteria, which has been responsible for significant numbers of human deaths, spreads through fecal transmission. The strain's low infectious dose, survival under adverse conditions, and potential for extreme disease severity prompt scientific attention. Radish, alfalfa sprouts, green onions as well as leafy green vegetables like lettuce, spinach are prone to be

disease vector In epidemiology, a disease vector is any living agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen to another living organism; agents regarded as vectors are organisms, such as parasites or microbes. The first major discovery of a disease vec ...

s, particularly when they are exposed to the

pathogen In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

just prior to harvest. In 1998, the United States

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

published the ''Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables''. Particular attention is paid to

concentrated animal feeding operation In animal husbandry, a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an intensive animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1,000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a ...

s (CAFOs) because they are the source of most of the liquid manure that is spread on fields of vegetables in the United States. Rainwater runoff from these CAFOs was identified in the fatal

Walkerton E. coli outbreak The Walkerton ''E. coli outbreak'' was the result of a contamination of the drinking water supply of Walkerton, Ontario, Canada, with ''Escherichia coli, E. coli'' and ''Campylobacter jejuni'' bacteria. The water supply was contaminated as a resu ...

as the contaminant of municipal wellwater used for human consumption. Because of the relative infancy of industrial-scale vegetable fertilization by liquid manure, processes to minimize the infection risks were not final by 2007.

Gallery

File:Spreading manure, 1906 - 17067365188.jpg, Spreading manure in 1906, photographed by Reuben R. Sallows. File:Shelby County, Iowa.... Detailed description, These pictures show how people in this locality preser . . . - NARA - 522435.jpg, Iowan pre-agribusiness manuring implements File:John Deere Horse Drawn Manure Spreader Canton Michigan.JPG, A horse-drawn manure spreader File:Fendt 310 liquid manure trailer 1210826.jpg, Post-agribusiness era liquid manure spreader File:2017-07-28 (124) Liquid manure trailer at Haltgraben, Frankenfels, Austria.jpg, A liquid manure trailer in Austria in 2017 File:Anzio liquid manure trailer.JPG, Liquid manure trailer File:Houle 3150 liquid manure spreader.jpg, A liquid manure spreader in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

File:Liquid manure spreader at Werktuigendagen 2009.jpg, A liquid manure spreader at a trade fair in Belgium in 2009 File:Liquid manure spreader from behind at Werktuigendagen 2009.jpg, Rear view of a liquid manure spreader at a trade fair in Belgium in 2009 File:Liquid manure tank in Belgium 2.jpg, Liquid manure tank in Belgium File:A manure storage silo in the fields near Smilde, Netherlands, spring 2012.jpg, A liquid manure storage silo in the Netherlands in 2012

References

External links

{{Authority control Organic fertilizers Animal waste products Biogas substrates Feces Soil improvers Escherichia coli Foodborne illnesses Manure

History

Role in disease transmission

Gallery

See also

References

External links