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Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them - AM0115

Description

The overall objective of this project is to quantify the relationship between the proportion of the day cattle spend in buildings and the size of ammonia (NH3) emissions from those buildings. The effect of temperature on NH3 emissions will also be measured in order to more accurately model the difference between emissions from buildings housing cattle in summer and winter.

Measurements will be made under controlled conditions using the polytunnels at IGER in the first two years. In the second two years measurements will be taken from cattle buildings on commercial farms using methods developed at SRI to measure NH3 emissions from naturally-ventilated livestock buildings.

The work supports DEFRA’s policy objectives of quantifying and limiting NH3 losses from agricultural systems. Data produced will be considered alongside the results of other studies measuring ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle, both in the UK and elsewhere, to provide input to project AM0101 in order to improve the accuracy of estimates of national NH3 emissions. The accurate quantification of NH3 emissions from partially occupied buildings will also enable better estimates to be made of the potential benefits of extended-season grazing in reducing national NH3 emissions. By improving our understanding of N cycling within cattle housing systems, this project will also further the policy objective of developing farming sysytems that minimise nutrient losses by all sources.

Objective

1) To quantify under controlled conditions the relationship between the number of hours cattle spend in buildings on the amount of ammonia emitted from those buildings.

2) To quantify ammonia emissions from commercial buildings housing cattle in summer and winter.

3) To determine the extent to which total ammonia emissions may be reduced by reducing the proportion of time cattle spend in buildings, looking at the whole grazing, hardstanding and building cycle by scenario analysis using NARSES (AM0101).

4) To recommend whether the approach being adopted in NARSES to quantify ammonia emissions needs to be adapted to accommodate either these findings, or the results of other studies of ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle.

Project Documents

• Final Report : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (199k)
• Final Report - Annex : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (547k)
• Final Report - Annex : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (928k)
• Final Report - Annex : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (1753k)
• Final Report - Annex : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (1175k)
• Final Report - Annex : Investigation of how ammonia emissions from buildings housing cattle vary with the time cattle spend inside them (1578k)

Time-Scale and Cost

From: 2002

To: 2005

Cost: £273,878

Contractor / Funded Organisations

ADAS UK Ltd.

Keywords

Air Pollution
Ammonia
Environmental Protection
Peer Review
Pollution
Sustainable Production

Fields of Study

Environmental Protection - Agriculture