New Research Drives Understanding of Livestock Odour Reduction

As a result, the science of reducing and measuring odour has grown in recent years, with new tools identified and tested for their effectiveness."The search for better odour control is an ongoing process," says Ike Edeogu, odour control specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) and a member of the Odour Control Team, a group of scientists from ARD and the University of Alberta.

“Research is helping us learn more and more about the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of odour solutions, causing us to take a fresh look at them and, in some cases, turning what we thought we knew about them on its head. What we have learned will hopefully help producers make better odour management decisions on their operations."

Key to that objective is developing the ability to measure odour with confidence. Science has made great gains in increasing the confidence in odour measurement and continues to do so. "Measuring odour objectively is a challenge because odour measurement is fundamentally subjective. However, the ability to measure accurately and consistently would help determine what odour-reducing technologies and management practices have the greatest potential to be effectively applied by the livestock industry."