Texas Agri-life joins air-quality project

CLOVIS, N.M. – Solid answers both producers and government agencies can use was the goal of a two-week air quality monitoring project at an eastern New Mexico dairy.

New Mexico State University spearheaded the operation involving four Texas entities – Texas AgriLife Research, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, West Texas A&M University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service at Bushland.

Dr. Robert Hagevoort, New Mexico Extension dairy specialist in Clovis, said when members of the consortium sat down with producers to identify issues of concern -- Research and Extension work-wise -- this air quality research and environmental issues were priority items.

With air quality being regulated, or at least with the recent passing of the cap-and- trade bill, air quality is a huge issue, he said.

Producers are not afraid to be regulated, Hagevoort said.

“But they definitely want it to be based on sound science and not on fiction as it is done elsewhere,” he said.

“Producers want to know what the issues are, and at the same time learn what management practices they can implement to offset these issues, so they know they’re doing the right thing, remain in compliance and contribute to sound and sustainable agricultural practices,” Hagevoort said.

Dr. Brent Auvermann, an agricultural engineering professor, said this all-at-once campaign collected information on coarse particulate matter, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane. The campaign also collected data on a large class of compounds known as volatile organics, some of which are associated with potent, offensive odors, he said.

The main focus was to get baseline data on what is coming off a large open-lot dairy.

“We’re looking specifically at air pollutants from an open-lot dairy we think is reasonably characteristic of this region of the country,” he said.

Future work would then focus on which practices are worth cost-share or incentive payments to producers.

“And once we decide which ones are worthy of public investment, then we would want to be able to provide some guidance on how much money would be needed to achieve a certain level of emissions control,” Auvermann said. “In the case of methane emissions, our findings will also lend scientific support to the carbon-trading schemes.”