Abstract
This study aimed to verify the applicability of a mass balance method for estimating nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) content in the solid organic fertiliser produced from cattle manure in North-West Russia. The study compared the relevant established norms in Russia, the data calculated by the mass balance method, and the average experimental data on N and P content in cattle manure (ex-housing) and the organic fertilizer ready to use from the selected cattle-breeding complex with 1250 heads and a manure output of 70 t day-1. Three animal categories were considered. The difference between the calculated and experimental data was 10% maximum but the experimental data and the established norms differed by above 15%. This proves the demand to revise the norms in the Russian regulatory documents to improve the accuracy of fertiliser application rates and the estimation of agricultural land required. Even an increase of 10% in the nutrient content of the organic fertiliser results in an increase in the required agricultural land from 451 to 526 ha for spreading the organic fertiliser from the 1250 heads of cattle at the selected farm.
Highlights
Cattle manure is a mixture of animal manure, bedding material, and different waters from animal housing, such as washing of feed troughs and manure channels and cleaning of premises
The data was collected for cattle excrement, ex housing cattle manure and an organic fertiliser produced by composting solid cattle manure
The experimental data differed from the calculated data by 10% at maximum indicating the applicability of the mass balance calculation method in the North-West Russia
Summary
Cattle manure is a mixture of animal manure, bedding material, and different waters from animal housing, such as washing of feed troughs and manure channels and cleaning of premises. It is a valuable raw material for producing organic fertilisers. Mass balance method is currently a common technique in European countries to estimate the quantity and quality of manure (Poulsen and Kristensen 1997, Gustafson et al 2007, Keener & Zhao 2008, Walczak et al 2013, Groenestein et al 2014, Luostarinen et al 2017). Other methods include sampling and chemical analysis of manure and various table values produced either from large datasets of analysed manure samples or calculated manure data or both (Luostarinen and Kaasinen 2016)
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