Guidelines for Establishing and Managing Livestock Operations

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The agriculture operations Act adopted by the province of Saskatchewan is presented. Its main provisions are : protection for farmers for unwarranted nuisance lawsuits; a mechanism for resolving nuisance disputes; and protection of surface and groundwater. Guidelines are given for establishing or expanding livestock operations, managing livestock operations and handling nuisance complaints. Considering establishing and expanding, the public process is discussed along with siting, land uses and permits, approval and licences requirements. Different aspects of operations management are discussed such as : site, ventilation systems, manure, traffic, livestock, dead animals, pest and animal welfare.

Ammonia Emission from Pig Buildings and Charactristics of Slurry Produced by Pigs Offered Low Crude Protein Diets

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The manure produced with the low crude protein diet is lower in ammonium-N. However considering the fertilization done with this manure, not only the nitrogen has to be lower but also the phosphorous which become the limit in some conditions. The statistical analysis gives valuable information on the real differences between the treatments.

Control of Odours by Dietary Manipulation

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Control odour emissions by dietary manipulations involve could be an interesting odour reduction mean as the intervention on odour is done at the beginning of the waste management process and could limit the need for air treatment investments. Two experimental reduce crude protein (RCP) diets were tested against a commercial diet (CD) as feed to fattening pigs. The first RCP diet was made out of bean and peas (BP) and the other one was fishmeal and soya based (FS), both contained barley and wheat and were supplemented synthetic amino acids to obtained an ideal ratio of essential amino acids. Gas chromatography – mass spectrometry was used to identify and quantify the major odour components found in the headspace of fresh pig slurry. Results showed in comparison with CD results, that 9 out of 10 odorous components were reduced in the slurry produced by the pigs fed the FS (P<0.05) as for the BP, reduction was measured for 4 odorants (P<0.05). This shows that not only the crude protein content of a diet has an effect on odorants production but also the diet components affect the odour components of found in the headspace of the fresh manure. For both BP and FS, the ammonia emissions were reduced by 40% compare to CD and other parameters such as pH, dry matter content, total and organic nitrogen were also reduced. The reduction of odorous compounds by the reduction of the crude protein in the diet is very interesting because this reduction is done directly as the manure is produced. However a reduction of certain components may not necessarily mean odour reduction as the authors present it. Odour from slurry comes from many different components and conclusions could not be drawn on measured reductions of 10 compounds. Furthermore the hedonic odor tone (pleasant or unpleasant) has also to be verified to conclude on an improvement in the odor.

Guideline to Assess the Protection Distance to Avoid Annoyance by Odour Sensation Caused by Livestock Husbandry.

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The Austrian guidelines are presented and compared to guidelines from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. The comparison analysis is more complete in the publication presented
in: Assessment of the protection distance to avoid annoyance by odour sensation caused by livestock husbandry by Austrian guideline. 1997. G. Schauberger and M. Piringer

Control of Manure Odors

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This is a general summary of methods to control manure odor. This includes source and identification of odorous gases and vapours, techniques to minimize the formation of odourous gases and managing animal enterprises for odour control.

Electronic nose evaluation of synthetic hog farm odor.

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Testing of an electronic nose using conducting polymer sensors was done to measure the detection threshold of acetic acid in water, acetic acid in oil and also of synthetic pig slurry composed of ten organic compounds. A human odor panel also analyzed the same odor samples. The nose performed well in the evaluation of acid acetic in oil but important differences were obtained between the results of the nose and the one of the human panelists for the water-based solutions due to the humidity from those solutions. Different approaches and mathematical analysis were used and evaluated for their ability to simulate the discrimination of the human panel. For the experiment conditions, Fisher’s Linear Discriminant Analysis gave the best performance. However any changes in the experimental set up that would have an impact on variability would necessitate re-evaluation of the approaches and analysis.

The electronic nose is a tool that is not yet ready for odor analysis of slurry. However, such a tool will be very valuable when its ability to reproduce human olfactory reaction will be improved as costly olfactometry analysis could be replaced by in situs analysis with a nose.

Soil Fertility Benefits from Swine Manure Addition

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Liquid manure has to be considered as a valuable nutrient source for the plants even if it is more diluted than mineral fertilizer and consequently for manure, the transport and application costs are higher. The attention given to manure application should be the same than for commercial fertilizers regarding application rate, timing, application technique and expected crop response. Current research is being done in fields and laboratory in Saskatchewan to improve the benefits that swine manure can give to soil fertility and agriculture.

Fertilization is mainly presented as satisfying the N requirements of the plants and little consideration is given to other elements such as P that could build up as the manure fertilization to meet N requirements exceed the P plant’s requirements. Past experience in countries and provinces were manure has been applied to meet N requirements repeatedly during many years has shown problems.

Long term measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from UK livestock buildings

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Concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were continuously measured over several weeks at a range of positions within (and outside) each of a fattening piggery, a broiler house and a dairy cow house, using an automated gas chromatograph. For the piggery and the broiler house, both of which were force-ventilated, the ventilation rate was measured using fan-wheel anemometers. For the cow house, which was naturally-ventilated via space boarding and a roof ridge vent, the ventilation rate was measured using a novel carbon monoxide tracer gas technique. Emission rates were determined from the products of ventilation rates and the concentration differences across the buildings. The rates of carbon dioxide emission measured were compared with those predicted from literature on metabolic rates of production. Agreement was within 15% for the force-ventilated buildings and 20% for the naturally-ventilated building, giving additional validation of the 2 methods of measuring ventilation rate. For the broiler house, no significant emissions of either methane or nitrous oxide were found: it is probable that the very dry litter in this house had inhibited the microbial processes necessary to produce both gases. The cow house gave, per 500 kg liveweight housed, greater emissions of both methane and nitrous oxide than did the piggery (4 times as much for methane; twice as much for nitrous oxide). All methane from the dairy cow house was from the cows themselves: none was from the slurry. It is concluded that the best option for reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions from housed livestock is the manipulation of bovine diets.

Modelling Emissions

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For the development of odour emission model to study odour emission reduction, the chemical and physical properties of roughly 200 different gases that constitute odour from livestock production has to be better known. As for ammonia, the formation process, the diffusion and the transport in and out the livestock facility must be better understood and described. The process can be modeled by floor models, section models and airflow models. The section model is presented as being less known. This model attempt to sum up the diffusion coming from different areas or section of an animal house ( for example in a swine building with slatted floor: wet floor in animal area, back of the wet slatted floor, stored manure under the slats, wet side wall, wet and dirty animals). To be able use prediction ammonia emission models, more measurements have to be done and more knowledge of the emission processes have to be acquired.

Deep Litter Materials and the Ammonia Emissions in Fattening Pig Houses

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An appreciation of odour (as no measures are presented) showed that the sawdust bedding produced lower odour nuisance compared to straw litter and that the aerated litter also produced less odours. The pig performances showed no negative effect from the deep litter system. More work has to be done to find the optimum conditions for the good composting and nitrification and denitrification process that lower the NOx emissions as this system present advantages in reducing odour nuisance and improving the animal welfare.