Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons^™

Design Of University Small-Scale Dairy Processing Facility, Philip J. Hildebrand, Joshua Arejola, Alicia Andersen, Terry Howell Jr, Tami M. Brown-Brandl

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This project was assigned to research the feasibility and value of implementing a dairy processing facility on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The facility would process milk produced from cows under the same roof and will serve as an educational experience for Nebraska dairy farmers, UNL students, and K-12 students in the Lincoln-Lancaster County area. If the project is successful and replicated across the state, this facility could have a significant impact on the reduction of milk transportation costs in the Nebraska dairy industry.

The project began with researching milk processing methods and steps from production to consumption. …

Robotic Cotton Harvesting With A Multi-Finger End-Effector: Research, Design, Development, Testing, And Evaluation, Hussein Gharakhani

Theses and Dissertations

Cotton is harvested with large and heavy machines that are very efficient but have some disadvantages. They can harvest the crop only once at the end of the growing season. Since cotton bolls do not mature uniformly, the early opened bolls expose their fiber to weather for extended periods, reducing lint quality. In addition, the machines can also compact the soil, reducing water and fertilizer usage efficiencies and crop yields in the following years. Robotic cotton harvesting offers a promising solution to these issues. Smaller robotic harvesters could go to the field multiple times during the season to pick cotton …

Hydrological And Water Quality Assessment Of Forested Coastal Watersheds, Shreeya Bhattarai

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal regions are at risk of environmental threats. Flooding in coastal rivers is the result of intense precipitation which is triggered by climate change. Coastal watersheds are prone to losing significant amounts of sediment and nutrients because of the shorter transport pathway that drains directly into the coastal water. In this study, the hydrology, flood frequency, and water quality assessment of two coastal watersheds, Wolf River watershed (WRW) and Jourdan River watershed (JRW), were conducted using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). Since WRW and JRW are the main tributaries to fetch freshwater to Saint Louis Bay (SLB) of …

Evaluation Of Conservation Practices Effect On Water Quality Using The Swat Model, Vivek Venishetty

Theses and Dissertations

The deterioration of water quality due to human-driven alternations has an adverse effect on the environment. More than 50% of surveyed surface water bodies in the United States (US) are classified as impaired waters as per the Clean Water Act. The pollutants affecting the water quality in the US are classified as point and non-point sources. Pollutant mitigation strategies such as the selective implementation of best management practices (BMPs) based on the severity of the pollution could improve water quality by reducing the amounts of pollutants. Quantifying the efficiency of a specific management practice can be difficult for large watersheds. …

Managing Iron Deficiency Chlorosis (Idc) In Soybean Through A Cropping System Approach, Katelin Savannah Waldrep

Theses and Dissertations

Iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) is a frequent problem throughout many areas of the United States where soils are high in calcium carbonate (CaCO₃), including the Blackland Prairie regions of Mississippi. The main objectives of this study were to 1) determine the effects of seven different cropping systems on IDC visual symptomology and grain yield in rainfed soybeans grown in calcareous soils, and 2) evaluate the effects of soil water tension (SWT) on IDC. Rotating soybeans with corn produced significantly higher yields for both tolerant and susceptible soybean varieties. IDC symptomology was worse, and yields were lower in cropping …

Soil Respiration Measurements Reveal High Retention Of Organic Carbon From Corn Residue Derived High-Lignin Fermentation Byproduct Enabling Sustainable Lignocellulosic Biofuel Production, Michelle Sun Wang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

While 2G biofuel production can utilize non-edible, lignocellulosic feedstocks such as agricultural residues to produce liquid fuel, harvesting crop residues is unsustainable without careful management of the soil underneath. By harvesting a fraction of the crop residues left in the field after harvest, soil health can diminish and critically, the soil organic carbon (SOC) stored in agricultural fields can decrease. Currently, in the most popular 2G process models published, the issue of soil degradation remains unresolved with residue harvest strategies receiving considerable attention in the literature and other SOC management strategies receiving far less. Specifically, the strategy of returning the …

Producer Long-Term Marketing Opportunities With Ethanol Plants, Austin Harthoorn, Logan Lloyd, Cory Walters, Kate Brooks

Cornhusker Economics

Commodity marketing operates in a complex decision environment with constant information flow, which can conceal long-run financially profitable marketing opportunities for producers. In the corn marketing space, the competitive role of ethanol plants throughout the state may provide producers with long-run financial gains by strategically approaching marketing decisions. In this article, we characterize whether producers can gain financially from strategically marketing corn to ethanol plants. For example, do ethanol plants provide a better long-run return from pre-harvest hedging, spring sale, or harvest sale?

We investigate three important contracting times--forward contract for harvest delivery (called pre-harvest hereafter), harvest delivery, and spring …

A Deep-Learning Framework For Spray Pattern Segmentation And Estimation In Agricultural Spraying Systems, Praneel Acharya, Travis Burgers, Kim-Doang Nguyen

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This work focuses on leveraging deep learning for agricultural applications, especially for spray pattern segmentation and spray cone angle estimation. These two characteristics are important to understanding the sprayer system such as nozzles used in agriculture. The core of this work includes three deep-learning convolution-based models. These models are trained and their performances are compared. After the best model is selected based on its performance, it is used for spray region segmentation and spray cone angle estimation. The output from the selected model provides a binary image representing the spray region. This binary image is further processed using image processing …

Characterization Of Lignin And Cellulose Biopolymers Structure – Function Relationships, Zachariah Pittman

All Dissertations

Biomass is vital to ongoing efforts to secure a sustainable future. While many of our efforts focus on finding alternative forms of energy, biomass among them, only biomass has the potential to serve as a sustainable materials feedstock. However, biomass is heterogenous, complicating the upgrading processes needed to manufacture commodity and performance products. For example, plant biomass consists largely of cellulose, a crystalline polysaccharide, and lignin, a highly stable polyaromatic. The specific properties of cellulose and lignin depend greatly on the plant, harvesting conditions, and isolation procedures. Thus, accurate and reliable determination of the fundamental properties of biomass is crucial …

Irrigation-As-A-Service For Smallholder Farmers, Ishani Lal

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Irrigation is a crucial management practice that can help increase food security among smallholders globally while mitigating climate change impacts. High-efficiency irrigation technologies such as drip kits and sprinkler systems are relatively expensive and smallholder farmers cannot afford them to buffer crop yields against low precipitation. In many developing countries, farmers participate in robust informal markets for renting and sharing of irrigation equipment. Such services may be operated by farmers or via a third party such as irrigation start-ups, water user associations, non-governmental organizations, or even government agencies. These services are referred to collectively as Irrigation-as-a-Service (IaaS).

The objective of …

Engineering Of Microparticle Encapsulated Antioxidant To Mitigate Oxidative Stress In Vitro And In Vivo, Kayla Ney

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is one of the leading causes of years lived with disability in the United States. Current treatments for cLBP have variable results across the patient population, and many patients struggle to find consistent relief. Most current treatments focus on the symptom of pain, not the root cause. In painful degenerated discs, oxidative stress and inflammation function in a vicious cycle and perpetuate degeneration, damage, and pain. Therefore, oxidative stress and inflammation are important targets in addressing the source of pain. This work characterizes an antioxidant, BuOE, encapsulated in a chondroitin sulfate microparticle as a novel …

The Influence Of Pesticides On Us Corn Production Environmental Impact: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Dominant Production Practices, Kyle Marinoni Lawrence

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been increasing interest in reducing agricultural environmental footprints in the United States, particularly for commodity crops like corn grain. Pest management is one aspect of agricultural production that is often identified as having potential for improvement with regard to environmental impact, but there is not a robust body of literature to identify the wide-scale influence of pesticides on yield and environmental impact. In this study, we hypothesized that the use of different classifications of pesticides has a significant impact on the overall environmental impact. To test this, agricultural models were created to represent the dominant …

Analyzing Energy Use From Arkansas Public School Buildings, Oscar Morton

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Energy is a key global resource in society and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions related to the consumption of energy have detrimental effects on the planet. With energy consumption increasing, exponential population growth, and diminishing natural resources necessary for energy production, the relevance of energy efficiency is dramatically increasing. In this project, I analyzed energy usage data from a set of public school buildings from one school district in northwest Arkansas from 2018, before targeted energy efficiency practices were implemented, through 2022 to see if energy usage changed over this short period. The objectives of analyzing energy data were to determine …

Case Study: Modeling A Grain Bin For Safe Entry Retrofit, Michael Dyer, Serap Gorucu, Randall Bock, Roderick Thomas, Jude Liu, Linda Fetzer

Office of Research Faculty and Staff Publications

All new grain bins produced after 2018 are recommended to have anchor points capable of handling a 2000 lb loading for attachment of bin entry lifeline systems. This study aims to assess the feasibility of a safe entry anchor point retrofit by using finite element analysis (FEA). We used a grain bin owned by Penn State for 3D FEA modeling in SolidWorks. To validate the model results from the FEA model, first strain and then deflection measurements were conducted on the grain. Strain gauges were applied to the grain bin in five locations and strain values were obtained after applying …

Potential Bioavailability Of Representative Pyrogenic Organic Matter Compounds In Comparison To Natural Dissolved Organic Matter Pools, Emily B. Graham, Hyun-Seob Song, Samantha Grieger, Vanessa A. Garayburu-Caruso, James C. Stegen, Kevin D. Bladon, Allison N. Myers-Pigg

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) from wildfires impacts river corridors globally and is widely regarded as resistant to biological degradation. Though recent work suggests PyOM may be more bioavailable than historically perceived, estimating bioavailability across its chemical spectrum remains elusive. To address this knowledge gap, we assessed potential bioavailability of representative PyOM compounds relative to ubiquitous dissolved organic matter (DOM) with a substrate-explicit model. The range of potential bioavailability of PyOM was greater than natural DOM; however, the predicted thermodynamics, metabolic rates, and carbon use efficiencies (CUEs) overlapped significantly between all OM pools. Compound type (e.g., natural versus PyOM) had approximately …

Deficit Irrigation Management For Irrigated Corn In Nebraska: Economically Viable?, Lia Nogueira, Cory Walters, Emily O'Donnell, E. Wesley F. Peterson, Suat Irmak

Cornhusker Economics

In this study we determine the economic value of deficit irrigation management using both technological and methodological advancements. The use of soil moisture probes represents the technological improvement. We provide improvements in the methodology as follows. Regarding data, we employ a field-size study, instead of plots, where the irrigation decision is determined by the moisture level in the soil measured through a soil moisture probe. Regarding the understanding of the yield response to water, although we examine the commonly used quadratic function, we improve upon this specification by also examining an alternative response function, the linear response stochastic plateau. Our …

Agen/Bsen 112 Final Project: Moving And Temperament Of Cattle, Elly Vo, Taetum Baxa, Ved Patel, Brady Giles, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Rossana Villa-Rojas

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cattle movement and weather may affect the body temperature of cows which in turn affects their natural behavior and can influence their metabolism. Cattle take several days to resume their normal eating patterns after being overheated, and that can affect dairy production. This project was assigned to study the effect of temperament (calm vs excitable) and evaporative cooling on the body temperature of moving animals to optimize the environmental conditions around the cattle and consequently, dairy production.

The project began with processing of a data set from Tami Brown-Brandl who was the client/adviser for the group. The data contained the …

Spectroscopic Sensor Data Fusion To Improve The Prediction Of Soil Nutrient Contents, Bidhan Ghimire

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study aims to advance the understanding and application of spectroscopic sensor data fusion for improving soil nutrient content predictions. In addition to presenting an extensive review of studies on the spectroscopic sensor data fusion, a research investigation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of five fusion algorithms in predicting three primary nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium) and two secondary nutrients (Calcium and Magnesium) in soil using Visible and Near-Infrared, Mid-Infrared, and X-ray Fluorescence data. Among the five fusion algorithms, one was a low-level fusion involving data concatenation. Two were mid-level fusions, incorporating feature extraction by applying (i) Principal Component …

Estimating Crop Stomatal Conductance Through High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping, Junxiao Zhang

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

During photosynthesis and transpiration, crops exchange carbon dioxide and water with the atmosphere through stomata. When a crop experiences water stress, stomata are closed to reducing water loss. However, the closing of stomata also negatively affects the photosynthetic efficiency of the crop and leads to lower yields. Stomatal conductance (gs) quantifies the degree of stomatal opening and closing by using the rate of gas exchange between the crop and the atmosphere, which helps to understand the water status of the crop for better irrigation management. Unfortunately, gs measurement typically requires contact measuring instruments and manual collection in the field, which …

Characterization Of Physical And Biochemical Traits In Wheat And Corn Plants Using High Throughput Image Analysis, Kantilata Thapa

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plant phenotyping has been recognized as a rapidly growing field of research due to the labor-intensive, destructive, and time-consuming nature of traditional phenotyping methods. These phenotyping bottlenecks can be addressed by advancements in image-based phenotyping like RGB and hyperspectral imaging for the assessment of plant traits important for breeding purposes. This study aims (1) to characterize the physical and biochemical traits of wheat and corn plants using RGB and hyperspectral imaging in the greenhouse, and (2) to estimate leaf nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) content using hyperspectral imaging and an analytical spectral device (ASD spectrometer) and compare the …