Gaseous emissions from a fattening piggery and a dairy barn with an automatic milking system

• Abstract. The concentrations of CH4, N2O, CO2 and NH3 were measured with a photoacoustic multi-gas analyser 1412 and a multiplexer 1309 (Lumasense Technologies A/S, Ballerup, Denmark) in a piggery over two fattening periods and in a dairy cow barn. The aim was to analyse and compare differences in emissions based on seasonal changes, animal species and management systems. The mechanically ventilated piggery was a slurry-based small scale research facility with a partly slatted floor and daily manure removal with scrapers. It housed 50 and 54 fattening pigs per batch in spring and in autumn, respectively. The dairy cow barn was naturally ventilated and had cubicles and a solid sloping floor with a central urine gutter. The floor was scraped once every hour during the daytime and once every two hours at night. It housed 108 Holstein dairy cows, which were milked automatically. The average milk production was 31.5 kg milk cow-1 day-1. The air flow in the piggery was in the range of 55–103 m3 pig-1 h-1. Emissions in the piggery were 2.3–4.9 g CH4 LU-1 h-1 and 1.3–1.6 g NH3 LU-1 h-1 and were influenced by seasonal changes (1 LU = 500 kg animal weight). The air flow in the dairy cow barn was calculated using CO2 mass balance and corrected for cow activity. The average daily air flow was 268–917 m3 LU-1 h-1 with a mean of 524 m3 LU-1 h-1. Emissions in the dairy cow barn were 10.9 g CH4 LU-1 h-1 and 0.82 g NH3 LU-1 h-1. Cow activity correlated with CH4 (R2 = 0.91) and NH3 (R2 = 0.56) emissions, where R2 is the coefficient of determination. Emissions in the dairy cow barn were influenced more by the activity of the cows rather than the ventilation rate, indicating a useful mitigation parameter. Keywords. Livestock buildings, animal activity, ventilation rate, ammonia, greenhouse gases

Ämnesord

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Veterinärmedicin (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Veterinary Science (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Husdjursvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Animal and Dairy Sience (hsv//eng)

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)