MANAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE SYSTEMS TO REDUCE ATMOSPHERIC EMISSIONS AND INCREASE RESILIENCE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Citation: Trabue, S.L., Scoggin, K.D., Mcconnell, L.L., Maghirang, R., Hatfield, J.L. 2011. Identifying and tracking key odorants from cattle feedlots. Atmospheric Environment. 45:4243-4251.
Interpretive Summary: Odors are a significant emission from cattle feedlots that affect local communities air quality. There are a number of different compounds classes contributing to odor including amines, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), phenol compounds and indole compounds. At the source VFAs and phenol compounds were the dominant odorants, but downwind their importance diminishes and indole compounds become the dominate odorant. There is no single method to be used to quantify odor from agricultural sources. Future odor studies should focus on improving odor databases and understanding potential interactions between odorants to have greatest impact on predicting odors from animal production. Research results described in this report provides needed air quality information for growers, animal scientists, engineers, and regulatory officials on measuring odor from animal feeding operations.