Emissions of Ammonia, Methane, Carbon Dioxide, and Nitrous Oxide from Dairy Cattle Housing and Manure Management Systems

Abstract

Concentrated animal feeding operations emit trace gases such as ammonia (NH 3 ), methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). The implementation of air quality regulations in livestock-producing states increases the need for accurate on-farm determination of emission rates. The objective of this study was to determine the emission rates of , respectively. The open lot areas generated the greatest emissions of NH 3 , CO 2 , and N 2 O, contributing 78, 80, and 57%, respectively, to total farm emissions. Methane emissions were greatest from the lots in the spring (74% of total), after which the wastewater pond became the largest source of emissions (55% of total) for the remainder of the year. Data from this study can be used to develop trace gas emissions factors from open-lot dairies in southern Idaho and potentially other open-lot production systems in similar climatic regions.

Spatial and Temporal Variation in Physicochemical Properties of Dairy Lagoons in South-Central Idaho

“…It has been demonstrated on dairies in southern Idaho that emissions of both NH 3 and CO 2 occur from lagoons and typically increase from spring to fall following increases in temperature (Bjorneberg et al, 2009, Leytem et al, 2011, 2013. As the amount of CO 2 generated from lagoons is much greater than the amount of NH 3 (Leytem et al, 2011), the pH of the lagoon water would likely increase as these emissions increased, which was demonstrated in the lagoons in the present study. The specific conductivity tended to increase over time, with D5 and D6 showing the strongest trends ( fig.…”

“…The formation of NH 3 in solution generates H + and reduces the pH, and the formation of CO 2 (utilization of H + ) in solution increases pH (Ni, 1999;Chaoui et al, 2009). It has been demonstrated on dairies in southern Idaho that emissions of both NH 3 and CO 2 occur from lagoons and typically increase from spring to fall following increases in temperature (Bjorneberg et al, 2009, Leytem et al, 2011, 2013. As the amount of CO 2 generated from lagoons is much greater than the amount of NH 3 (Leytem et al, 2011), the pH of the lagoon water would likely increase as these emissions increased, which was demonstrated in the lagoons in the present study.…”

Validation of farm-scale methane emissions using nocturnal boundary layer budgets

“…For groups of cattle at the field or paddock scale (< 0.5 km 2 ), tracer release (Griffith et al, 2008;Leytem et al, 2011), the integrated horizontal flux method (Laubach and Kelliher, 2004;Griffith et al, 2008), and the point-source dispersion modelling and measurement approach (McGinn et al, 2011;McGinn and Beauchemin, 2012) have demonstrated their usefulness. At the farm scale in-between (≈ 0.5-5 km 2 ), McGinn et al (2006) have used a combination of tracer release, line-averaged concentration measurements, and inverse modelling of fluxes.…”

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Housing and Manure Management Systems at Confined Livestock Operations

“…Characterization and quantification of N2O and CH4 emitted from livestock operations are important because these gases are believed to play a major role in the increase of Earth's temperature. During the last two hundred and fifty years, anthropogenic activities, including demanding agricultural production, have increased the global atmospheric concentration of GHG, namely CO2, CH4, and N2O by 36,148, and 18%, respectively [1]. Total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US increased by 14.7% from 1990 to 2006.…”