| Dairy cow houses are a major contributor to ammonia (NH3) emission in many European countries. To understand and predict NH3 emissions from cubicle dairy cow houses a mechanistic model was developed and a sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the contribution to NH3 emission of each input variable related to a single urine puddle. Results showed that NH3 emission was most sensitive for five puddle related input variables: pH, depth, initial urea concentration, area and temperature. Unfortunately, cow house data of these variables are scarce due to a lack of proper measurement methods. In this study we focused on a method to assess the urine puddle depth, which can vary between 0.10 mm and 2.00 mm. Our objective was to develop a measurement method... |
