To be honest, living next to a large livestock enterprise pleases very few people. And I am not just talking about animal breeding facilities. Even the smell from a meat processing plant, where animals are slaughtered and meat is deeply processed into delicacies, starts to get annoying very quickly. Imagine smelling smoked sausage and meat delicacies every single day. Before you know it, you might become a vegetarian. Not to mention the smell of manure and droppings. It is impossible to tolerate, especially if it happens right at your home.
I will say right away: the problem is solvable, but there is no magic pill. You cannot just press a button and forget about unpleasant odors.
Let's consider the algorithm of actions using a pig farm as an example.
There are several sources of unpleasant odors at the facility:
Farm ventilation systems. While maintaining the microclimate in animal housing areas, they emit a large amount of foul-smelling substances into the atmosphere.
Manure accumulation, storage, and processing areas. These can be lagoons, basins, composting pads, and so on.
Land plots where manure is applied.
An individual approach must be developed for each odor source. There is no other way — it has been tested in practice, as they say.
Farms. There are several options. The use of biological products in the sectors, treatment with chemical odor converters also in the sectors (I must warn you right away: the selection process is complex and lengthy. Unfortunately, 90% of the proposed solutions do not work at all), the use of feed additives that regulate proper digestion in animals (here is the profit — fewer odors and more weight gain. Those who know the topic will be surprised and interested), deflector hoods on the exhaust chimneys of microclimate systems to prevent the formation of a high-altitude odor plume, which will inevitably descend to the ground in the evening as temperatures drop, and an odor neutralization system at the boundary of the production site. (No offense, but I simply cannot name brands, trademarks, and manufacturers — that would be advertising. I am ready to share the information personally.)
Manure accumulation, storage, and processing areas. Manure effluents undergo various methods of treatment and processing for a long time, and if this is done in an open way, then in the summer, when heated, it begins to evaporate and smell. Here I would recommend using decent biological products. It is advisable to find guys ready to work with your contents, select indigenous strains of the necessary bacteria, multiply them, and apply them. This will provide the best effect. Aeration helps very well — it accelerates the process of removing odorous substances from the volume. But this can only be done in winter — simply because odors spread much worse in winter, and there is less chance that it will make anyone uncomfortable.
Land plots where manure is applied. There is only one solution here: everything must go into the soil, as quickly as possible and in reasonable quantities. We prepare the soil by plowing or treating it with disc harrows and carry out subsoil application, after which we must go over it a couple of times with a harrow or disc harrow to seal the soil and prevent moisture loss and odor formation. If a solid fraction is applied, allow yourself a maximum of three days for incorporation. And the more times you cultivate the soil and the more thoroughly you mix it with the manure, the fewer odors there will be.
That is, in principle, the entire set of standard solutions that have been developed and tested at our enterprises. It is not a cheap endeavor. But in any business, you need to find a balance between the business and the interests of the residents. And the residents, by the way, are our employees and ourselves.