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 ...

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 or fertiliser 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 liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

for plants, containing high levels of

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

, and

potassium Potassium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to ...

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

History

Amy Bogaard Amy Bogaard FBA is a 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 2002, supervised by Glynis Jones. Career Boga ...

, an archaeobotanist at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, suspects that even as early as the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

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 Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...

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

Babylonian Chronicles The Babylonian Chronicles are a loosely-defined series of about 45 clay tablet, tablets recording major events in Babylonian history. They represent one of the first steps in the development of ancient historiography. The Babylonian Chronicles a ...

and

Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...

report manuring practices, while

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

and

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

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 Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Teuton The Teutons (, ; ) 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 the Roman Republic in the late seco ...

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 with the aftermath of World War II and ending with the 1973–1975 r ...

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.

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 such as a parasite or microbe, to another living organism. Agents regarded as vectors are mostly blood-sucking ( hematophagous) arthropods such ...

s, particularly when they are exposed to the

pathogen In biology, a pathogen (, "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 theory of d ...

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 respo ...

published the ''Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables''. Particular attention is paid to concentrated animal feeding operations (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 ''E. coli'' and ''Campylobacter jejuni'' bacteria. The water supply was contaminated as a result of improper wa ...

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 Agribusiness is the industry, enterprises, and the field of study of value chains in agriculture and in the bio-economy, in which case it is also called bio-business or bio-enterprise. The primary goal of agribusiness is to maximize profit ...

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 South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

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 Biogas substrates Feces Soil improvers Escherichia coli Foodborne illnesses Manure

History

Role in disease transmission

Gallery

See also

References

External links