Air Quality Challenges

Dietary nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, are excreted in manure from feedlot cattle. Dietary strategies, including calculated protein supplementation and phase-feeding programs, can be implemented by cattle feeders to decrease nutrient excretion and improve nutritional efficiency of the animal.

This is a summary of the webinar “The Role of the Odor Footprint Tool in Livestock Nuisance Litigation” given on Jan. 21, 2021, as part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of Agricultural Economics Extension Farm and Ranch Management team’s weekly webinar series.

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may seem like extra work that can hurt business, but in reality best management practices for reducing GHG emissions can be economical. These practices may also have other benefits such as reducing unpleasant odors. There are two main areas where producers can reduce significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Best management practices to increase production efficiency and reduce methane produced from cattle digestion of feed can be used alongside manure management techniques.

Roughly half of all neighbor complaints of livestock odors originate from land application of manure. A weather forecast and a little knowledge of odor dilution can be a powerful tool for keeping your neighbors happy, or at least avoiding those irate phone calls. Picking the right weather conditions for land applying manure, may not improve your popularity in the community, but it can go along way with improving your community’s acceptance of livestock systems.

Management is the key to keeping dust under control. By using some basic dust control techniques, open feedlots can prevent or minimize the problem.

Because of a growing concern about manure irrigation, the University of Wisconsin Extension assembled a workgroup to research the concerns. The workgroup included scientists, public health specialists, state agency experts, farmers, conservationists and others. Over the course of two years, the group gathered and studied the science of manure irrigation, which culminated in a report that contains findings, responses and recommendations. This article will review a few of their findings related to bacterial transport as well as highlight some of the reasons why a farmer might opt to apply manure via irrigation rather than other ways.

A resource reality of cattle production is that only 10-30% of the nitrogen (N) that is consumed (i.e. fed protein) is utilized by animals for growth, reproduction, milk production, and maintenance needs. Unused N is excreted, primarily in urine. While livestock production is not the only source of N, producers should recognize that agriculture is clearly the dominant contributor of N to the environment on regional and national scales, and animal manure is a key source along with commercial fertilizer. In April of 2017, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that EPA would have to require animal feeding operations to report ammonia emissions. EPA expects to receive a court mandate on January 22, 2018, enforcing its ruling and opening livestock and poultry operations to consideration under CERCLA/EPCRA.

Wind direction and speed affect dust and odor risk. A first step in assessing and minimizing potential dust and odor nuisance risk of a livestock operation is identifying the most likely downwind directions. This article will share wind frequency data for 44 Nebraska locations to consider siting options for reducing these nuisances.

Good stewardship calls upon livestock and poultry producers to limit emissions of air pollutants where feasible. Odor control practices and technologies may take several forms. Information on control strategies may focus upon the type of emissions controlled or the source of air emissions.

The Odor Footprint Tool (OFT) estimates the frequency of annoying odor events around an existing or proposed livestock facility and uses this information to determine minimum separation distances that should be maintained around those facilities and to help in siting decisions.

Odor emission is of great concern to the general public. An odor management plan is required in the permit application for livestock operations with more than 1,000 animal units. Producers need to understand odor emission from animal housing, manure storage and handling, and land application and available management options.