Emissions of greenhouse gases from the livestock sector

Abstract

In the livestock sector, the livestock activity involves also an air pollution with greenhouse gases, the main pollutants being methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen protoxide. Depending on the farming system, the animal breed, the food supplied to the animals, and the manure management, various concentrations of gases with greenhouse effect may appear in the gaseous emissions. Emissions of gaseous pollutants from buildings where the animals are kept can pollute the atmosphere and can also affect the health of the farm workers. The natural ventilation of the stables has a major influence on the difficulty of determining the pollutant concentrations in the gaseous emissions, due to the inhomogeneity of the gas flow and the large variations in the pollutant concentrations at different points that are caused by the speed of the air movement through the venting holes and pollutant dispersion inside the building. This study presents the results obtained in a series of measurements of the levels of greenhouse gases at a dairy farm stable with natural ventilation. The equipment used for measurement was a portable gas chromatograph, Varian CP 4900. During the measurements, all the animals have been in the stable (they have not been taken to the pasture during that time).