BEEVKOMP - Assessment of compost cattle barns with regard of compostquality, odour and Greenhousegasemissions

Compost barns for dairy cows are showing increased popularity also in Central Europe. A compost barn is used mainly as a two-area system with a bedded lying area and a solid feeding alley. Sawdust or dry fine wood shavings or wood chips are mostly used as bedding material, which has to be stirred twice a day. Stirring aerates and mixes faeces and urine into the bedding material, the mixture decomposes by means of aerobic microorganisms. Abstract of projects aims/goals, materials & methods and (available) results Aims: - All year round quantification of the climate and ecosystem relevant emissions in compost dairy barns. - Derivation of reference values for a functioning compost processing from test parameters. - Assessment of the reliability of litter options and additions. - All year round qualification and semi quantification of smell-relevant emissions in compost dairy barns. - Estimation of the microbial basic load Measurement of emissions and odour at 10 “standardized” farms with compost dairy barns. Standardization takes place via the parameters milk yield, amount of space, type of litter, management of compost bedding and management technique - Measurement of emissions and odour at 10 alternative farms with compost dairy barns. Especially farms with alternative litter and farms with composting process problems will be analysed. - Measurements will be carried out at three times of year (summer, spring/autumn, winter) in order to be able to understand the conditions of the compost bedding in every climatic situation. - Employed technique for gas measurement: Multipoint Sampler and Doser – INNOVA 1412 (LumaSense Technologies TM) for measurement of CH4, N2O, CO2 und NH3. - Accumulation of gas: utilization of an actively vented chamber (150x1000x500 mm) with a continuous airflow of 16 m3/h. - Measurement of odour intensity: PFS (Portable field sampler) and analysis in GC-MS. - Sampling from the compost mattress and analysis in terms of nutrients (DM, ash, pH, total N, NH4-N, C, Ca, Mg, P and K) – one sample from each farm at each date.