One of the major concerns in dairy cattle lodging management is the great amount of manure produced daily in a reduced area that can be an excellent fertilizer option or an enormous pollutant potential, depending on the disposal procedures. In Brazil, the destination of raw effluent of lodged dairy cattle was in the past and continues nowadays being the water courses using the conventional and condemned method of the dilution, as the only form to eliminate the residues of the installations which is one of the reasons for eutrophication of rivers, streams, lakes and ponds. A pilot plant was installed to treat 10% of the effluent produced in the dairy parlor installations of the EAFI/MG. The pilot plant was designed with three units: an anaerobic lagoon followed by a facultative pond and a subsurface constructed wetland. The pilot plant presented the following average removal: phosphorus, 80%; nitrate, 88%; COD, 89%; total solids, 67%; and turbidity, 60%. The pH during the whole operation maintained around 6.2. The study concluded that the system presented a great potential for treatment of dairy parlor effluent.
dairy cattle; treatment of effluent
