Abstract. This study shows the urgent need to consider modernization of agricultural production in terms of sustainable development, which takes into account environmental implications of intensive technologies in livestock farming. Some science-based approaches are offered to address related environmental challenges. High-end technologies of organic livestock waste processing were substantiated by the feasibility study and nutrient balance calculation. The technologies were assessed on the basis of best available techniques criteria, including measures such as specific capital and operational costs associated with nutrient conservation and their delivery to the plants.
The article describes the basic requirements for an interactive programme designed for agro-monitoring and nutrient load management in the Russian part of the Baltic Sea catchment area within the borders of the Leningrad Region. The programme will monitor the farm generation of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in the organic fertilisers and create the logistical scheme of their application with due account for environmental and economic factors. The functional objectives of the interactive programme are to receive the relevant source information on the region, agricultural organisations, applied animal/poultry manure handling technologies, and manure storage types; to visualize all agricultural organizations on a digital map: location, name, specialisation, animal stock, available agricultural land; to calculate and display the current situation in agricultural enterprises: amount of organic fertiliser received, land sufficiency for all organic fertiliser application, and required volume of manure storages and composting pads; to calculate and display the forecast situation in agricultural organizations and to create the electronic passports of farms, districts and the whole Leningrad Region including the logistics of organic fertilisers distribution from supplier farms to consumer farms considering the nutrient load standards and the data on the nutrient load distribution within the boundaries of agricultural lands in the catchment area.
Arranging efficient manure management is the major environmental challenge in livestock farming in the Leningrad Region, with manure nitrogen being regarded as the main pollution source. The study aimed to identify the baselines for taking integrated manure management decisions towards reducing nitrogen losses applying nitrogen surplus and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) as indicators calculated at the regional and municipal district level. At the regional level, NUE was found to be 34% and N surplus was 103 kg ha−1. Eleven “environmentally friendly” districts had a mean NUE of 59%, a mean N surplus 39.6 kg ha−1 and a mean animal density 0.89 LSU ha−1. Four districts were identified as “hot spots”, with an animal density in the range from 2.6 to 67 LSU ha−1, NUE from 1 to 37% and N surplus from 87 to 3082 kg ha−1. A scenario was suggested for the redistribution of organic fertilisers between “hot spots” and “environmentally friendly” districts, allowing each district to increase the N surplus to the regional value. Nitrogen flows and measures improving NUE at the farm level through organisational activity and advanced practices were considered with the help of the “N input − N output” diagram and the example of the nitrogen flows on a pilot dairy farm.
The paper focuses on quantitative assessment of nitrogen flows in a livestock farm under transition to best available techniques BAT system in Russia. Comparative analysis of quantitative estimates of ammonia emissions from housing for dairy cows, fattening pigs, farrowing sows and laying hens was conducted using available literature data and information obtained through a survey of pilot livestock farms in Leningrad Region. Ammonia emission data for existing Russian enterprises were found in the range of BREF emission levels associated with BAT.
The nitrogen farm-gate balance was calculated for the farm with 810 dairy cows, 2600 ha of agricultural land and milk yield of 22 kg/day. The nitrogen surplus was 48.3 kg/ha, which was below the limit values and indicated the possibility to increase the application amount of nitrogen fertilisers, however, nitrogen use efficiency of 0.21 was significantly below the European average. The viability of manure storage and spreading techniques recommended by European BREF, namely compost heaps covering and immediate incorporation of organic fertilisers after spreading, was estimated for this farm. The calculated values of total nitrogen losses are reduced by 20%; the saving of mineral fertilizers owing to higher nitrogen content in applied organic fertilisers can be 18 t / year.
For the rough assessment of technologies on the initial stage of Russian reference books creation it is practicable to use the data from EU BREF on intensive rearing of pigs and poultry. When farms are assessed on the stage of integrated permits issue, it is feasible to use the measured air concentrations of hazardous substances along with the estimation of the whole-farm environmental impact by nitrogen use efficiency. For such estimates to be applied in Russia, the data needs to be collected and systematised for different categories of farms and for different climatic regions.
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