Monday, October 14, 2024
Poultry

How Poultry Farm Odors can be Tackled

As a matter of fact, it is not good that your poultry farm constitutes a nuisance to the neighborhood and often times the neighbors will start complaining of the odor from your poultry farm. Therefore as your birds increase and start constituting nuisance, try and get a place that is not too close to a residential area.

Also maintain good hygiene to prevent odor, clean your litters regularly and prevent water spillage on the litters as much as possible, there are also some feed additives that can reduce the odor to the lowest level.

Sources of Poultry Odors

The main sources of odour from a poultry farm are considered to be livestock, feed, housing, manure and waste (including carcasses), and these are closely monitored by the Environment Agency.

Where necessary the use of additives to mask an odour for a particular operation, for example the transfer of manure, can be considered, though this is not a long-term solution and the masking odour itself can equally lead to complaints.

Meanwhile, if an intending poultry farmer is planning on developing a new poultry farm, consideration should be given to the design of the building, in order to minimising odour emissions. For example, having a second wall at the end of the shed, to slow air flow and let dust settle, can be effective.

Odour modelling can also provide an indication as to whether the proposed new building is likely to result in a nuisance.

How to minimise odor from poultry farms

1. Feed

Clean up spillages, avoid fine grinding of feed, reduce protein content of feed and consider using feed additives.

poultry feed

2. Litter and manures

Control humidity and temperature, force air dry layer manure, frequently empty manure belts (once or twice weekly), locate manure storage away from sensitive receptors, consider storage location in relation to prevailing wind direction, maintain bird health, provide sufficient straw/litter to bind nitrogen and prevent ammonia escaping.

dry manure

3. Ventilation

Ensure ventilation is adequate for the scale of the farm, extract air via roof vents (release from height assists with the dispersion of odours), use increased fan velocity away from sensitive receptors and clean ventilation discharge points regularly.

ventilation

Read Also: Causes of Egg Production Reduction in Poultry Farms and Ways to prevent them

4. Catching/destocking

Ensure doors are kept closed or catching curtains used before the birds are actually removed, and park vehicles away from sensitive receptors.

catching chickens

5. Spent litter/manure

Transfer to trucks in a contained area if not stored on site and keep vehicles/trailers covered unless loading.

6. Carcasses

Collect frequently, store away from sensitive receptors and cover carcasses where possible.

dead chicken

7. Infrastructure

Maintain buildings to ensure integrity, use landscaping, trees and banking to create barriers.

Read Also: Best Type of Poultry to Raise for Commercial Production and their Time of Maturity

8. Dust

Avoid build up at any location, minimise dust emissions from buildings and frequently clean dust from the ventilation outlets.

poultry odor

9. Monitoring

Weather stations should be installed to provide information on prevailing wind direction. Record shed humidity, monitor all complaints and conduct checks of the surrounding area with someone who does not regularly work on the farm. Ask neighbours for their views and record comments.

poultry odour

10. Contingencies

Conduct daily checks to detect abnormally high housekeeping odours, disease and plan for staff unavailability.

11. Land spreading of manure

Plan timings for spreading not on weekends or public holidays, consider wind direction and location of sensitive receptors, treat manure (if required). Odours can be detected up to 3km from the field. If necessary, develop a Manure Management Plan.

poultry farm

12. Dirty water management

Have a contained water collection system, maintain drains and concrete areas and promptly clear dirty water as part of cleaning the building.

Related: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Vegetable Gardening

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Agric4Profits

Benadine Nonye is an agricultural consultant and a writer with several years of professional experience in the agriculture industry. - National Diploma in Agricultural Technology - Bachelor's Degree in Agricultural Science - Master's Degree in Science Education - PhD Student in Agricultural Economics and Environmental Policy... Visit My Websites On: 1. Agric4Profits.com - Your Comprehensive Practical Agricultural Knowledge and Farmer’s Guide Website! 2. WealthinWastes.com - For Effective Environmental Management through Proper Waste Management and Recycling Practices! Join Me On: Twitter: @benadinenonye - Instagram: benadinenonye - LinkedIn: benadinenonye - YouTube: Agric4Profits TV - Pinterest: BenadineNonye4u - Facebook: BenadineNonye

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