NWISRL, Kimberly, Idaho Site Logo
ARS Home About Us Helptop nav spacerContact Us En Espanoltop nav spacer
Printable VersionPrintable Version E-mail this pageE-mail this page
Agricultural Research Service United States Department of Agriculture
Search
  Advanced Search
Programs and Projects
 

Research Project: A Preliminary Study of Atmospheric Emissions from a Large Scale Dairy in Southern Idaho

Location: NWISRL, Kimberly, Idaho

2008 Annual Report


1a.Objectives (from AD-416)
The objective is to measure the relative contributions of ammonia, volatile organic compounds, and bioaerosol emissions over one year from different areas within a large scale dairy to identify areas for further research and air quality improvement.


1b.Approach (from AD-416)
We will identify a dairy with good separation between pens, feed storage and manure storage areas in order to reduce the incidence of cross contamination between source areas. Ideally source areas will be situated so that prevailing winds (east-west) do not cause measurement interference among areas. A portable weather station will be located near the site to provide general meteorological data including wind speed and direction, solar radiation, soil temperature, air temperature and relative humidity.

The four monitoring areas on the dairy farm will be the pens, feed storage area, manure storage area, and one other area which will be determined once the site is selected. Equipment will be installed on Monday with continuous sampling until Friday for one week out of each month, for a total of 12 weeks. Air pumps for bioaerosol and VOC samplers require 110 VAC, which will require us to install electrical outlets near monitoring areas or purchase solar charged, battery power supplies.

Three towers with passive samplers for ammonia detection will be set up at each monitoring area on the dairy, with samplers set approximately six feet high. The samplers will be changed each day after allowing for 24 hours of ammonia collection, and analyzed at the end of the week.

Bioaerosol samplers on tripods will be placed at a height of approximately 6 feet at upwind and downwind positions from the designated sampling areas. Once daily, triplicate samples will be sequentially collected only during low to medium wind events. Afterwards the samples will be immediately carried to our laboratory on ice. Concentrations of culturable heterotrophic bacteria, gram-negative enteric bacteria, Escherichia Coli, and fungi will be determined after incubation on selective growth media. Gram-negative bacteria will be further identified by sequence analysis of 16S ribosomal DNA clones; fungi will be identified by examination of colony morphology.

Programmable, low volume gas samplers will be mounted at approximately 6 feet at each of the four monitoring areas. Air will be drawn through glass sorbent tubes to capture VOC chemicals present in the air. At least 3 samples per day per station will be collected during the 5-day sampling period. Gas samples will be analyzed for a number of known odorants. A few samples will be used for detailed screening to identify unknown odorants. Documents reimbursable with IDEAL. Log 34466.


3.Progress Report

A large scale open lot dairy in southern Idaho was identified in January 2008 and installation of monitoring equipment began in February. At present, the site is instrumented with three, 3-D sonic anemometers and one mobile weather station to record weather data necessary for modeling of gaseous losses from three locations on the dairy (open lots, lagoon, compost). Each month starting in March, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, methanol, and nitrous oxide have been measured for two days at each location and another two days at a background location. In addition, passive ammonia traps have been set at each location and spread out across the pen area in order to have a second measurement of ammonia at the different locations and to help identify the spatial distribution of ammonia over the open lot areas. A battery-operated air sampling device was designed and is currently being tested to sample for volatile organic carbon compounds at the three locations on the dairy. Bioaerosol sampling has been done twice each month at several areas on the dairy utilizing three devices (glass impingers, single stage impactors, and a high volume air sampler). These samples are then evaluated for Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci, heterotrophs, coliphage, and fungi. Endotoxin sampling has also been conducted at the same locations. Progress on this project has been monitored by meetings with IDEAL to report preliminary results. This research contributes to National Program 206, Component I–Atmospheric Emissions, Problem Statement b–Emission Factors from Livestock Facilities.


   

 
Project Team
Leytem, April
Bjorneberg, David - Dave
McConnell, Laura
Dungan, Robert - Rob
 
Project Annual Reports
  FY 2008
 
Related National Programs
  Manure and Byproduct Utilization (206)
 
 
Last Modified: 01/16/2009
ARS Home | USDA.gov | Site Map | Policies and Links 
FOIA | Accessibility Statement | Privacy Policy | Nondiscrimination Statement | Information Quality | USA.gov | White House