The impact of a farm’s annual cattle slurry yield on the options for moving the slurry from stable to plot: a simulation study
Estonian Research Institute of Agriculture, Teaduse 13, Saku, Estonia;e-mail: raivo.vettik@eria.ee
Abstract:
The economical efficacy is substantial on both occasions for feeding plants with nutrients and moving the manure from stables to the plots. The aim of the present research is to explain the limit values for the annual amount of slurry and average plot distance on a farm as conditions to decide in favour of a personal eco-friendly slurry distributor or custom equipment. In their previous researches, the authors have composed models to calculate slurry management costs for different technologies depending on plot distance, taking into account ammonia emissions. In the present study, simulations were made using the composed calculation models to compare slurry distribution costs for four slurry application technologies.Calculations show that if the annual amount of slurry exceeds 4000 m3, then for plot dis-tance over 2 km, custom slurry distribution is cheaper than using the farm’s own equipment. How-ever, if the annual quantity of slurry exceeds 16,000 m3, then the limit value for distance is 5 km.If the annual amount of slurry is 4000 m3, then full custom service is cheaper than thetechnology in which the farm’s own slurry distributor and custom transportation is used. In the case of the annual amount of 16,000 m3, it is less expensive to use the farm’s own slurry distributor and custom transportation. In order to benefit from the use of the farm’s own distributor the minimum value for annual slurry amount is 5600 m3.
Key words:
ammonia emissions, annual slurry amount, custom machines, operation costs, performance, plot distance, slurry application technology