Biological Engineering Commons^™

Feedlot Runoff Holding Ponds-Nutrient Levels And Related Management Aspects, Elbert C. Dickey, D. H. Vanderholm

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Collection, storage, and ultimate land disposal of livestock feedlot runoff is becoming a more common practice as a result of increasing state and federal regulations prohibiting uncontrolled discharge of runoff. As a result of chemical, physical, and biological actions during the storage phase, the runoff applied to land from storage is often greatly different from that entering storage directly from the feedlot. This study was designed to observe those changes in the runoff during storage, and to evaluate their effect on land disposal practices. Six concrete paved feedlots with runoff control systems were studied, with emphasis on variations in nitrogen, …

Duration And Intermittancy Of Noise Exposure For The Operator Of A Self Propelled Baler, Lyle Koester, Kenneth Von Bargen

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

Evaluation of the noise exposure of agricultural machine operators requires that machine operation time and intermittancy of work patterns be determined. One method of obtaining such data is by using event activity recorders. These data are available for haying machines operated at the University of Nebraska Field Laboratory, Mead during the 1963 through 1966 seasons. Approximately 60 machine operator days per season were recorded on service recorder charts for the following machines:
1. self-propelled windrowers
2. self-propelled and pull-type balers
3. self-propelled and pull-type bale wagons
In addition some motion-time study data are available for the newer loose hay stackers …

Pond Water Quality In A Claypan Soil, Elbert C. Dickey, J. K. Mitchell

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

In many areas of the Midwestern United States, a safe and plentiful supply of groundwater is a primary concern. Groundwater is sporadic, unreliable, shallow, and often polluted, even though these same areas often have an annual rainfall in excess of 1 m.

The pollution problems associated with these groundwater supplies are both chemical and bacterial. Older wells are often the most dangerous. Linings made of open brick near the surface, cracked casings and covers, and nearby privy, septic tank, and barnyard sites accentuate the problems in shallow groundwater aquifers. High levels of nitrates frequently present in the shallow domestic well …

Device For Obtaining From Small Ponds Water Samples Or Lagoons, J. Kent Mitchell, Elbert C. Dickey

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

A research project was recently initiated which requires that water quality samples be taken from small ponds and lagoons in west-central Illinois. A method for obtaining these pond water samples was desired that could be handled conveniently by one person and would not require a small boat. The pond water sampler described here was developed to satisfy this need.

The sampler developed allows one person to obtain a water sample at any desired depth while remaining on the shore. After assembling the device it may be floated to any position on the pond surface, lowered to the desired depth, and …

Sampling Pond Water Without A Boat, Elbert C. Dickey, J. Kent Mitchell

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nitrate levels in farm ponds are determined with the aid of a water sampler that can be operated from the shore

The quality of pond water in southern and western Illinois is being determined with the aid of a new type of water sampler developed in the Department of Agricultural Engineering.

Work on the sampler began as part of a study of water supplies in Washington County. This study, which is being conducted through the College of Agriculture Council on Environmental Quality, was initiated in the winter of 1970, after high nitrate levels were found in the county's water supplies. …