A team of Iowa State University (ISU) researchers recently reviewed 265 academic papers published through the end of 2014 and found that a surprising amount of odor and gas emission mitigation practices for livestock and poultry production never make it to field trials.
Only about 25 percent of the technologies and practices examined in the literature actually reach a farm-scale experiment, said the ISU research team, including Jacek Koziel, Devin Maurer, Jay Harmon, Steve Hoff, Dan Andersen and Angie Rieck-Hinz.
The mitigation practices found in the papers focused on animal housing, manure storage and land application techniques. According to the team that collaborated in responding to questions from Progressive Dairyman, the dairy-related technologies that were successful in reaching farm- or field-scale testing included biofilters, manure storage covers, manure additives and land application techniques.
From the research, they found the biofilters showed promise in reducing ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and, to a lesser extent, greenhouse gases. Aeration and impermeable covers were found to be a potential solution for reducing hydrogen sulfide, odor and volatile organic compounds. The farm- and field-scale testing also revealed that injection or incorporation and manure treatment could reduce ammonia, volatile organic compounds and, to a lesser extent, greenhouse gases; however, the additives did not show much promise at reducing greenhouse gases.
The advantage these technologies had over those that did not advance to this stage was that they were “plug and play.”
“They are generally practices that can be placed at existing facilities,” the team said. “The advantage of this approach is that it does not cause drastic changes in the way farming is done all at once. Instead, we can test out a potential solution without risk of negative barn or animal performance. However, this approach does prevent some ‘high risk-high reward’ ideas from being tested at the field scale.”
They said technical feasibility and projected cost at the farm scale is a key consideration from the start for most technologies. However, the testing of some technologies on the field scale becomes more difficult because of the way many barns are currently constructed.
While field-scale evaluation is the final stage to help prove a new technology has the potential to perform at the farm level, the preceding lab-scale and pilot-scale testing phases are important steps in the process. It enables early evaluation without risking large changes to current farm practices.
Beyond research results, the team said, “Direct feedback from the agricultural industry on any mitigation technology is extremely important when considering options to implement.”
In order to obtain that feedback, researchers must develop tools to help farmers understand what technologies exist, how much they cost and how they perform. One such tool is the Air Management Practices Assessment Tool (AMPAT), an online resource managed by ISU Extension and Outreach.
The team plans to use the information gathered from the literature review to strengthen AMPAT, which helps producers make informed decisions about mitigation practices to address odor, emissions and dust.
These efforts have been supported by commodity organizations, namely the Indiana Soybean Alliance and the National Pork Board. The researchers said with decreased support at the federal level to develop farm-ready mitigation technologies, funding from various commodity organizations is appreciated as it aids in research initiatives whether they reach field-scale testing or not. PD
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