American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers



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Evaluation and Improvement Potential of a Sprinkler System Used to Control Dust in a Feedlot at Wallula, WA

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  064166,  2006 ASAE Annual Meeting . @2006
Authors:   Brian G. Leib, David Strausz
Keywords:   Feedlot Air Quality, Dust Control, Sprinkler Irrigation, Uniformity

In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency designated the Wallula, Washingtion region a non-attainment area for PM 10 emissions. As part of a dust abatement plan, a feedlot sprinkler system was evaluated for application uniformity and adequacy in meeting daily evaporative demand. From the evaluation, two improvement options were determined to be beneficial at a low cost. First valve operation times could be adjusted so that all areas of the feedlot were wetted more evenly, thus avoiding some livestock pens being too wet while others were too dry. Second, daily application amounts could be adjusted on a real time basis to meet the evaporative demand calculated from a nearby automated weather station instead of simply reacting to the pen conditions that alternately went from too wet to too dry throughout the dust suppression season. It was also determined that adding extra sprinklers would have significantly improved uniformity, but at a very high cost. Therefore, the feedlot has agreed to implement the two low cost alternatives with the consent of the Washington State Department of Ecology.