ARGE Ammosafe

Short description

Modern animal husbandry as well as changing legal frameworks confront livestock farms with new challenges in the areas of manure logistics, air, groundwater and soil protection, nutrient efficiency and social acceptance. New processes and methods are therefore needed that enable an environmental and soil-friendly fertilisation. By combining two established methods of manure processing, this project will develop and test an innovative process. The mobile plant will be investigated with regard to the parameters feasibility, economic efficiency and effectiveness. In the long term, the aim of the project is to make a contribution to socially and environmentally compatible agriculture.

Point of departure

Currently, 94 % of the total ammonia emissions in Austria are caused by agriculture. 50 % of this is due to the spreading of manure. The Austrian groundwater is already polluted by agricultural fertilizers in some areas. In addition, the requirements of the NEC Directive and the NAP Regulation are putting further pressure on agricultural farms. The intensification of livestock farming and the resulting increase in livestock numbers in conjunction with the legal restriction of application times confront farms with numerous challenges. Fertilisation must therefore be carried out in spring under enormous time pressure on farmers, even under unfavourable weather conditions. As a result, they contribute to a higher environmental impact and do not operate in a soil-compatible manner. In addition, high level of odour pollution is becoming more and more a topic of the public debate. Farmers are therefore confronted with the conflicting priorities of environment, society and economic agriculture. For these reasons, innovative approaches and methods are needed which enable environmentally, soil-friendly and socially acceptable fertilisation of agricultural soils. At present, already developed methods are mainly solutions for large farms and do not meet the requirements of Austria's small-scale agriculture. Therefore, solutions have to be found which correspond to the diverse farm structure of Austrian agriculture.

Project implementation and measures

The project will test a new process for the treatment of manure in terms of feasibility, efficiency and effectiveness. Essential project steps are:
- Planning and development of a mobile liquid manure processing plant including different plant cultivation trials
- Implementation and its technical and economic evaluation of manure treatment
- Review of the effectiveness of the measure in terms of nitrate shifting and fertilisation effect
- Evaluation, processing and distribution of the results