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Filtrates from feedlot waste were incubated under aerobic conditions to evaluate the availability of nutrients for cell production and to assess the capacity of indigenous flora to produce stabilized effluents. Incubation was carried out in 9-liter aerated jar fermentors. Three-fourths of the organic material and one-third of the nitrogen were taken up in 4 days; 90% utilization of organic material and nitrogen required almost a month. Acid was produced initially, but aerated liquid thereafter rapidly became alkaline. With pH controlled at 7.0, a comparable pattern of carbon utilization occurred, but nitrogen was incompletely used. The numerically dominant organisms in the waste inoculum were almost immediately displaced by an emergent population of a few types of organisms not originally evident. Maximal viable populations of 10(9) to 3 x 10(9) cells/ml were obtained in aerated waste liquid within 48 h; subsequently, numbers declined quickly to initial levels. Numbers of fungi, yeasts, and streptomycetes slowly increased but never exceeded their initial concentration by more than tenfold.