Development of a National Air Quality Self Assessment Tool (AQSAT) for Livestock Producers

The purpose of this award is for the grantee to provide a tool that will aid NRCS staff in assisting producers with making decisions on where strategies to mitigate emissions for dust, odor, VOC, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide will have the greatest impact within a livestock operation.Livestock producers are under increasing pressure to mitigate air emissions, whether it is for regulatory purposes or as part of a ‘good neighbor’ plan. Mitigation strategies are expensive to implement so care must be taken in identifying if and where strategies are most useful. Because of management and structural variability in operations, these are site specific decisions. This project consists of three components:

1) Development of an on-farm air quality assessment tool for beef feedlot, dairy, swine, laying hen, turkey and broiler chicken operations that is designed to evaluate where mitigation strategies will have the greatest impact;

2) Field testing of the tool with NRCS staff, following in-service training on the tool; and

3) Refinement of the national tool as well as regionalization of the national tool where needed. As part of this effort resource materials will be developed as needed and as identified by NRCS staff.

The resulting tool will be available through venues with national exposure and its use can be incorporated to other efforts to address air quality and livestock production. This submission illustrates the commitment of the land-grant system to developing solutions as well as the commitment of the industry in implementing strategies to protect air resources. The livestock and poultry industries have pledged their commitment through their partnership agreements with this project and their commitment of matching funds to ensure the success of the proposal.