By Rob Lasson
Associate Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Operations Research Sara Shashaani and Associate Professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Extension Specialist Mahmoud Sharara have partnered with the Ag Analytics Platform for their project, “Uncertainty Quantification for Robust Irrigation and Lagoon Management in Farms.” The research is part of a larger externally funded project investigating better management practices for hog lagoons.
With 1,500 storage lagoons in eastern North Carolina, an area boasting the state’s highest pig production, this project is essential to supporting new solutions for a critical economic enterprise for the state.
Shashaani and Sharara want to create a model that can help predict the nitrogen concentration in the soil of storage lagoons, which can be impacted by weather and lagoon management and irrigation practices. According to Sharara, understanding the nitrogen concentration of the lagoons determines how much manure a farmer can apply and when to apply it.