Improvements to a machine that measures smell from feedlots or hog barns will improve the speed of testing air quality near barns and feedlots, says a researcher who worked on the project.
Richard Colemen, an independent consultant, said having eight smelling ports in the olfactometer, the recognized way to measure odour, will give scientists more tools.
Trained people sniff the air from the olfactometer ports and indicate when they can begin to detect odour. This gives scientists an odour threshold.
With a single port olfactometer, only one person can sniff at a time. Because each test must have eight participants to smell the odour, having eight ports allows for greater accuracy and efficiency, he said.
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“All eight people can smell at the same time, and time is money,” he said.
“Clearly it’s going to save money. It’s a major move forward.”
The time it took to put all eight panelists through the process was long and costly and was one of the biggest problems with testing air quality around Alberta feedlots, he said.
Olfactometers have been used throughout the province in recent years, but the changes will allow researchers to develop new ways to manage manure to help reduce odour.
