Grantee Research Project Results

2009 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:

Approximately 900 samples of surface run-off, feedlot surfaces and soil samples have been collected for this project since 2007. 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 collected for analysis of steroid hormones. Feedlot surface samples were collected at 7, 45 and 125 days after cattle were placed in pens. Five run-off events were sampled in 2007 and nine events in 2008. Manure from the first study was placed in compost piles and anaerobic stockpiles, covered and sampled over a 6-8 month period and sampled regularly to determine persistence during manure storage under differing conditions.

Stockpiled and composted manure was applied during the summer to tillage plots watered with simulated rain-fall for crop run-off tests. Additional rainfall simulation experiments were conducted in early summer 2009 using composted and stockpiled manure from the 2008 feeding studies. Grassed buffers fertilized with stockpiled manure from 2007 have been sampled for evaluation of uptake potential in plants. Soil pore water was sampled using lysimeters beneath crops fertilized with manure for determination of steroid hormone leaching potential. Split samples from the lysimeter site have been collected and sent to the U.S. EPA Kerr Research Laboratory to analyze for nutrients, major ions, and estrogen conjugates.

Laboratory tests are under way to determine degradation rates, sorption and transformation products using ¹⁴C labeled testosterone and 17ß-estradiol. Batch sorption-equilibration experiments were conducted with soils collected from two of the four research sites to determine conditions under which these compounds may be expected to be mobilized. The results from the bioreactor and sorption-desorption experiments provided the basis for two master's-level student research projects in Civil Engineering.

Future Activities:

The remaining samples from the rainfall simulation experiments, lysimeter plots, and survey task will be analyzed. Additional samples for the survey task will be collected to characterize hormone levels in soils receiving manure applications and feeding pens at other research farms. Papers describing the results for the batch equilibration studies, composting experiments, and feeding pen run-off studies currently are being drafted. Data on initial rainfall simulation studies and lysimeter plots will be presented at a conference next year. A third graduate student in Biosystems Engineering is working on developing preferential flow models using the data generated from this study to make predictions about the fate and transport of steroid hormones from cattle manure in agricultural watersheds.

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:

http://watercenter.unl.edu/ 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.