Grantee Research Project Results

2008 Progress Report: Effects of Cattle Manure Handling and Management Strategies on Fate and Transport of Hormones in the Feedlot and the Field

EPA Grant Number: R833423
Title: Effects of Cattle Manure Handling and Management Strategies on Fate and Transport of Hormones in the Feedlot and the Field
Investigators: Snow, Daniel , Zhang, Tian C. , Shapiro, Charles , Shelton, David , Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon , Mader, Terry , Kranz, William
Institution: University of Nebraska at Lincoln
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2009 (Extended to June 30, 2011)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2008 through June 30,2009
Project Amount: $699,607
RFA: Fate and Effects of Hormones in Waste from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOS) (2006) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Endocrine Disruptors , Human Health , Safer Chemicals

Objective:

The objectives of this research project are to: (1) quantify hormones in various stages of the manure pathway in cattle feedlots, (2) determine the effects of different handling practices of cattle feedlot wastes on the stability and availability of hormones in cattle feedlots, (3) determine the effects of different land application strategies on the fate and transport of hormones used in beef cattle production in vadose zone soils, and (4) determine if grasses from conservation buffers assimilate hormones.

Progress Summary:

Analytical methods for extraction and analysis of trace levels of steroid hormones from water and soils were developed. Detection limits were validated using replicate analysis of low-level fortified matrix. Two cattle feeding studies were completed in 2007 and 2008 to provide manure from treated and untreated cattle. Samples of feeding pen surfaces and run-off samples were collected for analysis of steroid hormones. Feedlot surface samples were collected at 7, 45 and 125 days after cattle were placed in pens. Approximately 30 runoff events were sampled using tipping bucket samplers from the feeding pens. Cattle treated with implants gained 3.23 lb/day, while untreated cattle gained 2.65 lb/day. Manure from the first study was placed in compost piles and anaerobic stockpiles, covered and sampled over a 6-8 month period to determine persistence during manure storage.

Stockpiled and composted manure was applied during the summer to tillage plots watered with simulated rain-fall for crop run-off tests. Grassed buffers fertilized with stockpiled manure have been sampled for evaluation of uptake potential in plants. Soil pore water currently is being sampled beneath crops fertilized with manure for determination of steroid hormone leaching potential. Laboratory tests are underway to determine degradation rates, sorption and transformation products using ¹⁴C labeled testosterone and estradiol. Preliminary results suggest that supplement concentrations are much lower than the levels of natural (endogenous) steroid hormones in run-off water.

A water resources and irrigation engineer, located at the University of Nebraska West Central Research and Extension Center, was added as a co-principal investigator on the project to provide oversight for the lysimeter studies conducted in North Platte, Nebraska. A revised quality assurance project plan was prepared and submitted to the program officer in April 2008, following development of standard operating procedures under the project and detailed descriptions of the survey task, sprinkler irrigation and batch sorption testing.

Future Activities:

Tasks and activities underway during the second year of the project include rainfall simulation experiments with first year stockpiled and composted manure, sampling of lysimeters beneath test plots receiving manure from the first year pen study, sampling of grasses fertilized with manure, laboratory degradation studies using bioreactors, sorption and degradation experiments with ¹⁴C-labelled compounds, and analysis of first year feedlot run-off, pen surface and rain-fall simulation samples. The survey task will be scheduled during the third year of the project in order to spread out sample collection and analysis, as well as to help coordinate cooperative efforts with EPA's National Risk Management Research Laboratory to include samples of ground water from the project sites.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 14 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

estradiol, estrogen, androgen, endocrine disruption; , Scientific Discipline, Health, RFA, Endocrine Disruptors - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Environmental Chemistry, Endocrine Disruptors - Human Health, animal feeding operations, endocrine disrupting chemicals, EDCs, CAFOs, agrochemicals

Relevant Websites:

University of Nebraska: Dan Snow Exit
University of Nebraska: School of Natural Resources Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.