Animal Waste Value—Nutrient Recovery and Utilization

Abstract

Organic waste originating from livestock in the United States far exceeds in quantity the combined organic waste output of the human population—a frightening statistic in a pollution conscious era. In reality, however, with the exception made for special areas, animal waste is currently a nuisance rather than a calamity. By application of 20th century man's tools, his ingenuity and his willingness to act on fact rather than hearsay, he can convert this oozing mountain of animal organic waste to one of his great resources. A conditioned observation, however, is that the mountain will continue to ooze and man's effort for containment will be feeble in response to superficial reporting and philosophical prejudices. Another observation is that conventional sanitary engineering concepts developed for human waste disposal offer for animal waste a dead end streed with calamitous consequence. Currently most funded research in animal waste management is designed to use experimental procedures developed for human waste disposal. Copyright © 1971. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1971 by American Society of Animal Science.