Characterizing water holding capacity and total solids of manure-bedding mixtures
type: CreativeWork
description: Beef producers in the Midwestern United States, driven by environmental regulations, have shown an increased interest in solid manure bedded-pack systems (BPS). BPSs can be an economically and environmentally sound alternative for animal housing, and an efficient manure management alternative for beef production systems, as manure is stored and handled as a solid and eliminates the need for runoff control. Bedding materials are used to absorb excess moisture, improve animal comfort and reduce negative environmental impacts from these livestock facilities. Various biomass types can be used as potential bedding material, such as corn stover, wheat straw and soybean stover. When choosing a bedding material, a number of factors must be considered. Initial moisture content and particle size distribution play an important role in selecting a media for bedding. However, the most important design criteria to consider is the water holding capacity (WHC) of the material and the total solids (TS) of the manure-bedding mixture at saturation. WHC is the moisture a material can retain at the point of saturation. The main objective of this experimental study was to characterize properties of manure-bedding mixtures that might be found in BPS. These property characterizations included evaluating the impact of several bedding materials and manure TS mixtures on WHC. Seven organic bedding materials were evaluated (corn cobs, corn stover, pine shavings, switchgrass, miscanthus, wheat straw, and soybean stover) and they were characterized for their particle size distribution, bulk density and initial total solids. The first goal of this project was to develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for measuring WHC with manure addition and the minimum time needed to reach that value. Furthermore, the effect on bedding WHC when beef manure is used in place of water for substrate was determined. To meet this objective, the WHC was evaluated using beef manure at 5 TS levels total solids con…
abstract: Beef producers in the Midwestern United States, driven by environmental regulations, have shown an increased interest in solid manure bedded-pack systems (BPS). BPSs can be an economically and environmentally sound alternative for animal housing, and an efficient manure management alternative for beef production systems, as manure is stored and handled as a solid and eliminates the need for runoff control. Bedding materials are used to absorb excess moisture, improve animal comfort and reduce negative environmental impacts from these livestock facilities. Various biomass types can be used as potential bedding material, such as corn stover, wheat straw and soybean stover. When choosing a bedding material, a number of factors must be considered. Initial moisture content and particle size distribution play an important role in selecting a media for bedding. However, the most important design criteria to consider is the water holding capacity (WHC) of the material and the total solids (TS) of the manure-bedding mixture at saturation. WHC is the moisture a material can retain at the point of saturation. The main objective of this experimental study was to characterize properties of manure-bedding mixtures that might be found in BPS. These property characterizations included evaluating the impact of several bedding materials and manure TS mixtures on WHC. Seven organic bedding materials were evaluated (corn cobs, corn stover, pine shavings, switchgrass, miscanthus, wheat straw, and soybean stover) and they were characterized for their particle size distribution, bulk density and initial total solids. The first goal of this project was to develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for measuring WHC with manure addition and the minimum time needed to reach that value. Furthermore, the effect on bedding WHC when beef manure is used in place of water for substrate was determined. To meet this objective, the WHC was evaluated using beef manure at 5 TS levels total solids con…
author: Kasimati, Aikaterini
language: en
keywords: Water holding capacity, Bedding, Manure, Beef, Barns, Design
date published: 2015-07-22T22:34:05Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:12Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/78695