Will additional straw bedding in buildings housing cattle and pigs reduce ammonia emissions?

The Correlation between Ammonia Emissions and Bedding Materials in a Cow House

“…Our study results showed that T 3 had the lowest mean ammonia emission factor (17.36 gN cow -1 d -1 ), whereas the mean ammonia emission factor of T 1 , T 2 , and Gilhespy et al (2009) was based on beeves with the mean weight of 214-342 kg, which is lower than the cow weight of our study (350-400 kg) even though those authors also used a combination of wheat and barley straw as bedding material, aiming to absorb the excrete and provide a dry bedded area for beeves. However, the mean emission factors of ammonia of our study can compare favorably with the emission factors found by Misselbrook et al (2000) in the UK ammonia inventory (17.2 gN dairy cow Powell et al (2008) found that the ammonia emissions from manure solids, newspaper, pine shavings, and chopped straw as bedding materials were 20.0, 18.9, 15.2, and 18.9 gN heifer -1 d -1 , respectively, which are fully identical to our emission factor results.…”

“…Gilhespy et al (2009) reported that an increase of 33% straw, spread over the entire floor reduced ammonia emission from cattle by 50%. Misselbrook and Powell (2005) studied the effect of 6 bedding materials (chopped wheat straw, sand, pine shavings, chopped newspaper, chopped corn stalks, and recycled manure solids) on ammonia emissions from dairy cattle excreta and reported that ammonia emissions were the lowest from sand and pine shavings.…”

Assessing the Most Suitable Floor System for Growing-Finishing Piggery Under Tropical Conditions Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…Amongst the studied alternatives, the best one is the substrate with coffee and rice husks, followed by the concrete floor, and the wood shavings in both scenarios (Figures 2 and 3). However, the overall differences in the final weights remained below the expected as previous studies strongly recommend the use of a certain type of flooring system (Tuyttens, 2005;Dalla Costa et al, 2008;Gilhespy et al, 2009;Hötzel et al, 2009). Deep-litter flooring system may affect the ambient temperature as it decreases the heat loss to the floor; thus, in tropical areas the reduction of heat exchange may increase the need of high ventilation rate in order to remove both heat and moisture generated within the rearing system (Oliveira, 2000).…”

“…Pigs in deep-bedding flooring systems played and interacted more with each other and presented less skin lesions and less mucous problems than those reared on full concrete floor (Day et al, 2008). For pigs at all ages, there is weak evidence that whole concrete floor rather than straw is a risk factor for increased overall morbidity and mortality (Tuyttens, 2005;Dalla Costa et al, 2008;Gilhespy et al, 2009). However, the relationship between deep-litter and hygiene remains complex, vague and disease specific, as the use of deep-litter over the concrete floor for pigs may cause airflow across contaminated surfaces and between pens (Gilhespy et al, 2009).…”

“…For pigs at all ages, there is weak evidence that whole concrete floor rather than straw is a risk factor for increased overall morbidity and mortality (Tuyttens, 2005;Dalla Costa et al, 2008;Gilhespy et al, 2009). However, the relationship between deep-litter and hygiene remains complex, vague and disease specific, as the use of deep-litter over the concrete floor for pigs may cause airflow across contaminated surfaces and between pens (Gilhespy et al, 2009). Studies in hot weather found that swine reared in deep-bedding systems had similar performance to those reared on full concrete floor, although those in deep-litter presented higher skin surface temperature than those reared in full concrete floor (Corrêa et al, 2000;Hötzel et al, 2009).…”