University of Missouri--Columbia. Extension Division
Abstract
Many livestock producers with confinement operations handle their animal waste as a liquid because of the laborsaving advantages. Anaerobic lagoons are an integral part of many liquid-handling systems. Lagoons are pondlike earthen basins sized to provide biological treatment and long-term storage of animal waste. A livestock lagoon is a small-scale waste treatment plant containing manure that is usually diluted with building wash water, water wasted at animal waterers, and rainfall. In a lagoon, the manure becomes partially liquefied and stabilized by bacterial action before eventual land application. Lagoons may contain one of three types of waste-stabilizing bacteria -- anaerobic (inhibited by oxygen), aerobic (requiring oxygen) or facultative (maintained with or without oxygen). Lagoons are larger than manure storage basins, which do not provide significant biological treatment and, frequently, are designed for shorter storage periods. On the other hand, anaerobic lagoons are considerably smaller than aerobic lagoons, which are designed to provide a higher degree of treatment with less odor production. Anaerobic lagoons also decompose more organic matter per unit volume than aerobic ones. Due to the tremendous area required for aerobic lagoons to treat livestock waste, almost all livestock lagoons are anaerobicNew 10/00/7
