CHANGE IN CATTLE MANURE PROPERTIES AS RESULT OF NEW LIVESTOCK TECHNOLOGIES APPLICATION: CASE OF THE NORTH-WEST OF RUSSIA

Abstract

In Russia the animal housing/feeding and manure handling technologies have changed significantly over the past 20–30 years. At the same time, the reference data concerning the manure nutrient content remained unaltered, corresponding to the old technologies. Another weak point of available reference documents is that they were elaborated for the entire country and therefore may not be accurate enough, as the different regions have different climatic conditions, cattle breeds and relevant livestock farming practices. The aim of the study was to identify the currently relevant characteristics of cattle manure, corresponding to modern technologies for the North-West of Russia – the Russian part of the Baltic Sea Region. 148 manure samples were collected in 2017–2019 at 8 farms located here. The values obtained by averaging the results of laboratory analysis of manure samples were compared with the values from current reference documents. The comparison showed that the average nitrogen content in the dry matter of fresh cattle manure was 34.7% lower than that in the reference document. The average nitrogen content in the dry matter of cattle manure after its processing and storage was 59.5% lower than that in the reference document. The average phosphorus content in the dry matter of fresh cattle manure differs slightly from the value in the reference document – by 3.2%. However, the average phosphorus content in the dry matter of cattle manure after its processing and storage was significantly higher than the value in the reference document – by 106.3%.