Ammonia Emissions from Layer Houses

Abstract

Ammonia (NH3 ) emission rates from six high-rise (HR) and four manure-belt (MB) laying hen houses were measured for one year. Manure was stored in the lower level of the HR houses for a year, but removed daily or semiweekly from the MB houses. The results revealed an annual average NH3 emission rate of 0.87 (±0.29) g d-1 hen-1 for the HR houses, 0.094 (±0.062) for the MB houses with semiweekly manure removal, and 0.054 (±0.026) g d-1 hen-1 for the MB houses with daily manure removal. Information of this study contributes to the U.S. national inventory on ammonia emissions from animal feeding operations with different housing and manure handling schemes and geographical locations.