Assessment of Nitrogen Flows at Farm and Regional Level When Developing the Manure Management System for Large-Scale Livestock Enterprises in North-West Russia

• Published in: Sustainability
• Main Authors: Aleksandr Briukhanov, Eduard Vasilev, Natalia Kozlova, Ekaterina Shalavina
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: environmental assessment; nitrogen balance; manure utilisation; nitrogen use efficiency; dairy farm; North-West Russia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126614

Arranging efficient manure management is the major environmental challenge in livestock farming in the Leningrad Region, with manure nitrogen being regarded as the main pollution source. The study aimed to identify the baselines for taking integrated manure management decisions towards reducing nitrogen losses applying nitrogen surplus and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) as indicators calculated at the regional and municipal district level. At the regional level, NUE was found to be 34% and N surplus was 103 kg ha−1. Eleven “environmentally friendly” districts had a mean NUE of 59%, a mean N surplus 39.6 kg ha−1 and a mean animal density 0.89 LSU ha−1. Four districts were identified as “hot spots”, with an animal density in the range from 2.6 to 67 LSU ha−1, NUE from 1 to 37% and N surplus from 87 to 3082 kg ha−1. A scenario was suggested for the redistribution of organic fertilisers between “hot spots” and “environmentally friendly” districts, allowing each district to increase the N surplus to the regional value. Nitrogen flows and measures improving NUE at the farm level through organisational activity and advanced practices were considered with the help of the “N input − N output” diagram and the example of the nitrogen flows on a pilot dairy farm.