Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), such as poultry farms, contribute significantly to air pollution, particularly ammonia (NH3) and particulate matter (PM) emissions. Vegetative environmental buffers (VEBs) offer a sustainable, cost-effective, and low-maintenance solution for mitigating NH3 and PM emissions from CAFOs, and some previous studies showed that pollutant concentrations behind the VEBs were substantially reduced compared with concentration directly from the source. However, due to the lack of a controlled dataset for non-VEB situations, the net effect of VEBs could hardly be assessed. Thus, the dataset from the previous study was used to develop a methodology for quantitatively evaluating the efficacy of VEBs in reducing NH3 and PM emissions from a poultry house, and to distinguish the net pollutant reduction achieved by VEBs from those resulting merely from atmospheric dilution and dispersion. The results showed that VEB can effectively mitigate air pollutants emissions and attributes enhanced ground-level reductions of NH3 (72.7 % +/- 9.1 %), total suspended particle (TSP) (61.9 % +/- 10.0 %), PM10 (62.5 % +/- 9.9 %) and PM2.5 (94.6 % +/- 6.5 %). In addition, VEB demonstrated better mitigation performance during daytime. Meteorological conditions showed no correlation with pollutant concentrations or enhanced reduction ratios while significant positive correlations between reductions of NH3 and PM were also observed. These results demonstrated that VEBs are effective in reducing NH3 and PM emissions from poultry houses. The results from this study will inform conservation practice guidelines and assist land managers in employing VEBs for poultry house emitted air pollution reductions.

Air pollutants from poultry production, such as ammonia (NH3) and particulate matter (PM), have raised concerns due to their potential negative impacts on human health and the environment. Vegetative environmental buffers (VEBs), consisting of trees and/or grasses planted around poultry houses, have been investigated as a mitigation strategy for these emissions. Although previous research demonstrated that VEBs can reduce NH3 and PM emissions, these studies used a limited number of samplers and did not examine concentration profiles. Moreover, the differences between daytime and nighttime emissions have not been investigated. In this study, we characterized emission profiles from a commercial poultry house using an array with multiple sampling heights and explored the differences between daytime and nighttime NH3 and PM profiles. We conducted three sampling campaigns, each with ten sampling events (five daytime and five nighttime), at a VEB-equipped poultry production facility. NH3 and PM samples were collected downwind from the ventilation tunnel fans before, within, and after the VEB. Results showed that ground-level concentrations beyond the VEB decreased to 8.0% ± 2.7% for NH3, 13% ± 4% for TSP, 13% ± 4% for PM10, and 2.4% ± 2.8% for PM2.5 of the original concentrations from the exhaust tunnel fan, with greater reduction efficiency during daytime than nighttime. Furthermore, pollutant concentrations were positively intercorrelated. These findings will be valuable for developing more effective pollutant remediation strategies in poultry house emissions.

Achieving global food security requires better use of natural, genetic, and importantly, human resources-knowledge. Technology must be created, and existing and new technology and knowledge deployed, and adopted by farmers and others engaged in agriculture. This requires collaboration amongst many professional communities world-wide including farmers, agribusinesses, policymakers, and multi-disciplinary scientific groups. Each community having its own knowledge-associated terminology, techniques, and types of data, collectively forms a barrier to collaboration. Knowledge management (KM) approaches are being implemented to capture knowledge from all communities and make it interoperable and accessible as a "group memory" to create a multi-professional, multidisciplinary knowledge economy. As an example, we present KM efforts at the US Department of Agriculture. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is being developed to capture tacit and explicit knowledge assets including Big Data and transform it into curated knowledge products available, with permissions, to the agricultural community. Communities of Practice (CoP) of scientists, farmers, and others are being developed at USDA and elsewhere to foster knowledge exchange. Marrying CoPs to ICT-leveraged aspects of KM will speed development and adoption of needed agricultural solutions. Ultimately needed is a network of KM networks so that knowledge stored anywhere can be used globally in real time.

The specialization and intensification of agriculture have produced incredible gains in productivity, quality, and availability of agricultural commodities but have resulted in the separation of crop and animal production. A by-product of this separation has been the accumulation of manure regions where animal production is concentrated. Enter the "manureshed," an organizing framework for integrating animal and crop production where budgeting of manure nutrients is used to strategically guide their recycling and reuse in agricultural production systems where manure resources are of highest value. To move beyond regional nutrient balance analyses into the transformational realm required to mitigate "wicked" manure problems, manureshed management requires recognition of the challenges to systematically reorganizing resource flows. In better integrating crop and livestock systems, manureshed management must account for the unique nature of managing manure nutrients within individual livestock industries, anticipate trade-offs in substituting manure for commercial fertilizer, promote technologies to refine manure, and engage extensive social networks across scales that range from the farmgate to nation and beyond.

Abstract. The trend in modern gin stand designs to increase gin stand production rate in terms of bales/h was generally achieved by increased width, narrower saw spacing, and higher saw loading. This study examined fiber length reductions, short fiber content, fiber neps, and cottonseed damage associated with five saw gin stands of differing production rates, design, and manufacture that represent a range of gin technologies developed since the 1960s to identify technologies from those earlier designs that may guide future gin stand research. Based on rated ginning rate, the gin stands were classified in two general categories, lower capacity (LC, 5 bales/h and less) and higher capacity (HC, 7.5 bales/h and higher). Fiber from the LC gin stands contained fewer fiber neps, longer fibers, less short fiber, and less foreign matter than fiber from the HC gin stands. In addition, cottonseed from the gin stand with lowest capacity had the highest residual linters content and the lowest overall seed damage which aligned with the short fiber content data. Both the LC gin stands were older models and had wider saw spacing; the oldest of them was substantially different from the other designs with two saw mandrels pulling fiber from the same seed roll position. Study results indicate that there may be historical gin stand technologies and relationships between gin parameters such as ginning rate per saw, saw spacing, and seed roll density, and fiber and seed quality that need to be further investigated. Keywords: Cottonseed quality, Cotton ginning, Fiber quality, Gin stand, Length, Neps, Short fiber content, Upland cotton.

Monitoring and modeling of airborne particulate matter (PM) from low-altitude sources is becoming an important regulatory target as the adverse health consequences of PM become better understood. However, application of models not specifically designed for simulation of PM from low-altitude emissions may bias predictions. To address this problem, we describe the modification and validation of an air dispersion model for the simulation of low-altitude PM dispersion from a typical cotton ginning facility. We found that the regulatory recommended model (AERMOD) overestimated pollutant concentrations by factors of 64.7, 6.97 and 7.44 on average for PM2.5, PM10, and TSP, respectively. Pollutant concentrations were negatively correlated with height (p < 0.05), distance from source (p < 0.05) and standard deviation of wind direction (p < 0.001), and positively correlated with average wind speed (p < 0.001). Based on these results, we developed dispersion correction factors for AERMOD and cross-validated the revised model against independent observations, reducing overestimation factors to 3.75, 1.52 and 1.44 for PM2.5, PM10 and TSP, respectively. Further reductions in model error may be obtained from use of additional observations and refinement of dispersive correction factors. More generally, the correction permits the validated adjustment and application of pre-existing models for risk assessment and development of remediation techniques. The same approach may also be applied to improve simulations of other air pollutants and environmental conditions of concern.

CSA NewsVolume 66, Issue 3 p. 44-47 FEDERAL CORNER Transforming the Culture of Data Management in a Federal Science Agency, One Client at a Time Peter J.A. Kleinman, Peter J.A. Kleinman Research Leader, USDA-ARS, Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, University Park, PASearch for more papers by this authorDaren Harmel, Daren Harmel Director, USDA-ARS, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Fort Collins, COSearch for more papers by this authorJim Ippolito, Jim Ippolito Associate Professor, Colorado State University, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fort Collins, COSearch for more papers by this authorSarah Beebout, Sarah Beebout National Program Leader for Sustainable Intensification, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this authorMarlen Eve, Marlen Eve Deputy Director for Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this authorMichael Buser, Michael Buser National Program Leader for Engineering, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this author Peter J.A. Kleinman, Peter J.A. Kleinman Research Leader, USDA-ARS, Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, University Park, PASearch for more papers by this authorDaren Harmel, Daren Harmel Director, USDA-ARS, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Fort Collins, COSearch for more papers by this authorJim Ippolito, Jim Ippolito Associate Professor, Colorado State University, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fort Collins, COSearch for more papers by this authorSarah Beebout, Sarah Beebout National Program Leader for Sustainable Intensification, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this authorMarlen Eve, Marlen Eve Deputy Director for Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this authorMichael Buser, Michael Buser National Program Leader for Engineering, USDA-ARS, Office of National Programs, Beltsville, MDSearch for more papers by this author First published: 23 February 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/csan.20422Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume66, Issue3March 2021Pages 44-47 RelatedInformation

Crop residue burning is a common agriculture practice to eliminate post-harvest vegetative material, which hinders the seedling of the next crop. A prototype of a crop residue burning machine was developed and equipped with six LPG burners. The burners were designed as a forced-draft burner where the air was supplied by a blower/pump. While open field burning is a practical and economical practice for controlling insects, diseases, and weeds, the environmental risks of this activity are an issue. Open biomass burning is a major source of global air pollutants and has a major impact on global climate change. This study aimed to estimate the concentration of CO and NO x emitted from the combustion using this prototype. CO and NO x are important indirect greenhouse gases that affect the formation of tropospheric ozone or change the lifetime of methane. The air pollutants were measured using ECOM-EN2. The gas velocity, static pressure, and gas concentration were sampled with 1 minute’s average sampling time. Gas emission study shows a high concentration of O 2 in the flue gas. The recorded CO and NO x concentration exceeds the concentrations that regulated by EPA NAAQS. The average combustion efficiency of 98.0±0.3%, the highest emission factors for CO, NO, and NO 2 are 57, 3.7, and 0.5 lb/acre, respectively.

The purpose of this study was to determine the cost of crop residue burning machine application based on several factors affecting its cost. Additionally, the cost was compared to the cost of prescribe burning practice. The total cost was determined by calculating fixed and variables costs. Those costs were computed mostly based on equations on ASAE EP496.2 DEC99 and ASAE D497.7 MAR2011(R2015). A Microsoft Windows®application was developed to systematically estimate the cost of the developed burning machine and to provide an additional tool for management decisions. Using the assumption of a-5 feet working width of the burning machine, the machine field efficiency of 60%, the travel speed of 1.9 mph, and a-20 acre of burn unit the total cost of burning practice using the developed burning machine was $164.78 which is comparable to prescribed burning cost on 134 acres of the burn unit. The important factor affecting the cost of the machine operation was the construction of firebreak and the acreage of machine use.

The agricultural community is confronted with dual challenges; increasing production of nutritionally dense food and decreasing the impacts of these crop production systems on the land, water, and climate. Control of plant pathogens will figure prominently in meeting these challenges as plant diseases cause significant yield and economic losses to crops responsible for feeding a large portion of the world population. New approaches and technologies to enhance sustainability of crop production systems and, importantly, plant disease control need to be developed and adopted. By leveraging advanced geoinformatic techniques, advances in computing and sensing infrastructure (e.g., cloud-based, big data-driven applications) will aid in the monitoring and management of pesticides and biologicals, such as cover crops and beneficial microbes, to reduce the impact of plant disease control and cropping systems on the environment. This includes geospatial tools being developed to aid the farmer in managing cropping system and disease management strategies that are more sustainable but increasingly complex. Geoinformatics and cloud-based, big data-driven applications are also being enlisted to speed up crop germplasm improvement; crop germplasm that has enhanced tolerance to pathogens and abiotic stress and is in tune with different cropping systems and environmental conditions is needed. Finally, advanced geoinformatic techniques and advances in computing infrastructure allow a more collaborative framework amongst scientists, policymakers, and the agricultural community to speed the development, transfer, and adoption of these sustainable technologies.

Big Data in agriculture is growing rapidly through advancements in metagenomics, precision agriculture, and on-farm sensor technologies, as well as through increased capacity to collect, process, and store these data. Concurrent with 60% increases in food production demands by 2050 and the need for sustainable intensification, is the increased need for data synthesis across temporal and spatial scales. Therefore, in our data-rich world, what is lacking is a data management system across spatial and temporal resolutions including workflows, interpretation methodology, and a delivery structure for identifying optimal systems for sustainable intensification or diversification. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to explore the current state of handling spatially and temporally disparate data and offer solutions for developing a platform for bridging component parts (encompassing multiple scales and disciplines) to analyze system functionality for greater resiliency, which may help manage risk. Two datasets were generated using bibliometrics (research articles from systematic literature reviews) evaluated trends and historical Big Data applications in agronomy. Results indicate research and industry progress is advancing towards web-based real-time output delivery systems using several well-established Big Data handling platforms (e.g., Amazon Web Service, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure), which are not yet widely used by or designed for agronomic researchers. Cloud-based computing may provide opportunities to extrapolate agricultural research results across larger scales. Authors suggest training and educating agricultural practitioners on Big Data principles, database management, improved data visualization, as well as incentives for data sharing for optimizing Big Data in systems agriculture as these research innovations emerge.

Estimating the transport of ammonia and particulate matter (PM) from ventilation tunnel fans of poultry houses is needed to develop effective mitigation strategies. However, field measurements are time-consuming and costly. Alternatively, air dispersion models can provide more information under a variety of conditions. Therefore, this study was conducted to modify and to validate the Gaussian plume model to predict poultry house plumes. The most notable modification was the addition of a virtual, emission-releasing point behind the exhaust tunnel fan. The modified model was validated using previously-reported field measurements. The fraction of predictions within a factor of two (FAC2) for both ammonia and PM observations was greatly improved compared with original model. In addition, the model performance was not sensitive to different sampling scenarios. This new model can be applied to other experiments and will be useful in evaluating the effectiveness of mitigation strategies for air pollutant emissions.

Cotton gins use air to move seed cotton, lint, cottonseed, and trash through conveying pipes. In gins, pneumatic conveying systems are the principal means of moving material from one processing stage to another throughout the entire ginning plant. Further, material drying or moisture restoration can be accomplished by heating or humidifying the conveying air. Pneumatic systems are a critical and fundamental component of cotton ginning. Cotton gins use large quantities of air for pneumatic conveying. It is common for a gin to use 4,248 m(3) (150,000 ft(3)) or more of air per minute in its various material conveying systems. Because the density of dry standard air is approximately 1.2 kg/m(3) (0.075 lb/ft(3)), a typical gin using 4,248 m(3)/min (150,000 ft(3)/min) of air moves 305,860 kg (675,000 lb) of air per hour. This mass of air per hour is approximately 1.5 times the total mass of material handled per hour. Typically, more than 60 to 65% of the total electrical power consumed by a cotton gin is attributed to moving material pneumatically. Properly taking air measurements, determining air flow requirements, sizing conveying pipes, sizing fans to generate required air flow rates, and accounting for specific machinery air requirements are essential to maximizing machine utilization, minimizing energy costs, and decreasing system downtime. This update of the Cotton Ginners Handbook provides current technical information on cotton gin pneumatic systems. It draws heavily on previous versions of the Cotton Ginners Handbook (Stedronsky 1964; McCaskill et al., 1977; Baker et al., 1994) and the knowledge and experience of current and past instructors of the Air Systems classes from the National Cotton Ginners' Association Gin Schools.

Cotton gins use air to move seed cotton, lint, cottonseed, and trash through conveying pipes. In gins, pneumatic conveying systems are the principal means of moving material from one processing stage to another throughout the entire ginning plant. Further, material drying or moisture restoration can be accomplished by heating or humidifying the conveying air. Pneumatic systems are a critical and fundamental component of cotton ginning. Cotton gins use large quantities of air for pneumatic conveying. It is common for a gin to use 4,248 m3 (150,000 ft3) or more of air per minute in its various material conveying systems. Because the density of dry standard air is approximately 1.2 kg/m3 (0.075 lb/ft3), a typical gin using 4,248 m3/min (150,000 ft3/min) of air moves 305,860 kg (675,000 lb) of air per hour. This mass of air per hour is approximately 1.5 times the total mass of material handled per hour. Typically, more than 60 to 65% of the total electrical power consumed by a cotton gin is attributed to moving material pneumatically. Properly taking air measurements, determining air flow requirements, sizing conveying pipes, sizing fans to generate required air flow rates, and accounting for specific machinery air requirements are essential to maximizing machine utilization, minimizing energy costs, and decreasing system downtime. This update of the Cotton Ginners Handbook provides current technical information on cotton gin pneumatic systems. It draws heavily on previous versions of the Cotton Ginners Handbook (Stedronsky 1964; McCaskill et al., 1977; Baker et al., 1994) and the knowledge and experience of current and past instructors of the Air Systems classes from the National Cotton Ginners’ Association Gin Schools.

The objective of this study was to evaluate properties of experimental particleboard panels manufactured from Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) using silicone dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles added modified starch as a binder. Nine different types of panels were manufactured having nanoparticle contents of 0%, 1%, and 3% at three density levels of 600, 700, and 800kg/m(3). Based on the findings in this work, nanoparticle content above 1% in the panels adversely influenced their mechanical properties. It appears that using nano added modified starch along with only 2% urea formaldehyde adhesive resulted in accepted mechanical characteristics in the form of bending and internal bond strength of the samples. Since no wax or other additives were used in panel manufacture their dimensional stability needs to be improved. Very low formaldehyde emission value of 0.07ppm was determined for the panels suggesting that such approach results in potential of manufacturing value-added composite products with insignificant environmental and health concerns.

Poultry-emitted air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) and ammonia, have raised concerns due to potential negative effects on human health and the environment. However, developing and optimizing remediation technologies requires a better understanding of air pollutant concentrations, the emission plumes, and the relationships between the pollutants. Therefore, we conducted ten field experiments to characterize PM (total suspended particulate [ISM, particulate matter less than 10 mu m in aerodynamic diameter [PM10], and particulate matter less than 2.5 mu m in aerodynamic diameter [PM2.5] and ammonia emission-concentration profiles from a typical commercial poultry house. The emission factors of the poultry house, which were calculated using the concentrations and fan speed, were 0.66 (0.29-0.99) g NH3-N bird(-1)d(-1) for ammonia, 52 (44-168) g d(-1)AU(-1) (AU = animal unit = 500 kg) for TSP, 3.48 (1.16-9.03) g d(-1)AU(-1) for PM10, and 0.07 (0.00-0.36) g d(-1)AU(-1) for PM2.5. PM and ammonia emission concentrations decreased as distance from the fan increased. Although emission concentrations were similar in the daytime and nighttime, diurnal and nocturnal plume shapes were different due to the increased stability of the atmosphere at night. Particle size distribution analysis revealed that, at a given height, the percentage of PM10 and PM2.5 was consistent throughout the plume, indicating that the larger particles were not settling out of the airstream faster than the smaller particles. Overall, the direction of the measured air pollutant emission plumes was dominated by the tunnel fan ventilation airflow rate and direction instead of the ambient wind speed and direction. This is important because currently available air dispersion models use ambient or modeled wind speed and direction as input parameters. Thus, results will be useful in evaluating dispersion models for ground-level, horizontally-released, point sources and in developing effective pollutant remediation strategies for emissions. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Ground-level ozone is formed when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react with hydroxyl radicals and nitrogen oxides in the presence of ultraviolet light. Research has typically focused on the release and control of VOCs from hydrocarbon processing; however, agricultural activities, such as poultry production, can also be VOC sources and potentially contribute to ozone pollution. Therefore, this study examines the emission of C2-C6 VOCs from poultry houses and the use of a vegetative environmental buffer (VEB) as a potential mitigation strategy. Sampling campaigns were conducted at two farms, one with and one without a VEB. Of the nine compounds measured, methanol, ethanol, and acetone were the primary VOCs emitted and had the largest ozone-formation potential (OFP). A significantly larger decrease in the OFP for methanol as a function of distance from the poultry house was observed at the farm with the VEB as compared with at the farm without the VEB. These results suggest that besides being a visual barrier and particulate screen, VEBs can provide some control of VOCs emitted from poultry production.