Author Archives: brent.auvermann

Windblown Dust and Landowner Liability

As the urban-rural interface expands toward the wide, open spaces that Panhandle livestock producers have occupied since the 1800s, and as urban residents seek out those same wide, open spaces for their retreats from the stresses of city living, conflict between livestock producers and their neighbors occurs more and more frequently.  One of the most prominent realms of conflict is nuisance, and we will discuss nuisance claims (odor, dust, noise, etc.) in a future post. Another realm of legal exposure that faces the agricultural landowner has to do… Read More →

Atmospheric Ammonia in the Texas Panhandle

Under a contract with the National Trends Network, a national monitoring network sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture, we operate a monitoring site on the south rim of North Ceta Canyon.  At Cañonceta we measure ground-level, atmospheric ammonia concentrations, wet deposition, and dry deposition. Why ammonia?  Mainly because in the presence of atmospheric moisture, ammonia can dissolve into that moisture and then react with other airborne species – mainly sulfate and nitrate – to form fine particles.  These particles scatter light pretty efficiently, so at high… Read More →

It’s Gonna Be a Rough Summer for Feedyard Dust

As wonderful as 2015 was, 2016 is racing off in the other direction weather-wise here in the southern High Plains:  warm, dry, and windy.  The first Bradford pear trees blossomed last weekend, almost three full weeks early.  And NOAA is forecasting a transition from the current El Niño to a La Niña pattern in the fall.  If you are a cattle feeder, it’s time to start getting your feedyard surfaces ready for the “high season.” Here’s a bulletin we wrote in 2011, one of the hottest, driest summers… Read More →