The RIRDC Chicken Meat Program has been funding research for a number of years aimed at exploring available options and developing tools to assist growers to manage dust and odour impacts. The establishment of vegetative screens (or vegetative environmental buffers [VEBs]) to mitigate shed emissions is one dust and odour mitigation option that warrants consideration, as it has proven to be a viable and successful option overseas.
The guidelines presented here provide guidance for chicken growers on the design (including plant selection and arrangement), establishment and maintenance of VEBs for chicken farms.
These guidelines are underpinned by a review of the best available literature on the effectiveness of VEBs in mitigating emissions from chicken farm facilities and design principles for designing and establishing successful VEBs for meat chicken farms. The report on this underpinning literature review may be downloaded at https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/14-101.