Odours from Landspreading Livestock Wastes

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Air samples have been taken during or after manure spreading to realize olfactometry measurements and determine odour emission. The threshold value was evaluated and expressed as OU/m3. Compared to pig slurry landspreading with a vacuum tanker spreading directly on soil (VT), ploughing in manure immediately after spreading has reduced odour emission by 84%, deep injection reduced odour emission by 73%, shallow injection lower emission by 53% and low trajectory spreader with trailing hoses reduced odour emission by 38%. The following manure treatments also lowered odour emission compared to untreated manure even when using the VT application technique: 86% odour emission reduction for aerobic treatment, 84% for anaerobic treatment and 34% for mechanical separation. Crude protein-reduced diets could also have an impact on odour reduction as those diets lower the concentrations of odorous compounds in the slurry.

Odour emission can be reduced using different spreading techniques. This publication gives those reductions. No information is given on the combined effect of the spreading technique and the use of crude protein-reduced diets.

Re-grouping strategies for pigs

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This study was conducted to determine if pigs with few littermates present in their new group performed poorly in comparison with litters with several littermates present. It is typically most cost effective to design a grower/finisher barn with permanent pens of the same size. However, with varying litter sizes, there is need for re-grouping once the pigs reach the grower/finisher stage. Once pigs are regrouped they are forced to form a new group identity and this transition may put some pigs at a disadvantage.
In this study litters of similar size were used. Each group was made up of 6 pigs from one litter (majority pigs) and two from another litter (minority pigs). Following regrouping pens were videotaped for 6 hours. These recordings were analyzed for aggression to determine if minority pigs were both dominant, both subordinate, or one being dominant and the other subordinate. It was found that weight gains of both majority and minority pigs did not differ during the study. Littermates did not cooperate to ensure that majority pigs were all dominant. Interestingly, minority pigs continued to associate with one another regardless of their position in the hierarchy. This information suggests that the new group identity does not obliterate the old identity. The study concluded that pigs in the minority are not at a disadvantage in terms of social status or growth.

Effects of daylength and increasing daylength programmes on broiler welfare and performance.

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Symptoms and mechanisms: Inflammation of the lung.

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L'injection de lisier dans les prairies; quelques resultats experimentaux en Belgique

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As the livestock density is considerably high in Belgium, particularly in the Flounders, important excesses of manure can be obtained in numerous farms. In order to verify if manure injection could bring solution to the surpluses by the better nutrient utilization and lower impact on neighbouring populations compared to broadcast application, a study was carried out at the Research Station of Merelbeke. Experiments were done with manure from cattle, pig or poultry production units and mineral fertilizers were added to those manure in order to obtain a uniform nutrient content and the application was done through spreading and injection (to compare both). The herbage yields were not affected by the application system however the nitrogen content of the herbage was higher when the manure was injected.
Nitrogen in the manure is better utilized as less nitrogen volatilization occur when injection is made compared to broadcast application. The application rates can be lowered providing that a good evaluation of the nutrients balance is done and that the spreading equipment allows for precise application rates. Injection also the odour emissions at the time of spreading.

Aerial Environment in Animal Housing. Concentration in and Emissions from Farm Buildings.

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This report had for objective to provide scientists and advanced advisers with information and basic facts about the following subjects:
– production and dispersion of dust (airborne particles) and gases inside livestock buildings;
– emissions of particles (pathogens excluded), gases and odour from livestock buildings to their surroundings;
– practical and useful measurement methods of measuring the contaminants;
– effect of the contaminants on humans and animals;
– methods to reduce indoor production, concentrations and emissions of contaminants.
This report does not present information about emissions and engineering aspects of storage and manure handling inside or outside the building. And this report doesn’t deal with animal comfort.

General information of the aerial environment in animal housing is well presented with the principal phenomena and the possible solutions available.

Heating/ventilation control systems

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Mathematical models can be used to predict the outcomes of scenarios where there are many variables. The advantage of being able to model the outcome is that fewer experiments need to be conducted. For example, if the model can accurately predict the outcome of a change in one or more variables then it is only necessary to conduct a few tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model. This enables researchers to focus limited resources toward answering specific questions that either cannot be answered by the model or are predicted by the model to give a favourable response. A mathematical model is used in this study of ventilation control systems.
An important issue related to ventilation control systems is stability. a

Pathology and handling of poultry at the slaughterhouse.

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Field Evaluations of a Low Energy Swine Nursery Facility

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Inactivation of antibiotics and the dissemination of resistance genes

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