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University Daily Kansan, March 4, 1982
Page 3
Sewage nutritious
Solid waste contributes to animal diets
By TOM HUTTON Staff Reporter
KANSAS CITY, Kansas—Five million tons of solid waste are sent annually through the sewers of the United States. Enough, according to the U.S. Department of Health, to be piled on a football field as high as McKinney in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America at 20,320 feet.
The discovery of a way to dispose of this waste may not only resolve the disposal problem in the United States but feed herds of animals as well.
Stanley Smith, professor of animal science at New Mexico State University, is on a six-month sabbatical to the University of Kansas Medical Center pharmacology department and the Mexican department to study the effect of feeding irradiated, dried sewage to certain animals.
SMITH HAS researched the possibility of feeding sludge, the sediment that is left at the end of sewage treatment, as a diet supplement for ruminant animals for sixyears.
Smith's goal is to provide ranchers with a low-cost alternative to expensive feed and also make use of the excess sewage.
"The nutrient value of sewage is obvious." Smith said. "But the question is, can it be used effectively?"
Sludge is rich in nutrients, such as iron, zinc, copper and calcium. Smith said. These nutrients make it easier to give supplement for animals, he said.
Ruminants, such as sheep, goats, cattle and deer, are able to digest sewage because of their multiple stomachs. Ruminants can eat grasses that other animals cannot. In some cases, the animals' mentations, ruminants can break down many substances that are potentially harmful in animal feeds.
Making sludge into a possible supplement to the regular grass diets of ruminants involved three primary processes.
The first step was to completely dry the dress. In tests conducted in New Mexico, drying posed no problems, Smith said.
The second step, said Smith, was to put the dried sludge into bags of a manageable size.
The third step was to irradiate the bag with gamma rays to eliminate parasites and other hazardous organisms. The level of radiation was similar to the level of radiation received by the U.S. Department of Health.
After the process was complete, the researchers fed the sludge to the animals as a 7 percent supplement to diets of grass or hay. The animals that were fed the adjusted diet for three months or longer gained weight with no adverse effects, Smith said.
AFTER THE ANIMALS that had been fed the sewage-supplemented diet were slaughtered, the size of their organs was measured and analyzed for harmful metals. These metals included amounts of metals that were normal.
In another test at New Mexico State, cattle were also found to receive important benefits after sluder was added to their food.
Reproduction of cows on arid ranges was improved and calf-feeding weights increased at the
same rate as the weights of cows that had received traditional cottonseed meal supplements.
tests on these animals also did not show any increase of harmful metals, Smith said.
The meat from these cows showed no difference in color and firmness of the lean tissue, nor in the acceptability of steaks, roasts, beef patties, or bulk ground beef, Smith said.
Currently, Smith said, cottonseed meal costs about $200 a ton. While his sludge treatment is more expensive, Smith said he would contigitate the possibility of using sludge and to try find a way to lower costs.
The use of sewage as a supplemental feed is currently prohibited in most countries, Smith said. But scientists in Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, England and South Korea are also investigating shudder.
Critics of the program have argued that there are too many industrial toxins in sludge that could affect the animals and their products.
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THE STATE OF THE ART
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Thursday, March 4 8:00 p.m.
Forum Room Kansas Union
New semester calendar already being planned
Students are counting the days until spring break, but they probably do not consider the planning that goes into developing KU's calendar.
By ANN WYLIE Staff Reporter
The University Senate executive committee does. It will discuss the proposed University calendar for the 1983-84 academic year tomorrow.
According to the calendar, 1893 fall semester classes will begin Aug. 22 and examinations will end Dec. 17. Spring 1984 classes will begin Jan. 11 and examinations will end May 10. Summer 1984 classes will year will run from June 5 to July 27.
Early semester calendars that run from late August until mid-May like KU's are popular. John Conard, a member of the Board of Regents, said yesterday.
Otherwise, students would have finals after Christmas break, he said.
This puts the University on a tight schedule, he said, which is one reason the university's students are so excited.
There are other reasons for the early semester calendar.
The Calendar Committee wanted to start summer school when people in the city were coming.
Michel, committee chairman and
drama director, professor of speech
and drama, said.
In the past few years, the trend in summer session calendars has been toward more varied, shorter term classes, Jerry Hutchison, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said.
"That's so it does not tie up the entire summer for some people," he said.
Planning a university calendar is complex, Conard said.
Before the trend, he said, a student came to summer school for the entire summer.
Now, a student can take classes in June alone, in July alone, or for two weeks only during summer workshops, he said.
The Regents Council of Chief Academic Officers studies calendars once a year and plans three or four years ahead, he said.
Then the Regents Council of Business Officers and the Council of Presidents both approve the proposed calendars and send them to the Regents, who approve them and send the calendars to the universities, he said.
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