Farm smells are not simply a sum of all odorous compounds
found within them, but result from interactions
among complex mixtures of hundreds of compounds. In addition to the molecules themselves, odour generation is
also influenced by many environmental factors such as temperature,
air flow speed and relative humidity. However, while Yang and his research team consider
their system a useful tool in supporting livestock and poultry
farm odour management, and point out that is easier and
cheaper to operate than using olfactometry or a human
panel, they admit that any electronic nose is limited on the
farm in that it can only detect odour events at one point.
It therefore cannot provide overall odour mapping around
livestock facilities, which is necessary for an overall odour
management strategy. Yang and his research team thus foresee the need for
a wireless electronic nose network, combined with an air
dispersion model on each farm, which would be able to
monitor odour strengths on the basis of odour emission
rates, topography and meteorological data.