Emergency Livestock Disposal Home

Project Executive Summary

Project in Detail

• Background
• Objectives
• Composting System Tested
• Research Methods
  • Construction
  • System Performance
  • Cover Material
  • Air Quality
  • Water Quality
  • Biosecurity
• Preliminary Results
• Project Sponsors & Contacts

Draft Guidelines for Emergency Cattle Mortality Composting

Research Methods


Cover Material Characteristics

Cover Materials Control Composting Environment

It's not the carcasses that determine the success or failure of a mortality composting system, it's the material surrounding them. 

The thickness of the materials placed beneath and over the carcasses, as well as their physical and chemical characteristics, play a major role in creating a composting  environment that either favors or impedes microbial decomposition. 

Good cover materials retain heat, temporarily absorb excess liquid, permit oxygen to diffuse into the pile, and allow decomposition gases and excess water vapor to migrate out.  The better cover materials also are at least moderately degradable themselves and thereby capable of supporting an active microbial population that produces sufficient heat throughout the pile to help insure inactivation of pathogens.

To identify suitable cover materials that could be used during an animal disease emergency, ground cornstalks, silage, and other organics will be used in field trials.  At the same time, these and a half dozen or more additional potential cover materials that cannot be field tested (due to time and money limitations) will be subjected to a variety of tests in the laboratory including: 

• moisture content

• carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio

• volatile solids

• bulk density

• free air space

• permeability

• respiration rate

• thermal conductivity

• heat capacity

By comparing laboratory test results with field trial data and other information from the composting literature, a ranked list of the most promising emergency cover materials will be assembled for future reference.

In Brief

1. Cover materials believed to have the best potential for emergency mortality composting will be tested in the field, and in the lab, to correlate field performance with standard physical, chemical, and biological test results.

2.  Six to ten additional materials will be tested in the lab to identify and rank materials that can be used for emergency livestock disposal.