A review of water quality concerns in livestock farming areas

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Abstract

Post-war changes in farming systems and especially the move from mixed arable–livestock farming towards greater specialisation, together with the general intensification of food production have had adverse affects on the environment. Livestock systems have largely become separated into pasture-based (cattle and sheep) and indoor systems (pigs and poultry). This paper reviews water quality issues in livestock farming areas of the UK. The increased losses of nutrients, farm effluents (particularly livestock wastes), pesticides such as sheep-dipping chemicals, bacterial and protozoan contamination of soil and water are some of the main concerns regarding water quality degradation. There has been a general uncoupling of nutrient cycles, and problems relating to nutrient loss are either short-term direct losses or long-term, related to accumulated nutrient surpluses. Results from several field studies indicate that a rational use of manure and mineral fertilisers can help reduce the pollution problems arising from livestock farming practices. Several best management practices are suggested for the control of nutrient loss and minimising release of pathogen and sheep-dip chemicals into agricultural runoff.

Section snippets

Background

The effects of modern agriculture on the wider environment are causing concern for a number of reasons. Pollution arising from agricultural activities has increased mainly as a result of the intensification of food production systems. The demand for food production has been met by a combination of high yielding crop varieties and greater reliance on pesticides, fertilisers, and imported animal feedstuffs; since 1950 the consumption of N fertiliser in the UK has increased more than sixfold.

Nutrients

Increased loss of nutrients in agricultural runoff has potentially serious ecological and public health implications. In this regard nitrogen and phosphorus are particularly important as both are implicated in aquatic eutrophication (Levine and Schindler, 1989). However, because of the free air–water exchange of N and the fixation of atmospheric N by some blue–green algae, P is generally regarded as the eutrophication-limiting nutrient in most aquatic ecosystems (Sharpley and Menzel, 1987).

Organic effluents

Organic wastes generally contain a large proportion of solids, which can rapidly blanket benthic habitats, with consequential changes in faunal species composition (Cooper, 1993). Organic waste may find its way into water courses either by direct discharge from slurry or silage effluent storage or runoff from slurry/manure applied fields (Fig. 1). Organic contamination causes rapid growth of micro-organisms in water, resulting in a high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and as a consequence, the

Sheep-dipping chemicals

Sheep suffer from a number of external insect parasites and immersing the animal in a bath of pesticide solution (‘sheep-dip’) controls these parasites; such pesticides generally contain either an organophosphorus or synthetic pyrethroid compound as the active ingredient. Whilst no one could argue the benefits of sheep dipping in terms of animal health and productivity, the chemicals are known to have deleterious effects on water quality (Coddington, 1992). In dipping practice, these chemicals

Bacterial and protozoan pathogens

The microbiological quality of surface waters helps to determine their acceptability for both drinking and recreational purposes. Livestock waste, particularly untreated slurry and faeces of grazing animals can carry a variety of bacterial and protozoan pathogens. Contamination of water with slurry and/or faeces, which can occur through a variety of pathways (Fig. 2), therefore represents a potential health risk to human and animals; such a risk potential will depend on a number of factors,

Measures to reduce water pollution

Point sources of pollution are easy to identify and can effectively be controlled by following Codes of Good Agricultural Practices, laid down for the protection of water (SOAFD, 1992, MAFF, 1998). However, the diffuse sources of pollution, such as loss of nutrients through leaching and in runoff, are more important and serious in that they are difficult to assess and control. Solutions to the problem of diffuse sources of pollution require a sound agricultural policy of sustainable farming

Acknowledgements

One of us (PSH) would like to thank Dr I. Svoboda of the Scottish Agricultural College, Ayr for several useful discussions on some of the issues covered in this paper. The Scottish Office Agriculture, Environment and Fisheries Department funded the initial part of this work while PSH was based at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen. Oxford Brookes University provided further funds for the concluding part of the work.

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