A New Electronic Nose for Downwind Livestock Farm Odour Measurement

A portable electronic nose which consists of fourteen gas sensors, one temperature sensor and one humidity sensor was developed especially for measuring livestock farm odour. An expert system called "Odour Expert" was developed to support researchers' and farmers' decision making about odour control strategies for livestock operations. A fast factor significance ranking method was used in "Odour Expert" to assist making odour control decisions and the controlled odour levels could be predicted for evaluating true effects of odour control strategies. Experiments were conducted at downwind in the fields of fourteen livestock farms. The predicted odour levels were compared with measured data and good agreement was reported. The "Odour Expert" was proved a useful tool in supporting livestock farm odour management.