Project
Reinventing circular dairy farming
The Dutch agriculture sector faces several significant challenges: the emission of nitrogen (N) and greenhouse gases into the air, the leaching of N into groundwater, and the flow of N and phosphorus (P) into surface water must be reduced. Housing systems can lead to a significant reduction in ammonia emissions. There are housing systems that have progressed enough to be implemented in several dozen dairy farms.
If the nitrogen in ammonia that does not emit and remains within the farm's nutrient cycle, more nitrogen will be available for fertilisation and a higher nitrogen yield can be achieved on the dairy farm. Currently, nitrogen fertilisation from various manure products is limited by the nitrogen usage standard from the Nitrates Directive. The removal of the derogation creates a new situation on dairy farms, which increases the challenge of efficient use of all nutrients from one's own farm. With new housing systems, more manure products become available, and thus more management options arise for multiple nutrients and organic matter.
The consortium of this public-private partnership (PPP) aims to make dairy farms operate more circularly, gradually reducing dependence on external fertilisers. As the first step in this development, this PPP is investigating the agronomic effectiveness of different manure products from low-emission housings with a rapid separation of feces and urine, including products that meet the RENURE criteria. For the partners of this PPP, this concerns urine after primary separation in the housing system (LelySphere), urine collected in the CowToilet, and drained urine from the FreeLiving Barn.
To optimally utilise the manure products from the low-emission housing and minimise losses, the following research questions and objectives are central to the corresponding work packages:
Work package 1
Monitoring manure products on pilot farms. Activities: Manure samples
will be taken from the pilot farms and chemically analysed; information from
the other work packages will be verified within the pilot farms.
Work package 2
Fertilisation strategy for the available manure fractions. Activities:
The expected nitrogen efficiencies will be validated through field trials; a
guide will be created with directly applicable knowledge for dairy farmers
regarding fertilisation strategy.
Work package 3
Manure application technology. Activities: Conditioned trials in which
ammonia emission will be measured; together with the network of private
companies, application technologies will be tested.
Work package 4
Assurance of manure quality. Activities: Development of an assurance
system for urine-like products based on data from Work Package 1.
Work package 5
Knowledge dissemination.
The project will run for four years, from 2024 to 2027.