Source: Michael Fielding, MEATINGPLACE, 1/3/12

A nationwide project led by Colorado State University researchers is designed to help livestock producers reduce airborne emissions – including odor, methane and ammonia.

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service recently awarded the project about $370,000 through its Conservation Innovation Grant program.

CSU faculty members in the College of Agricultural Sciences will use the funding to refine a straightforward online tool, called the National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool. It allows producers to assess air quality surrounding their operations, to pinpoint emission types and sources, and to consider the costs and benefits of emission-control strategies.

Shawn Archibeque, an assistant professor of animal sciences who is leading the project, and his collaborators have developed the National Air Quality Site Assessment Tool during the past four years.

The project provides livestock producers with strategies to proactively address air quality, said Bill Hammerich, chief executive officer of the Colorado Livestock Association, which donated $25,000 to initiate the project. Members representing the dairy and cattle-feeding sectors are helping to test the tool.
“Airborne emissions are an emergent issue in livestock production, and as we and others looked around for some solid research data, especially data to help guide best management practices, we realized that information was woefully lacking,” Hammerich said.

Livestock producers collaborating on the project hope that the tool will be used at different times of year and at different types of sites, including swine, dairy, beef, turkey and broiler-chicken operations, Hammerich added.

The Iowa Pork Producers Association is among several other well-known industry groups involved. Researchers at a dozen other universities also are collaborating.

“We want to not only do a better job of estimating emissions from livestock operations, but of helping livestock producers to mitigate emissions through best management practices,” said Jay Ham, a CSU professor of environmental physics who is working on the assessment tool. “It makes sense to take care of these things proactively.”

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