Dick Nicolai, Associate Professor
Steve Pohl, Professor
Ryan Lefers, Graduate Research Assistant
Funding Source: South Dakota Pork Producers Association
Objective: The purpose of the study was to show the level of livestock odor would impact a surrounding community using weather climate data in South Dakota.
Need or Impact:
- Communities, producers and concerned citizens often ask the question "What is the distance neighbors need to be from a livestock housing site to reduce the odors to less than a nuisance level?" To answer this question, South Dakota State University has released the South Dakota Odor Footprint Tool (SDOFT) to predict the odor impact from livestock and poultry facilities.
- SDOFT provides county planners and commissioners, farmers or concerned citizens a tool to predict the odor impact on neighbors from existing, expanding or new livestock production sites in South Dakota.
Project Status
In progress and the current report is South Dakota Odor Footprint Tool. The SDOFT spreadsheet (xls Excel file) for determining the model results requires Excel to open the file.
Project Results
The tool provides an indication as to how far odor from a specific site will travel. The tool also gives an indication to how much odor control is needed to solve an odor problem from an existing facility Since this tool is based on SD weather, other geographic areas should apply this model with caution.
Odor impact includes odor strength or intensity and the frequency and duration of the odor event. For more information on odor measurement and intensity see the SDSU Extension Fact Sheet 925-A. SDOFT combines odor emissions with average weather conditions (wind direction, wind speed, atmospheric stability, etc.) to estimate odor annoyance-free distances.
For more information about the Odor Footprint Tool, please email Dr. Robert (Bob) Thaler or contact by phone 605-688-5435.