Livestock housing

In the beginning, a portable olfactometer operated only by one person was required to measure odour direct at the odour emitting sources in and around livestock houses. The early type TO 4 fulfilled both requirements. 

SCHAEFFER, J,. (1979). The collection and storage of air samples from intensive livestock houses. Report R-5869, CIVO-TNO, Zeist. (in dutch)... 

SKARP, S.U. 1975 Manure gases and air currents in livestock housing. In managing livestock wastes. Proc 3rd Ins. Symp. Livestock Wastes, Am. Soc. Agric. Engrs., St. Joseph, Michigan. 

Livestock housing can be defined as the way that animals are accommodated on a farm . This can include both stables or pasture systems. In a broader sense, housing covers all factors that could influence the animal, including handling by humans, transport and slaughtering. Furthermore, influences from animal housing on the environment are considered, especially pollution. 

An overview of animal welfare in organic farming by Vonne Lund is presented elsewhere (see Chapter 8). Animal welfare is reduced in conventional intensive housing systems because of high densities and lack of stimuli like straw, and this may lead to behavioural disturbances, injuries or some diseases. Livestock housing on organic farms should allow for the behavioural requirements of different farm animal species, facilitate efficient management, and use environmentally friendly construction materials and methods. 

As the water content of the air approaches saturation, evaporative heat loss becomes less efficient. When the air can hold no more water vapor, further evaporation is impossible. When providing ventilation systems for human or animal BU, the possibility of air saturation must be taken into account because the combination of high temperature and high humidity, especially if air movement is limited, can easily be fatal. The environment inside an impermeable protective suit, inside a livestock housing facility, or inside a modem apartment building when the air conditioning shuts off can reach this lethal state. People and animals have died as a resnlt. Evaporation, of course, is not available as a heat loss mechanism to BU bathed in water. 

The ever-increasing power of the food industry makes a mockery of free enterprise, as farmers find markets difficult to enter (Merrigan, 1997). One supermarket in America advertises itself as supermarket to the world . Farms have got bigger in America, particularly in the livestock industry, with pigs housed in lots of 3000 or more, cattle herds numbering tens of thousands and broiler units of 500 000 hens these are in danger of becoming the norm. 

As with other farm livestock, birds with the same apparent housing and nutrition facilities, and of the same genetic material, give vastly different results depending on the level of management. In surveys it has been clearly demonstrated that the farms which head the productivity league tables are the smaller units managed by the owner. 

Consumption of livestock and dairy products, as well as Ingestion of soil by children, were considered for the subsistence agriculture case, but the SPPPLVs were significantly higher than for vegetable consumption similarly, soli Ingestion by children was considered for the residential housing scenario. 

The development of methods to measure odours and odour dispersion. To determine acceptable concentrations of odorants and acceptable distances between private houses and livestock buildings. 

The ventilated air from livestock buildings comprises a potential source of complaints from people living in the vicinity. Many complaints about annoying odours occur in built-up areas where the distance between livestock buildings and dwelling-houses is not... 

Most of the odours coming from livestock production units are associated with the biological degradation of the animal wastes (35), the feed and the body odour of the animals (1). Volatile fatty acids and phenolic compounds were found to contribute mostly to the strong, typical odour of animal houses by the help of sensory evaluations parallel to the chemical analysis (29), (30). 

WILLSON, G.B. (1971). Control of odours from poultry houses. ASAE Symp. Livestock Waste Management, Columbus/Ohio, 19.-22.4.1971. 

The origins, constituents, effects and possible benefits from the removal of dust in livestock buildings are given. Reductions in dust mass, airborne bacteria and particle counts of at least 50% were reported using a filter system in weaner pig houses. 

Man has battled against insects ever since he first grew arable crops to feed and shelter his family and to nourish his livestock. The devastation that can be caused by insects is recounted in the Bible with two of the plagues of Egypt Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of... 

Differences in dietary N intake and N excretion, housing system and period, manure storage and spreading, and livestock density will affect the amount volatilised (Stolze et al. 2000). Since organic systems operate at a lower level of intensity, NH, losses may be lower too. 

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