Ag Engineers Offer a Variety of Services

When most people hear the words "agricultural engineers," they automatically think of someone who designs livestock facilities. Though true, there is more to the field than that.

Ag engineers, like those at Agricultural Engineering Associates (AEA) of Uniontown and Garden City, Kansas, are able to serve the livestock industry in various ways. Ag engineers typically have advanced degrees along with a solid agricultural production background.

AEA uses the most sophisticated surveying and soil testing technology available and is currently investing in the newest electronic methods for verifying lagoon sealing. Technologies such as global positioning survey systems, nuclear and electronic test equipment, and computers enhance the speed, accuracy and economy of data collection, design and construction quality control.

Another issue ag engineers deal with regularly in the livestock industry is ventilation design and control for high quality animal environment. Natural and powered ventilation of production and research livestock buildings is sometimes the most misunderstood subject in facility design and construction. John George, AEA President, says, "As high as 60 to 75 percent of the facilities we are called upon to work with have significant ventilation problems."

The firm is currently involved in the design or troubleshooting of facilities for specialized research environments for the production of transgenic dairy animals producing human enzymes, swine genetics production facilities for a leading international company, and four university research facilities.

Typical design challenges include providing a high level of control over economical natural ventilation systems or achieving simple and effective cooling of animals in hot summer weather.

Some ag engineering firms, including AEA, have a long history of involvement with environmental policy advice and consulting at the state, federal and international levels. This stems from George's assignment years ago to help configure the "Feedlot Permitting" program with U.S. EPA and transmit it down to the state environmental agencies to administer as a joint State/Federal permit in the Region 7 states. After leaving the agency to begin consulting, he was among those retained to evaluate nationally the economic costs of feedlot pollution control compliance.

Practical environmental protection and odor control are additional important aspects of ag engineering. "We have volunteered assistance helping develop the "On Farm Odor/Environmental Assistance Program" as well as train assessors for this," George says, referring to the recently released National Pork Producers program.

Besides working with producer and commodity groups, AEA has played a significant role in government environmental policy development. "We have often been requested to testify to legislative committees and consult with environmental agencies, along with providing advice or review and analysis of proposed legislation or regulations," George says.

In general, there is a lot of pressure on agriculture. "The lack of well thought out, scientifically sound, rules and regulations combined all too frequently with understaffed and sometimes under qualified environmental agencies often puts ag producers at an unfair disadvantage," George says.

"One of the most gratifying services we render often is to assist such producers bringing our expertise and experience to bear helping 'level the playing field' on their behalf.

"We pride ourselves on providing leading edge technology with the mobility and economy to serve our clients of all sizes across broad geographic locations," he says. "We have worked hard for a quarter century to position ourselves to lead this profession and to deliver top notch services enhancing agricultural productivity and profitability in an environmentally sound format."