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The biochemical reactions of aerobic microbial respiration (AMR) suggest that silage temperature (Tsi) rise, oxygen (O2) consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission may be equally useful as indicators of silage deterioration during feed-out, but only temperature has been used extensively to assess aerobic stability. Here we extend the study of aerobic stability to incorporate AMR of silage by developing a novel experimental cell integrated with multiple sensors. Silage samples, ensiled from a triticale crop, were made in twelve air-tight barrels (60 L), packed to bulk densities of 190 or 250 kg m−3 dry matter (DM). Tsi and O2 measurements were co-located at 15- and 30-cm behind the working face. CO2 was measured as flux across the working face. The experimental period of aerobic exposure was 7 days. We provide the first reports of: (i) distinct aerobic responses of these parameters, showing that Tsi varied with CO2 in phase but with O2 out-of phase; (ii) CO2 flux was dominated initially by anaerobic discharge and subsequently by aerobic products; (iii) linear relationships between aerobic reheating and both O2 consumption (0.994 ≥ R2 ≥ 0.815, P

Horses are used mainly for sports and leisure activities and are predominantly kept in closed individual straw-bedded stalls for a long time during the day, especially in cold weather. Horses are may therefore be exposed to high concentrations of particulate matter and microorganisms from the bedding and fodder material. The dangers posed by exposure the horses to high pollutant concentrations for a long period are respiratory diseases. Thus, the aim of the present research was to detect the potential PM and mold emitting sources in typical horse stables and to identify the concentrations of the particles in the stable air on the basis of quantitative and qualitative studies for the PM and mold concentrations. Long-term measurements of particles and molds were conducted in two horse stables located in Rottgen city, Germany. Collected data from two stables were checked for possible correlations between particulate matter and mold spores. Simulation experiments for the emitted particulates during feeding hay were conducted with a particulate chamber. High diurnal fluctuations in concentrations were observed due to the daily activities in the stables. Fine particles were dominant in the air, especially with a size 0.3–0.4 μm. Mold concentrations in the stables ranged from 3.9 to 5.9 × 105 CFU/m3. The most common mold genera were Eurotium, Wallemia, and Cladosporium. The latter two were found in the straw and hay. A limited prognosis occurred of the mold fungus concentration in horse stables on the basis of airborne particle concentration.

Livestock production is associated with several gaseous pollutant emissions to the environment. These emissions can degrade local and regional air quality, contribute to surface water eutrophication and acid rain, and contribute to the greenhouse gas footprint of the production sector. Modern production systems must balance animal welfare and environmental pollution potential with economic reality, which is a great challenge to maintain as global demand for animal protein increases. Accordingly, gaseous emission technologies were the main target for this research, in which mitigating gas emissions of ammonia, nitrous oxide, and methane from pig production facilities via slurry aeration system was tested. Five treatments with different airflow rates in the test room were examined continuously over a period of 6 weeks and the results were compared with the control room. Test results indicate that the highest mitigation potentials were 12, 57.6, and 10.4% for nitrous oxide, methane, and ammonia, respectively. Subsequently directing exhaust air into a sulfuric acid air scrubber at 3.0 pH further reduced total ammonia emissions by 80 to 87%.

Pasture based systems enable cattle to express their natural behavior and are thus expected to provide better welfare than the majority of confinement systems. The aim of this study was to objectively measure locomotion activity of healthy dairy cattle kept on mountain pastures (n = 44) compared with cows kept in cubicle housing systems (n = 38). Selected cows were equipped with a validated 3D-accelerometer on one hind limb, and locomotion behavior was recorded for 48 hours. The 1-hour summaries of the variables lying time, walking time, standing bouts, walking bouts and number of strides were summed up to 24-hour summaries, and the means of the stride distance and stride duration were weighted by the variable number of strides. Mountain pasture cows had higher locomotor activity levels in comparison to cubicle cows. Mountain pasture cows spent less time lying down (528.1±109.5 min/day vs. 693.3±73.8 min/day; P0.0001) and more time walking (75.6±25.9 min/day vs. 38.8±15.8 min/day; P0.0001) than cubicle cows. Lying bout duration was longer in cubicle than in mountain pasture cows (90.9± 15.2 min/bout vs. 74.2 ± 21.1 min/bout; P = 0.0001), whilst the number of walking bouts was higher in mountain pasture cows than cubicle cows (199.1 ± 49.1 vs. 123.8 ± 43.8 bouts per day; P0.001). Likewise, the number of strides was higher in mountain pasture cows than cubicle cows (2040.5 ± 825.3 vs. 916.7 ± 408.6; P0.001). Mountain pasture cows had shorter stride duration (P0.0001) and shorter strides (P = 0.0002) than cubicle cows (1.8 ± 0.1 s/stride vs 2 ± 0.2 s/stride and 126.3 ± 18.1 vs 142.1 ± 17.8 m/stride, respectively). In summary, cows kept on mountain pasture were more active and spent longer than 12 hours / day standing. Lying markedly less than 12 hours per day seems to represent the normal behavior of pastured cows searching for fresh grass. This does not cause any obvious damage to the locomotor system as claws of cattle are well adapted to long periods of movement on mountain pastures.

The microbiome in silage may vary substantially from the onset to the completion of fermentation. Improved additives and inoculants are being developed to accelerate the ensiling process, to enhance fermentation quality, and to delay spoilage during feed-out. However, current methods for preselecting and characterizing these amendments are time-consuming and costly. Here, we have developed a multi-sensor mini-bioreactor (MSMB) to track microbial fermentation in situ and additionally presented a mathematical model for the optimal assessment among candidate inoculants based on the Bolza equation, a fundamental formula in optimal control theory. Three sensors [pH, CO2, and ethanol (EtOH)] provided data for assessment, with four additional sensors (O2, gas pressure, temperature, and atmospheric pressure) to monitor/control the fermentation environment. This advanced MSMB is demonstrated with an experimental method for evaluating three typical species of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Lentilactobacillus buchneri (LB) alone, and LB mixed with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum (LBLP) or with Enterococcus faecium (LBEF), all cultured in De Man, Rogosa, and Sharpe (MRS) broth. The fermentation process was monitored in situ over 48 h with these candidate microbial strains using the MSMB. The experimental results combine acidification characteristics with production of CO2 and EtOH, optimal assessment of the microbes, analysis of the metabolic sensitivity to pH, and partitioning of the contribution of each species to fermentation. These new data demonstrate that the MSMB associated with the novel rapid data-processing method may expedite development of microbial amendments for silage additives.

Manure management is considered to be a main key for mitigating gas emissions from livestock buildings. Since there are a number of limitations that make it difficult to identify these conditions in farm-scale experiments, these experiments should be conducted on a laboratory scale. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop pilot reactors for simulating the operation conditions to be used later in a farm-scale experiment. The developed reactors were made from polyvinylchloride with 1.5 m height and 0.16 m diameter to be filled with 0.19 L slurry. The generated concentrations of NH3, N2O and CH4 from the slurry were continuously analysed at 800 mL min−1 air flow rate using three different sampling methods. The concentration gradient was also analysed within gas chamber height above the slurry. No differences were apparent neither between the various sampling methods nor concentrations gradient in the gas chamber. Acid pilot reactor was developed to determine the required acid concentration and quantity. Influences of pH slurry and air flow rates on gases concentrations were investigated. At 0.32 $${\text{m}}_{\text{air}}^{3} \;{\text{m}}_{\text{slurry}}^{ - 3} \;{\text{h}}^{ - 1}$$ flow rate, the reproducible value of the emissions was minimized. The emissions of NH3, N2O and CH4 were 3.2, 2.3 and 38 $${\text{mg}}\;{\text{m}}_{\text{slurry}}^{ - 3} \;{\text{h}}^{ - 1}$$ , respectively. In order to achieve minimum gas emissions under aerobic conditions, slurry pH should be kept in the neutral range. A comparison of gas emissions under aerobic and anaerobic conditions was conducted. Approximately 70% less NH3 and 130% more N2O were produced under aerobic than with anaerobic conditions.

In situ measurement oxygen (O2) and temperature (Tsi) for silage production.Simultaneously tracking O2 diffusion and Tsi dynamics with three packed densities.Evaluating accuracy/feasibility of Pitt-Muck model to advance silage management. Aerobic deterioration is a major concern for silage production and quality change in unloading phase. To simulate silage aerobic deterioration relative to an exposure surface of bunker silo, a partial differential equation system model including oxygen (O2) concentration, silage temperature (Tsi) rise and microbial activity was presented. There is still a need to assess the predictability of the developed model at different bulk densities (BDs). For this study, the Clark oxygen electrodes (COE) was employed for the in situ simultaneous measurements of O2 and Tsi within maize silage samples, which were packed into twelve barrels (i.d.: 35.7cm, length: 60cm, vol. 60L) at three BD levels (low: 520550kgm3; medium: 660730kgm3; high: 860950kgm3). To assure the COE to be insensitive to CO2, a cross calibration for O2 concentrations (020% vol.) was made at 15% vol. of CO2 in advance of performing the experiment. For each barrel, two of the COEs were installed at 10cm and 40cm behind the exposure surface, respectively. The model was computed taking the in situ measurements of O2 and Tsi to be targets. Our study showed general well-agreements between the model simulations and the in situ measurements of O2 and Tsi for all BD levels. Some uncertainties and relevant reasons were also addressed. Based on these results, we concluded that the model has sufficient ability to predict aerobic deterioration in silage for bunker silos being unloaded.

Animal agricultural activities can be a significant source of pollutants affecting the health of farmers and neighboring communities. The main objective of this research was to improve the air quality by reducing the interior concentrations of emitting pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) and ammonia (NH3) within forced-ventilated fattening pig barns in order to improve the working conditions for human and the living conditions for animals as well as to have less impact on the surrounding environment. The mitigation techniques were a recirculating air scrubber and spraying of a water–oil mixture. The reduction efficiencies of the two mitigation techniques for PM and NH3 concentrations inside the barns were investigated. Two air scrubbers were mounted in a barn occupied with 515 pigs. A water–oil mixture spraying system with two different nozzles geometries was installed in a barn with 680 pigs. The data obtained from the mitigation system was compared with that obtained from a control barn with the same animal capacity and conditions. The results indicated that the average reduction efficiencies were 63% for total PM, 61% for PM10 and 32% for NH3. The results indicated that the average reduction efficiencies of the spraying system for the whole periods were 74% for total PM, 72% for PM10 and 19.5% for NH3 when using small nozzles and 44% for total PM, 39% for PM10 and 16% for NH3 when using large nozzles. The spraying system reduced the germs and fungal spore concentrations by 14 and 58%, respectively.

Context Knowledge of the nutrient requirements of dairy cows, and the nutritional composition and physical form of the feed resources used to prepare the total mixed ration (TMR) of basic and concentrated feeds, is essential to achieving high milk yields, health and welfare in modern commercial herds. Grass and maize silage components can vary widely in composition depending on harvesting intervals and weather; thus, the distribution of dry matter (DM) and nutrients in silos may vary greatly, resulting in serious errors during sampling and analysis. In addition, the flow of information from the stored silage stops once the forages are stored in the silo. Aims The objective of this study was to develop a practical approach for measuring variations in DM and silage quality parameters (crude protein, fibre, ash and fat) during the feed-extraction process from a bunker silo by a self-propelled feed mixer, which would ultimately help farmers to optimise the TMR. Methods Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology was used to estimate fodder DM and nutrient contents in the material flow. Wet chemical analyses were used for preliminary evaluation of grass and maize silage samples. A portable NIRS was developed to record the spectra of various silage samples. Key results The spans of calibration of sample DM content were 21.3–59.2% for grass and 26–46.7% for maize. Crude protein content had span values of 11.4–18.3% for the grass silage and 5.4–10.8% for the maize silage models. Conclusions NIRS technology was used successfully to estimate the DM and nutrient contents of the fodder. The location for the functional unit on the self-propelled feed mixer may need to be modified for series production because it is not fully accessible. Implications NIRS is a suitable method for measuring DM and nutrient contents continuously during feed extraction from the bunker silo and can be used to help farmers to optimise the TMR.

Context Knowledge of the nutrient requirements of dairy cows, and the nutritional composition and physical form of the feed resources used to prepare the total mixed ration (TMR) of basic and concentrated feeds, is essential to achieving high milk yields, health and welfare in modern commercial herds. Grass and maize silage components can vary widely in composition depending on harvesting intervals and weather; thus, the distribution of dry matter (DM) and nutrients in silos may vary greatly, resulting in serious errors during sampling and analysis. In addition, the flow of information from the stored silage stops once the forages are stored in the silo. Aims The objective of this study was to develop a practical approach for measuring variations in DM and silage quality parameters (crude protein, fibre, ash and fat) during the feed-extraction process from a bunker silo by a self-propelled feed mixer, which would ultimately help farmers to optimise the TMR. Methods . Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology was used to estimate fodder DM and nutrient contents in the material flow. Wet chemical analyses were used for preliminary evaluation of grass and maize silage samples. A portable NIRS was developed to record the spectra of various silage samples. Key results The spans of calibration of sample DM content were 21.3–59.2% for grass and 26–46.7% for maize. Crude protein content had span values of 11.4–18.3% for the grass silage and 5.4–10.8% for the maize silage models. Conclusions NIRS technology was used successfully to estimate the DM and nutrient contents of the fodder. The location for the functional unit on the self-propelled feed mixer may need to be modified for series production because it is not fully accessible. Implications NIRS is a suitable method for measuring DM and nutrient contents continuously during feed extraction from the bunker silo and can be used to help farmers to optimise the TMR.

Abnormal rise of temperature in silage is regarded as a signal of aerobic deterioration caused by the permeation of atmospheric oxygen into the silage, which indicates the growth of lactate-assimilating yeasts and energy release. Although baled silage has distinct advantages over other forms of silage, the high surface-area to volume ratio of the bale leads to a high risk of aerobic deterioration due to plastic cover damage. With an objective to spatially assess any aerobic deterioration within round-bales silage, we modified a bale-penetrometer that is capable of profiling temperature distribution. For each tested bale having a cylindrical volume of 2.154 m 3 , 72 path profiles including 504 stepwise measurements were made. Furthermore, two paths were re-profiled to check if the proposed invasive method has a significantly contaminative effect on the internal temperature field. The resulting R 2 = 0.9978 between the profiling data and the re-profiling data verified that the contamination due to the invasion of ambient air following the temperature probe penetration could be negligible. We presented two mapping methods, one for two-dimensional (2D) cross-sections and one for three-dimensional (3D) volumes. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, six representative samples of round bales with varied damage to plastic covers were tested. All temperature patterns, generated in both 2D- and 3D-space, were informative and clearly interpretable. Therefore, we conclude that the tested measurement method can benefit advance of bale silage research and production.

Ensiling and compaction of silage crops in bags is a well proved method to store fodder anaerobically to feed animals throughout the year. The essential process principle is to compact the silage substrate using a rotor into a press tunnel and the connected plastic bag to generate an oxygen-free environment. The objective of this study was to develop an automatic pressure-controlling system for the compaction process. The automatic system controls elongation of the bag film calculated based on the circumference during ensiling. Due to the different physical composition of pasture grass and maize substrates, only 2% of values in the case of maize silage deviated from the specified tolerance range (9.5 ± 0.5% elongation) while over 50% of the values with grass silage deviated from the tolerance range (8.5 ± 0.5% elongation). To determine the effect on crop density and stability of silage, investigations were made during feed-out. Accordingly, the identified storage density of the maize and grass silage varied between 179.0 and 280.8 kg DM m−3, and 89.3 and 197.7 kg DM m−3, respectively. Basically, the automated pressure control of silo bagging press machines is possible, and the machine operator can be relieved. However, the homogeneity of the silo bag contours is highly dependent on the stored ensiled material.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a principal byproduct of various chemical, biological and biochemical processes. CO2 has been measured using various advanced sensors, but a limiting technical challenge has been resolving independent streams of CO2 produced by processes occurring simultaneously. The magnitude and kinetics of each stream may be chemically, biologically or/and physically informative, but such partitioning has received little attention and successful case studies remain rare. In silage production, CO2 flux, an important indicator of aerobic deterioration, microbial activity or oxidative rate of silage, derives from two different pools: gas accumulated in the pores during the early anaerobic phase, and current real-time production of CO2 as oxygenated air enters the silage across the exposed face after opening for feed-out. The former is regarded as a noise confounding the signal and the latter reflects current degradation of the silage. Using a self-developed automatic sensor system with novel signal decomposition, we successfully partitioned CO2 flux into two independent streams derived from the two distinct pools in maize silage, following two independent processes: a physical venting of stored gas through a tortuous diffusive pathway, and a biochemical process generating gas in real time. Three silage samples, treated with a chemical or a biological additive, or left untreated, were tested. The signal decomposition found two best-fit functions (0.8034 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.9036), a quadratic CO2 discharge function and an exponential CO2 production function, for characterizing these distinct processes. These results demonstrate chemical sensor with powerful data-processing capability to resolve the complexity of dual-pool CO2 emission.

Making silage involves a complicated biochemical process where oxygen (O2) is rapidly consumed within the sealed environment leading to fermentation and stable storage of the biomass. Reintroduction of the oxygen from a leak or the feed-out process results in silage degradation. Monitoring silage O2 concentration and temperature (Tsi) can provide critical insight regarding silage quality. Thus, an in situ biosensor for simultaneous monitoring of O2 and Tsi to track silage aerobic deterioration has long been needed but was unavailable. Although the Clark oxygen electrode (COE) is traditionally applied for O2 concentration dissolved in liquids, we extended its use to the gaseous phase of silage based on Henry's law. This study tested COE's using two trials, where trial-1 explored the initial-aerobic/ensiling phase and trial-2 examined the silage feed-out phase. The experimental results of both trials demonstrated that the COE can be an important monitoring tool for assessing the O2 dynamics throughout the silage lifecycle.

Silage is a critical global feedstock, but is prone to aerobic deterioration. The dominant mechanism of O2 transport into silage remains unresolved. Here, multiple sensors tracked O2 and CO2, gas pressure (ΔP) between internal silage and ambient air, pH and silage temperature (Tsi) during the ensilage of maize and ryegrass. We report the first observation that CO2 produced from microbial respiration was partially dissolved in silage water, with evidence of negative or positive ΔP depending on the changing balance between CO2 production and dissolution. The ΔP 2 production was much greater in anaerobic fermentation stage than in initial aerobic phase or later aerobic feed-out phase. O2 transport into silage is intimately linked to the dynamics of net CO2, ΔP, microbial activity, pH and Tsi. These results suggested that both gas diffusion (based on Fick’s law) and advective transfer (Darcy’s law) play equally important roles in governing the complex temporal progression of inward and outward gas fluxes to and from the silage interior. Even though low pH suppressed microbial activity and supported aerobic stability, the negative ΔP increased the risk of O2 entry and aerobic deterioration during feed-out phase.

To ensure penetration results that are comparable under various experimental conditions, cone penetrometers specified by ASABE Standards have been suggested for many years. Elastic-plastic properties are typical of most agricultural materials, so the material being penetrated by a cone penetrometer may contact the penetrometer shaft, and friction on the shaft may affect the penetration force data. Development of a method for quantifying this friction force is expected to improve the accuracy of cone penetrometer data. The objectives of this study were: (1) to evaluate a method for determining friction force on the shaft of a cone penetrometer while penetrating sand and clay soils packed in a specific cylinder, (2) to verify the penetration friction component (PFC) that may significantly influence penetration resistance (PR) measurements for various densities of chopped maize, and (3) to assess the effectiveness of a proposed filter method for adjusting friction on the penetrometer shaft. With these intentions, we embedded strain gauges into an ASABE Standard small cone. The tip was free from the shaft friction, so the output of this sensor was used as a reference in this study. We found the ASABE Standard small cone suitable for a broad range of soil textures, as little PFC was observed from the sand or the clay soil samples. However, considerable friction from penetrating chopped maize was observed at three levels of packed density using the cylinder method. In this situation, with the reference of the sensor output inside the tip, a pair of coefficients (C 1 = 2329, C 2 = 2120) were optimized to filter the PFC out of the PR measurement. The adjusted data agreed well with those of the reference sensor (R 2 = 0.968; RMSE = 6.521 N). Thus, ASABE Standard penetrometers can also be used for silage materials without mechanical modification.

For silage production, high bulk density (BD) is critical to minimize aerobic deterioration facilitated by oxygen intrusion. To precisely assess packing quality for bunker silos, there is a desire to visualize the BD distribution within the silage. In this study, a penetrometer-based mapping system was developed. The data processing included filtering of the penetration friction component (PFC) out of the penetration resistance (PR), transfer of the corrected penetration resistance (PRc) to BD, incorporation of Kriged interpolation for data expansion and map generation. The experiment was conducted in a maize bunker silo (width: 8 m, middle height: 3 m). The BD distributions near the bunker silo face were represented using two map groups, one related to horizontal- and the other to vertical-density distribution patterns. We also presented a comparison between the map-based BD results and core sampling data. Agreement between the two measurement approaches (RMSE = 19.175 kg·m(-3)) demonstrates that the developed penetrometer mapping system may be beneficial for rapid assessment of aerobic deterioration potential in bunker silos.

Penetration resistance (PR) has been regarded as a common measure for characterizing the density profile of soil and biological materials in agricultural engineering. Due to diversity of agricultural materials associated with different elastic–plastic properties, a prerequisite for a reasonable measurement is to preclude the effect of penetration friction component (PFC) between the penetration shaft and surrounding material during a penetration process, otherwise an additional error may be significantly induced relating to the cone penetration depth. In this study, a bi-directional penetration method was proposed to determine PFC using a specially designed cylinder with tests of two types of agricultural materials (silty–clay loam and chopped maize). No significant PFC was observed from the soil sample, whereas significant PFC was observed to be strongly dependent on penetration depth from the chopped maize. Thus, a mathematical filter was developed to correct the friction-induced error of the PR measurements.

There is an increasing desire to have an insight into the density distribution of silage bales because a low initial air content can significantly reduce the risk of temperature rise and the loss of sugar content. In addition, biomass moisture also plays a determinant role in the risk of temperature rise of bale and biomass degradation. For the visual assessment of the bale density, @c-ray scanner is regarded as an accurate and reliable technique but has potential risk of exposure to radiation. This study proposed a practical technique using a dual-sensor penetrometer for the simultaneous measurements of penetration resistance (PR) and moisture content (MC) in conjunction with image-based analysis. Four round bales made by two types of balers were prepared for the test. During a measurement process, both MC and PR data were collected following the signal of a penetrating depth transducer in-phase. Each bale included 72 penetration measurements that were transformed into an image referring to either PR or MC, respectively. With the reference to the two-dimensional (2D) results obtained from a @c-ray scanner, the dual-sensor images revealed the similar discrepancies of the baled density. Moreover, the proposed dual-sensor penetrometer method could discover the density discrepancies from the different sections of the measured bale so that the visualizations in three-dimensional (3D) space were also feasible. In contrast, the MC sensor seemed more reliable since the PR measurements were relatively susceptible to the interference from the penetrating friction between the shaft wall and material.

Particulate matter (PM) emissions are becoming increasingly important in licensing procedures for the construction of new livestock houses or for the modernization of existing ones. Emission predictions require reliable data about emission rates. On this account, it is necessary to obtain information about the emission development and the relevant influencing factors in naturally ventilated turkey houses. The primary objective of the present research was to describe different aspects of PM emissions from a naturally ventilated turkey house. This includes the quantification of PM emissions and descriptions of the relevant influencing factors. Moreover, the tracer gas decay (TGD) method for ventilation rate estimation had to be used. To determine the emission mass flow from livestock buildings, it was necessary to measure the concentration of the target substance in the exhaust air and the airflow volume. The PM concentration measurements were carried out with a light scattering aerosol spectrometer in the exhaust air. The airflow volume was determined using the TGD method. To this purpose, tracer gas was injected into the supply air before the concentration decay was measured in the exhaust air of the building. The main influences on the PM concentration and the PM size distribution were shown to be animal activity and air volume flow. For the turkey barn, the PM emission factor averaged 0.027 g h(-1) animal(-1) over the entire year. If service times were to be included in the calculation, the emission factor 0.021 g h(-1) animal(-1), again averaged over the entire year, is well below the regulatory limit.

During breeding periods poultry production may produce harmful effects on the environment. Emissions of dust, odour and ammonia into the surrounding environment via the ventilation systems used in poultry houses create environmental hazards with the expulsion of large quantities of dust representing the main environmental concern. Indoor dust concentration in poultry houses must be controlled to provide adequate air quality for labourers and animals inside breeding enclosures. This study investigated the effects of diurnal change, seasonal breeding systems and housing style on indoor dust production and correlated this data with theoretical animal activity. Various ranges of indoor dust particle concentrations were measured within both aviary and cage systems containing laying hens. Measurements were taken throughout the whole day during two different seasons. An attempt was made to improve indoor air quality by purifying the recirculating air inside the poultry house. In order to select appropriate filtration system, and working conditions for the experiment, laboratory scale experiments were carried out. The efficiency of the designed filtering systems was tested in a floor housing system and finally a best performing filtering system was tested in a commercial floor housing system. During small scale barn measurements, a dry filter achieved the highest dust reduction efficiency in comparison to cyclone and wet filtration systems. Following these experiments, the designed dry filter was recommended for testing in a commercial farm. Reduction efficiencies were 55 and 72% for indoor concentration and dust emission rate, respectively.

Maintaining and preserving the environment from pollutants are of utmost importance. Particulate matter (PM) is considered one of the main air pollutants. In addition to the harmful effects of PM in the environment, it has also a negative indoor impact on human and animal health. The specific forms of damage of particulate emission from livestock buildings depend on its physical properties. The physical properties of particulates from livestock facilities are largely unknown. Most studies assume the livestock particles to be spherical with a constant density which can result in biased estimations, leading to inaccurate results and errors in the calculation of particle mass concentration in livestock buildings. The physical properties of PM, including difference in density as a function of particle size and shape, can have a significant impact on the predictions of particles' behaviour. The aim of this research was to characterize the physical properties of PM from different animal houses and consequently determine PM mass concentration. The mean densities of collected PM from laying hens, dairy cows and pig barns were 1450, 1520 and 2030 kg m(-3), respectively, whilst the mass factors were 2.17 × 10(-3), 2.18 × 10(-3) and 5.36 × 10(-3) μm, respectively. The highest mass concentration was observed in pig barns generally followed by laying hen barns, and the lowest concentration was in dairy cow buildings. Results are presented in such a way that they can be used in subsequent research for simulation purposes and to form the basis for a data set of PM physical properties.

Oxygen (O2) concentration inside the substrate is an important measurement for silage-research and-practical management. In the laboratory gas chromatography is commonly employed for O2 measurement. Among sensor-based techniques, accurate and reliable in situ measurement is rare because of high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by the introduction of O2 in the silage. The presented study focused on assessing three types of commercial O2 sensors, including Clark oxygen electrodes (COE), galvanic oxygen cell (GOC) sensors and the Dräger chip measurement system (DCMS). Laboratory cross calibration of O2 versus CO2 (each 0–15 vol.%) was made for the COE and the GOC sensors. All calibration results verified that O2 measurements for both sensors were insensitive to CO2. For the O2 in situ measurement in silage, all O2 sensors were first tested in two sealed barrels (diameter 35.7 cm; height: 60 cm) to monitor the O2 depletion with respect to the ensiling process (Test-A). The second test (Test-B) simulated the silage unloading process by recording the O2 penetration dynamics in three additional barrels, two covered by dry ice (0.6 kg or 1.2 kg of each) on the top surface and one without. Based on a general comparison of the experimental data, we conclude that each of these in situ sensor monitoring techniques for O2 concentration in silage exhibit individual advantages and limitations.