Soil Scientist Honored by Research
Agency By Jim
Core
February 13, 2002
BELTSVILLE, Md., Feb. 13, 2002--Philip A. Moore, Jr., a soil
scientist with the Agricultural Research
Service, has been named the “Southern Plains Area Senior Research
Scientist of 2001" for the agency. ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief
scientific research agency. ARS’ Southern Plains Area includes Arkansas,
Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico.
Moore, based at the ARS
Poultry Production and Products Safety Research Unit, Fayetteville, Ark.,
is being honored for his internationally recognized leadership in developing
manure additives and phosphorus indices that have solved major agricultural
problems and reduced environmentally adverse affects of manure application.
“Dr. Moore was responsible for conceptualizing the basic hypothesis that
alum would reduce ammonia emissions and bind excess phosphorus in animal
manures,” said Edward B. Knipling, ARS acting administrator. “He
personally conducted or led research to establish the facts. His alum
technology is already being widely used in poultry production in this country,
and this use will surely increase dramatically in the years to come.”
Moore has worked for ARS since 1992. He also is an adjunct
professor at the Center
of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas.
Knipling will present a plaque to Moore at a 1 p.m. ceremony
today at the agency’s Henry A.
Wallace Beltsville (Md.) Agricultural Research Center. Moore and other
award winners will also receive cash awards and additional research
funding.
Moore discovered that alum (aluminum sulfate) reduces ammonia
vapor into the air and binds phosphorus when applied to poultry litter. When
litter is treated with alum, studies found that ammonia levels in chicken
houses drop and result in healthier and heavier broilers. This practice saves
the poultry industry as much as $10 million a year. In 1998, Moore received an
ARS Outstanding Individual Effort in Technology Transfer award for these
findings.
The alum treatments also reduced the amount of phosphorus runoff
from lands fertilized with poultry litter. Fields fertilized with manure can
cause excessive algal blooms in nearby bodies of water because of the high
amounts of phosphorus in the manure that can flow into the waterways.
Recently, Moore and cooperators developed an index to calculate
the risk of phosphorus runoff from fields fertilized with manure. Nutrient
management personnel can now use the index as an assessment tool validated with
hard data and extensive testing.
Moore has published more than 220 publications and holds six
patents, with several additional patents pending.
A native of El Dorado, Ark., Moore received his B.S. in soil
science from the University of Arkansas in 1978 and his M.S. there in agronomy
in 1981. He received a Ph.D. in marine sciences with a minor in agronomy from
Louisiana State University in
1987. Afterwards, Moore was a post-doctoral scientist at the
University of Florida and an assistant
professor at the University of Arkansas. |
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