Evaporative Cooling Pads – Maintenance for a Longer Life Hot weather cooling for livestock and poultry includes sprinkling or misting combined with high enough air velocity to promote evaporation, or direct cooling of the air via fogging or evaporative cooling pads as part of a mechanical ventilation package. Evaportive cooling pads can be quite effective for reducing the interior air temperature in a facility. They work by drawing hot outside air through the saturated pad...

Condensation Prevention in Metal –Walled Livestock Buildings Metal—walled (or metal sheathed walls) are commonly used for livestock construction. The metal sheathing is attached to the exterior of the building frame and it provides the first barrier between outside and inside conditions.   The metal is fastened with either vertical or horizontal seams, and it can perform as an effective rainscreen, i.e. a barrier to prevent wind-driven rain from penetrating to the interior....

Each spring semester, students in the Animal Science 403 pork production course get a brief introduction to ventilation fans, air inlets, environment control and manure management. Today, we share the information about the BESS lab in Agricultural and Biological Engineering at U of I. A unique laboratory, BESS conducts ventilation fan performance testing for companies, and posts results in an online database that anyone can access and use to select fans.BESS Lab website is here:...

The TSM 371 Residential Housing class analyzed the simple life cycle cost of 5 different bulb selections for a utility room (12' x 15') requiring 9,000 lumens of lighting. The bulb choices were: 8 incandescent 75W bulbs vs 12 CFL vs 3 different LED bulbs. Local pricing was used for this homework. LED bulb life was 11,000 hours, CFL life 6,000 hours and incandescent life...a dismal 750 hours. All technical info straight from manufacturers' spec sheets.Long story short...LED are best choice...

Nitrogen-limiting and phosphorus-limiting nutrient budget worksheets are now available online. Swine, beef, and turkey producers can utilize these online worksheets to easily calculate their manure application rates. N-limiting worksheet P-limiting worksheet

Some of the rules and setbacks for manure spreaders in Illinois were changed by the 2014 EPA AFO/CAFO rules. Commercial manure haulers and farm operators can learn how these rules—which address ALL livestock facilities in our state—affect their operations, by attending one of the four regional meetings being held this spring. This is an important, unique opportunity to hear Illinois rules clarified by experts. Speakers include IEPA regional Environmental Protection Specialists, U of I Extension...

Update! On January 19, 2018, Friday, EPA filed a motion with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to further delay issuance of the mandate. Please check EPA's website to reach recent information on the court mandate. ----------------------------------------------- The U.S. EPA has recently published a...

Mark your calendars: The 2018 Illinois Pork Expo is February 6-7, 2018 in Springfield, IL.   - Largest swine specific tradeshow in Illinois with over 165 exhibitor booths - Educational seminars - Talk to industry experts -...

UPDATE- According to the new Q&A posted on the EPA's website, those farmers who have already made their initial continuous release notification do NOT need to submit their written report to the EPA regional office within 30 days. They may wait to submit the written report until the court issues the mandate. No additional call or e-mail to the National Response Center is required. Another update is about cattle grazing on pastures. According to EPA's new Q...

Update: As of Nov 15, 2017 3 pm, farms with continuous releases DO NOT HAVE to submit their initial continuous release notification until the court issues its order, or mandate, enforcing the April 11, 2017, decision. You can review the material below to familiarize yourself with the continuous release reporting, but NO REPORTING IS REQUIRED until EPA updates its guidance to provide farmers with notice...