Location: Livestock Nutrient Management Research
Project Number: 3090-31630-006-054-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Feb 23, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2031
Objective:
1. Quantify baseline emissions of methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia from swine finisher barns in Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle region.
2. Quantify baseline emissions of methane and ammonia from swine manure lagoons in Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle region.
3. Test the effectiveness of mitigation technologies for methane, nitrous oxide, and ammonia emissions from swine finisher barns in Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle region.
4. Test the effectiveness of mitigation technologies for methane and ammonia emissions from swine manure lagoons in Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle region.
Approach:
Research will be conducted on commercial swine production farms representative of the pork industry in Texas/Oklahoma Panhandle region. Swine housing facilities have shallow manure pit under slatted floor and outside lagoons for long-term storage. Research will focus on quantifying real-time emissions of greenhouse gases (methane and nitrous oxide) and ammonia from barns and adjacent manure lagoons. For barns, this will be accomplished by measuring gas concentrations at the barn inlet and outlet, estimating ventilation rate, and estimating real-time emissions on hourly, daily, and seasonal basis. For lagoons, gas concentrations will be used with detailed weather data (3D anemometry) to estimate emissions. Most promising emissions mitigation technologies will be tested on farm-scales. Research will account for the animal production and manure management practices, seasonal effects, regional environmental conditions. A suite of ancillary data will be collected and analyzed. Examples include weather (wind direction and velocity in 3D, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation), manure, feed, drinking water, animal numbers and weights.
Funding will be used for:
A GS-09 technician will be hired and will spend 100% of time on this project
Analysis of manure, etc. at central laboratory
Miscellaneous supplies for emissions measurements and sample collection
