Feedlot Wastes Management in the Soviet Union
B. A. Runov
Vice-Minister, USSR Ministry of Agricultur and
Food, Moscow, USSR
In the Soeviet Union,
meat production has increased from 8-7 million tons in 1960 to 12-3 million in
1970 and million in 1974. More than 260 large-scale livestock complexes have
been built in Russian Federated Replubic over the last few years, largely as
result of a goverment decision in 1971 to develop livestock production on an
industrial basis. It is planned to construct more than 1000 such large
livestock complexes in the Soviet Union.
The beef cattle
population is about 4 million head, which only 3-6 % of the total cattle
population in the Soviet Union. To develop the beef industry further. 140
breeding farms, with a total population of approximately 200 000 head of cattle
, have been esthablised. They are mainly large units. Housing 2500- 30 000
animal each, and they are designed for intensive feeding. Some of the
largerunits, handling 10 000 head each, are :at voronovo, near moscow ; at
pashsky, in the leningrad region ; at yumatovsky, in the Bashkir Autonomus Replubic ; at Mir, in the brest
area; and at bratsk ( feeding 20 000 animals ). Typical result in five such
feedlot were : daily gain 1 kg, feed conversion of 7:1 and 3:5 man-hr direct
labour cost.
Since large-scale
livestock farms and complexes may be viewed as factories producing high-quality
fertilizer in addition to the basic diary or meat product, practical
possibilities exist for establishing continuous flow lines for manure disposal.
Thus, in the design of such large farm system, manure removal,
processing, disinfection and storage must ensure the maximum preservation of
fertilizer value with minimum labour, transportation and diposal cost. These
goals are usually fulfilled by gravity-flow and recirculating manure removal
system, with subsequent fermentation under anaerobic conditions in the
thermophilic regime. The gravity-flow system, in operation for many years in
dairy farms, revealed a number of advantages, including transportation of
manure without added water or the need to liquely the manure. Recirculation
with the hydraulic flushing of excrement has been succesfully employed on a
number of farms. In this system, the liquid fraction of the settled excrement (
or a well-agitated mixture of it ) serves as the transportation medium. Such a
system has been in effect at the zhodino complex near minsk for more than 15
years.
The combined application
of gravity-flow and recirculation system for removal. Together with anaerobic
fermentation can considerably reduce the output of manure from feedlot. At
present, work is nearing completion on a pilot anaerobic treatment plant for
300 cows at the Dzerzhinsky collective farm near moscow. Working in combination
with a recirculating removal system, the plant will be able to produce several
types of organic fertilizer for use in the farm’s hothouses, along with the
heat from the combustible gas. If successful, the plant will be installed at
other farms.
The utilization of manure
as a supplement in feed rations is practised in the soviet union by adding
manure to feed rations after drying it in dehydrators. ( The Tomilino Poultry
factory in the moscow region has been operating a guano drying unit since 1972,
with a daily output of approximately 50 tons of dry matter ). Studies
undertaken by soviet scientists show that. By using high temperature drying of
manure, it is possible to substitude up to 25% nutrients in the rations of
young feeder cattle with no effects on the daily gain or feed conversion
values. An original biochemical tratment plant was constructed on the
teleneshty state farm. In the moldavian replubic. It is a yeast plant built to
utilise wastes from a 24 000 head hog-feeding farm. The plant produces about 100 tons of dry feed yeast per year. One
hopes that studies on conversion of processed manure into livestock feed will
be expanded. Particularly with the idea of overcoming the psychological barries
against their application.
Serious efforts are under
way within the USSR to develop manure utilization mehods which would
effectively eliminate the possibilities of environmental pollution. How
important an issue it is can be seen in the 1972 decision of the Goverment and
the party to insist upon a rational treatment of land. Water, plant and
wildlife resources in an effort to prevent any pollution of the environment due
to agricultural production . A comprehensive set of measures is now being
worked out by the various departments and agencis and is being implemented for
the succesfsful realization of this goal.
