Handling of Animal Manure

In 1984 and in 1987 a fairly drastic policy was formulated to solve the environmental problems caused by the overconcentration of minerals from animal manure. To prevent the problems from growing any further, farms with a production of more than 125 kg. phosphate per hectare per year may not expand the livestock production unit. Apart from this, extensive regulation has been introduced with regard to the spreading of manure during certain periods and to the fixing of standards for the use of animal amanure. Because of the scale of the problem, a phased approach has been adopted. Under these rules more than 15% of the Dutch livestock farms must dispose of their manure elsewhere in the first phase up to 1991. The average costs per farm per year have been estimated at ca. 5.400 guilders per farm. The investment costs for extra manure storage capacity come to a total of 1.572 mllion guilders. The "polluter pays" principle is applied. As a result, the so called surplus levy has meant an extra cost item of 42.7 million guilders per year for all the farms affected. In the coming years, ammonia emissions from livestock production will have to be drastically reduced. There has been increasing awareness that this problem and the related problem of overconcentration of minerals from animal manure must be solved integrally. An integral plan is therefore being drawn up.