Australian Pork Limited (APL) is the national representative body for Australian pig producers. APL is a producer-owned not-for-profit company combining marketing, export development, research, innovation and strategic policy development to assist in securing a profitable and sustainable future for the Australian pork industry. It is one of 15 rural research and development corporations (RDCs) providing research to Australian agriculture.

 

Funded by pig farmers, APL is paid to do what farmers can’t do for themselves. This includes:

 

a. Building demand for pork meat products

b. R&D to reduce costs, improve product quality and value chain efficiency

c. Interaction with government on farmers’ behalf

 

Background

 

Limited odour assessment work has been completed in the last 20 years. Odour is a challenging issue for the industry and scientific measurement is challenging as it is a very dynamic variable and measurement by scientific instrument does not always correlate to human nose experience (measured indirectly by complaints). Odour can be a source of great conflict and disagreement between regulators, consultants, producers and the community and can be a very costly and inefficient to treat after the fact.

 

The APL Report Validation of piggery odour data and models found that the odour profile of the industry had not changed substantially in the past 20 years and that industry developed modelling tools including the VEF Maker software and S-factor formula still produced results consistent with odour measured on site. However the study did find some instances of higher odour in SEPs following covered anerobic ponds used to generate biogas than what had been recorded before installation of the biogas systems. The project undertook sampling across a number of farms at points identified by regulators to be of concern due to changed practice. These included biogas installations which were not in existence at the last odour sampling in the early 2000s. It is unknown why the change in odour profile occurred. Possible explanations for increased odour may include that the ponds were optimised for biogas generation and not for management of odour or were too overloaded, which resulted in higher odour concentration in secondary and settling ponds. The research recommended that further investigation into the characteristics of these systems and their relationship to odour.

 

Clarification on the odour impacts of biogas is warranted as the industry has committed to pursuing a low greenhouse gas emissions future, and the adoption of this technology will play a key role in achieving that goal.

 

Current project

 

APL is seeking proposals to undertake a targeted investigation of odour downstream of Queensland biogas covered anerobic ponds (CAP).

While Queensland focused, the research outcomes need to be applicable to all Australian piggeries.

 

The research should undertake targeted odour sampling and compare against histories of complaints and physical properties of the effluent set up of the farms including:

• the loading rates

• volatile solids (VS) and nitrogen reduction,

• hydraulic retention times,

• effluent and sludge chemistry,

• microbiology

• sludge accumulation associated with a CAP in effluent systems.