Ammonia and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of a Modern U.S. Swine Breeding-Gestation-Farrowing Facility

Abstract

Aerial emissions from livestock production continue to be an area of concern for both the potential health and environmental impacts. However, information on gaseous, especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for swine breeding/gestation and farrowing production facilities is meager. A 4300-sow breeding, gestation, and farrowing facility in Iowa was selected for extensive field monitoring. A Mobile Air Emission Monitoring Unit (MAEMU) was installed to monitor the deep-pit breeding-early gestation barn (1800 head), the deep-pit late gestation barn (1800 head), and two shallow-pit (pull-plug) farrowing rooms (40 head per room). A dynamic flux chamber was used to monitor gaseous emissions from the external manure storage for the farrowing rooms. This paper reports on data collected from January 12, 2011 through the completion of the study June 3, 2013. At the time of this abstract writing, results from the study show the following average daily emissions per sow or sow+litter: 13.5 g NH 3 , 2.87 kg CO 2 , 0.09 g N 2 O, and 102 g CH 4 for sows in the breeding/early gestation barn; 13.1 g NH 3 , 3.0 kg CO 2 , 0.08 g N 2 O, and 94 g CH 4 for sows in the late gestation barn; 32.0 g NH 3 , 8.7 kg CO 2 , 0.35 g N 2 O, and 57.7 g CH 4 for sows and litters in the farrowing rooms. The average daily emissions per sow+litter for the external manure storage for the farrowing facility are 6.6 g NH 3 , 1.1 kg CO 2 , 0.88 g N 2 O, and 722 g CH 4. Farm-level average daily emissions per sow are 17.5 g NH 3 , 4.12 kg CO 2 , 0.11 g N 2 O, and 149 g CH 4 .