MEASUREMENT AND ABATEMENT OF AMMONIA EMISSIONS FROM HARD STANDINGS USED BY LIVESTOCK

Ammonia emissions from agriculture are a cause for environmental concern contributing 226 kt NH3-N per year to the atmosphere. Emissions from outdoor concrete yards or hard standings represent a pre-viously ignored but potentially significant source of ammonia. To increase the robustness of estimates of ammonia emission from hard standings, measurements were made on 13 commercial farms (dairy, beef and sheep). Dairy farms were found to be the most significant source, in particular, feeding/loafing yards emitting 462 mg NH3-N m-2 hr-1. During the winter of 2002 an experiment was carried out to assess poten-tial ammonia abatement measures that may be used on hard standings. Of the four abatement measures tes-ted daily scraping and pressure washing proved to be most effective at reducing ammonia emission. These results together with those a repeat experiment during summer 2003 and testing of selected abatement mea-sures on commercial farms will serve to provide more concrete evidence on how to reduce ammonia emis-sions from hard standings