Cup Of Tea

Conoy Renegotiating Incinerator Contract

0 Comments | Intelligencer Journal Lancaster New Era; Combined Saturday edition, Jul 29, 2010 | by Ad Crable

Staff Writer

Hosting the county’s trash-to-electricity incinerator for the last 19 years has had its cash rewards for Conoy Township.

In 2009, the $750,000 paid to the township by the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority made up 55 percent of Conoy’s budget.

Township residents and businesses don’t pay a local real estate tax.

But the authority board on Friday voted to notify the township that it intends to negotiate a new host community fee agreement.

The current one expires in May 2011 unless the authority wants it automatically renewed under existing terms.

Both authority and Conoy officials say they have had an amicable and respectful relationship over the past 19 years and do not foresee conflicts in drawing up a new agreement.

“We’ve been satisfied the last 20 years and we certainly hope we can continue to be satisfied,” said longtime Conoy Supervisor Robert Strickland.

“We obviously want to get out of it what we deserve.”

Former supervisor Stephen Mohr, who will serve on a township negotiating committee to work out a deal with the authority, added, “We just want to make sure everything’s covered with no surprises.

“Nothing’s gotten cheaper, so the township is not looking to come out of there with less revenue.”

One thing certain to be considered in negotiations is the possible future expansion of the incinerator.

“If more tons are going in, it may affect how tonnage is calculated,” observed authority executive director James Warner, who will negotiate the new deal with the township.

The waste authority is not required by law to give Conoy any compensation, beyond $1 a year.

Currently, the authority pays the township $1.80 for every ton of waste processed at the incinerator from Lancaster County and $3.60 for every ton of waste processed from out of the county.

acrable@lnpnews.com

The digestibility of organic trace minerals along the small intestine in broiler chickens

Asian – Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, Oct, 2010 by Y.M. Bao, M. Choct, P.A. Iji, K. Bruerton

INTRODUCTION

In commercial broiler production, a large safety margin used in feed formulation for supplemental inorganic trace minerals results in a high level of mineral excretion, which is harmful to the environment. It is believed that organic trace minerals are better absorbed and utilized than their inorganic counterparts and are protected from interactions that interfere with their bioavailability, thus leading to a reduction in the excretion of minerals (Scott et al., 1982; Leeson, 2003). Theoretically, the organic trace minerals may be able to be supplemented at a much lower level.

However, the apparent absorption of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn based on excreta does not provide a suitable measurement of the bioavailability of trace minerals (Ammerman, 1995).

Apart from indigestible trace minerals and cell abrasion, the excreta mainly contain excess trace minerals which can not be absorbed (Underwood and Suttle, 1996b). Most study on

organic trace minerals for broilers have used conventional diets, tending to exceed the bird’s requirement (Lee et al., 2001; Paik, 2001) and a negative digestibility of trace minerals. However, using a special control diet (Bao et al., 2007a), which is deficient in Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn, may provide a means for determining the digestibility of organic trace minerals in different parts of the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) as it becomes possible to avoid trace mineral excess in the GIT.

Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of low concentrations of organic and inorganic dietary trace minerals on broiler performance, tibia trace mineral concentrations and the digestibility of trace minerals along the small intestine of 35-day-old broiler chickens reared under floor-pen conditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experiment was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the University of New England (Approval No: AEC 04/147).

Animal husbandry

A total of 800 day-old male Cobb broiler chicks were randomly allocated to 32 deep litter pens with 8 replicates of 25 birds per treatment. In the first two weeks, the birds were given starter diets, followed by the finisher diets for 3 weeks. During the finisher period, 5 g Celite (acid insoluble ash (AIA), Celite Corporation, Lompoc, CA)/kg diet was added to all the diets as a marker for digestibility measurement. All the birds were fed ad libitum throughout the experiment. For the first three days, the shed temperature was maintained at 35[degrees]C and gradually reduced to 23[degrees]C at 28 d of age and maintained till the end of the experiment
supplements and nutrition