Ammonia emission from dairy cow manure stored in a lagoon over summer

It is recognized that volatilized ammonia (NH3) from intensive livestock production can be a significant pathway for nitrogen (N) pollution to land and water, and can contribute to poor air quality. The objectives of our study were to document NH3 emissions from a dairy lagoon and to assess the influence of meteorology on NH3 emissions. Ammonia emissions were determined using a backward Lagrangian Stochastic approach using WindTrax software, an open-path NH3 laser and a sonic anemometer. Results indicate that an average 5.1 ± 1.6 g NH3 m-2 d-1 was released over the summer; however, the emission varied typically over 24 h between 3.6 and 8.6 g NH3 m-2 d-1. Wind speed and surface temperature of the lagoon had similar influences on the magnitude of the release, where their direct impact on NH3 emission accounted for 28 and 31% of the variability, respectively. The main implication of this study is that NH3 losses are significant from dairy lagoons, contributing to the issue of N pollution. As well, NH3 emissions are a loss of valuable N for manure used as fertilizer, which in our study amounted to approximately 13% of the total ammoniacal N content of the manure in the lagoon. Key words: Ammonia, dairy, manure, cattle, dispersion model

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THE EFFECT OF DIFFERENT NEW BEDDING MATERIALS ON AMMONIA EMISSION FROM DAIRY COW SLURRY

AGROFOR ◽

10.7251/agreng2003021h ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Maarit HELLSTEDT ◽

Hannu E.S. HAAPALA

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cow ◽

Volume Ratio ◽

Renewable Resource ◽

Ammonia Emission ◽

Ammonia Emissions ◽

Emission Rates ◽

Canary Grass ◽

Bedding Materials ◽

By Products ◽

Cow Slurry

Agriculture is the most significant source of Ammonia emission that causes e.g. loss of Nitrogen from agricultural systems. Manure is the main source of Ammonia emissions and causes losses in the nutrient cycles of agriculture as well as local odour nuisance. By using different bedding materials, it is possible to reduce both the Ammonia emissions and to improve the cycling of nutrient. Peat is known as an effective litter material but its use as a virtually non-renewable resource is questionable. Therefore, we need to find new bedding materials to replace peat. In this study, the effect of ten different industrial by-products, reeds and stalks to reduce Ammonia emissions was tested in laboratory in January 2020. Dairy cow slurry and bedding materials were mixed in a volume ratio of 4:1. The Ammonia emission was measured for two weeks once or twice a day. Measurements were performed with a photoacoustic method. The results show that all tested materials reduce the Ammonia emission from the cow slurry used. Interesting new materials to substitute peat are zero fiber and briquetted textile waste. Wheat bran, pellets made of reed canary grass and chopped bulrush had the best effect which is at the same level as that of peat. However, no statistically significant differences between the calculated emission rates were found.

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Evaluation of ammonia emissions from filtration of digestate used for fertigation

Journal of Agricultural Engineering ◽

10.4081/jae.2021.1187 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 52 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Celeste Righi Ricco ◽

Alberto Finzi ◽

Viviana Guido ◽

Elisabetta Riva ◽

Omar Ferrari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dispersion Model ◽

Farming Systems ◽

Farming System ◽

Passive Samplers ◽

Ammonia Emission ◽

Specific Reference ◽

Ammonia Emissions ◽

Mean Values ◽

Po Valley ◽

Inverse Dispersion

Fertigation can be a suitable technique for utilizing digestate, minimizing nitrogen losses, and contributing to circularity within a farming system. For this purpose, digestate usually is first processed with a screw-press separator. However, further filtration is required to remove particles that could clog the nozzles of drip or sprinkling irrigation systems. Advanced filtration can be obtained using mechanical separation with screens having openings of 100- 300 μm. This operation can be another source of ammonia emission, but this aspect has not been adequately investigated. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by evaluating the emissions from three different filtration systems for digestate. The study was conducted in three different farms located in Lombardy (Italy) using digestate to fertigate maize by drip irrigation (two farms) and pivot irrigation (one farm). Ammonia emissions were measured with passive samplers and the fluxes were examined using an inverse dispersion model implemented in Windtrax software. The emissions were measured both when the filtration systems were in operation and when they were switched off. Ammonia emissions (mean values between 375 and 876 μg NH3/m2/s) tended to increase during operation of the filtration systems. However, no significant differences were found in the emissions from active and inactive equipment on any of the farms. The emissions from the filtration systems were higher than from a storage tank (22-67 μg NH3/m2/s). However, the mean emissions amounted to only 0.3% of the nitrogen content of the digestate. These emissions can be considered irrelevant in the context of the whole management scheme for digestate. This work provides a first insight on ammonia emissions arising from advanced filtration of digestate, with specific reference to Po Valley farming systems. Further studies are required to improve knowledge about emissions from the entire digestate management process, including the treatments required for specific application techniques.

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Validation of Ammonia Emissions from Dairy Cow Manure Estimated with a Non-Steady-State, Recirculation Flux Chamber with Whole-Building Emissions

Transactions of the ASABE ◽

10.13031/2013.22652 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 633-640 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

V. Blanes-Vidal ◽

P. A. Topper ◽

E. F. Wheeler

Keyword(s):

Steady State ◽

Dairy Cow ◽

Ammonia Emissions ◽

Cow Manure ◽

Flux Chamber ◽

Dairy Cow Manure

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Diet optimization for dairy cows to reduce ammonia emissions

10.22616/rrd.27.2021.005 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Dzidra Kreismane ◽

◽

Elita Aplocina ◽

Kaspars Naglis-Liepa ◽

Laima Berzina ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dairy Cows ◽

Dairy Cow ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Dairy Farm ◽

Ammonia Emission ◽

Ammonia Emissions ◽

Nitrogen Emissions ◽

Balanced Diet ◽

Emission Reduction Potential ◽

Lactation Phase

Feeding livestock a balanced diet with a differentiated crude protein (CP) content, depending on the lactation phase can reduce nitrogen emissions from livestock excrement and urine. A higher content of non-starch polysaccharides in livestock diets improves feed absorption in the livestock body and, consequently, nitrogen is emitted more from protein present in livestock manure than from urea acid present in livestock urine. The aim of the study is to calculate the ammonia emission reduction potential in Latvia by optimizing the feeding of dairy cows and ensuring life longevity, as well as provide justification for ammonia emission reduction in dairy farms. Calculations made by using the NorFor Model for optimization of dairy cow (Bos primigenius f. taurus) diets revealed that compared with lowyielding cows, a higher CP content diet fed to high-yielding cows at the beginning of lactation increased the amount of nitrogen (N) in their excrement and urine by 90–180 g d-1. Reducing the CP content in the cow diet by an average of 10 g kg-1 dry matter (DM) during mid-lactation resulted in the same trend. Reducing the CP content in the cow diet during late lactation and the dry period by another 20–30 g kg-1 of DM, N emissions from excrement and urine significantly decreased. Increasing the lifespan of dairy cows also means reducing ammonia emissions from the farm. By increasing the number of lactations per cow on dairy farm, it is possible to reduce the number of heifers per cow. The total reduction of ammonia emissions in Latvia was calculated based on a long-term projection of a decrease of 0.1 heifer per dairy cow. Ammonia emissions could be reduced by 0.051 kt by decreasing the number of heifers by 12.54 thou. at the planned increase in the lifespan of dairy cows by 2030.

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Evaluation of a new inference method for estimating ammonia volatilisation from multiple agronomic plots

10.5194/bg-2017-424 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Loubet ◽

Marco Carozzi ◽

Polina Voylokov ◽

Jean-Pierre Cohan ◽

Robert Trochard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dispersion Model ◽

Agricultural Practices ◽

Control Treatment ◽

Ammonia Emission ◽

Ammonia Emissions ◽

Background Concentrations ◽

Inference Method ◽

Surface Exchange ◽

Novel Method ◽

Ammonia Volatilisation

Abstract. Tropospheric ammonia (NH3) is a threat to the environment and human health and is mainly emitted by agriculture. Ammonia volatilisation following application of nitrogen in the field accounts for more than 40 % of the total ammonia emissions in France. This hence represents a major loss of nitrogen use efficiency which needs to be reduced by appropriate agricultural practices. In this study we evaluate a novel method to infer ammonia volatilisation from small agronomic plots made of multiple treatments with repetition. The method is based on the combination of a set of ammonia diffusion sensors exposed for durations of 3 hours to 1 week, and a short-range atmospheric dispersion model, used to retrieve the emissions from each plot. The method is evaluated by mimicking ammonia emissions from an ensemble of 9 plots with a resistance-analogue-compensation-point surface exchange scheme over a yearly meteorological database separated into 28-days periods. A multi-factorial simulation scheme is used to test the effects of sensor number and heights, plot dimensions, source strengths and background concentrations, on the quality of the inference method. We further demonstrate by theoretical considerations in the case of an isolated plot that inferring emissions with diffusion sensors integrating over daily periods will always lead to underestimations due to correlations between emissions and atmospheric transfer. We evaluated these underestimations as −8 % ± 6 % of the emissions for a typical western European climate. For multiple plots, we find that this method would lead to median underestimations of −16 % with an interquartile [−8 % −22 %] for two treatments differing by a factor of up to 20 and a control treatment with no emissions. We further evaluate the methodology for varying background concentrations and ammonia emission patterns and demonstrate the low sensitivity of the method to these factors. The method was also tested in a real case and proved to provide sound evaluations of ammonia losses from surface applied and incorporated slurry. We hence showed that this novel method should be robust and suitable for estimating ammonia emissions from agronomic plots. Further work should anyway be produced for validating this method in real conditions.

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