CCCfarming The aim is to develop climate smart cattle farming systems reducing GHG and ammonia emissions while maintaining the social-economic outlook of the farm business. Key words are efficiency of production and care for climate. Central to the approach are innovative housing and...Read all CCCfarming The aim is to develop climate smart cattle farming systems reducing GHG and ammonia emissions while maintaining the social-economic outlook of the farm business. Key words are efficiency of production and care for climate. Central to the approach are innovative housing and manure handling systems in reducing emmissions, like use of composted bedding material, separation of faeces and urine, artificial floor constructions, manure cleaning robots, cow toilet, virtual fencing and ICT data collection techniques, and precision crop fertilization. Promising feeding, breeding and grassland mitigation practices are examined to contribute to the integrated systems approach.
Our study will deliver an assessment of the environmental performance of a network of study field farms in eight EU-countries on basis of NPC balance tools and simple emission measurement methods. Researcher–farmer interaction will ensure improved performance and impact. Expert groups in each country evaluate the outcomes, and choose practices and techniques to be further examined in experimental set-ups. On the basis of literature and the collected experimental data, promising practices and techniques will be screened for their socio-economic robustness and political implications. Next, farm systems will be built by assembling combinations of suitable practices and techniques and will be tested on pilot and experimental farms for meeting the goals of this project.
The project consortium includes nine leading research institutes plus stakeholders spread over Europe and elsewhere, providing a wide coverage of environments and farming systems. The consortium and network of farms will serve as ambassadors for climate innovative efficient farming. It has the potential to help reducing the sum of emissions by an additional 30% in 3-4 years by awareness raising and applying new techniques. Open field days, popular articles and conference seminars and electronic media are planned to spread the message.
This project targets the call holistic theme by covering the whole cattle farm, the technical theme by applying tools and innovative techniques to deal with emissions, and the societal theme by simulating and evaluating the socio-economic impact of the various practices and techniques integrated in promising future farming systems, adapted to local circumstances.
Peter Groot Koerkamp Join group Genetic and non-genetic aspects of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the principal ruminant livestock populations The purpose of this study is to investigate the genetic and non-genetic potentials of the main ruminant livestock to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mainly methane)....Read all Genetic and non-genetic aspects of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the principal ruminant livestock populations The purpose of this study is to investigate the genetic and non-genetic potentials of the main ruminant livestock to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mainly methane). For this purpose, the main species of dairy cattle, sheep and goats would be investigated. In the first step, all fixed or environmental factors effects will be identified. In the second step, the genetic potential of the species (genetic resources variation including within and between breeds variation) with the aim of reducing greenhouse gases will be identified.The results will be reflected to governments and agricultural decision-making centers.
In other words, in the main species of ruminant livestock, genetic potential would be considered concerning all environmental /genetic factors in reducing greenhouse gases. Considering the success full results of previous researches, we can select the traits related to methane production in ruminants,as making them easier to measure and less costly than direct measuring methane gas.
seyed rafat Join group partnership My name is Gaetano Sardina and I work at Chalmers University in Sweden. I am expert in Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) applied to industrial and environmental projects, big data, machine learning. I would like to join a project as a co-applicant in the technical theme”:...Read all partnership My name is Gaetano Sardina and I work at Chalmers University in Sweden. I am expert in Computational Fluid Mechanics (CFD) applied to industrial and environmental projects, big data, machine learning. I would like to join a project as a co-applicant in the technical theme”: Technical options for the monitoring and mitigation of GHG emissions from animal production systems". If you need my expertise, be free to contact me.
Gaetano Sardina Join group Innovative technology for containing free release of animal waste greenhouse gases Greenhouse gases from animal waste (faces and urine) are often released free to the environment. Hence, innovative technologies are needed to contain this free release of the gases at the early stage the...Read all Innovative technology for containing free release of animal waste greenhouse gases Greenhouse gases from animal waste (faces and urine) are often released free to the environment. Hence, innovative technologies are needed to contain this free release of the gases at the early stage the animal waste is excreted from the animal. The technology considered in this project will be designed in such a way that there will be no harm to the animal’s natural health but effectively contain the probable free greenhouse gas release to the environment. Meanwhile, the technology will be designed in such a way that it will easily be adopted by animal farms of different size and animal numbers. However, the technology will not be used for open air farm animal production systems but housed animals.
Methane and nitrous oxide are major greenhouse gases that have received attention in the global warming phenomenon and are also associated with animal production. These two gases greatly involve in the photochemical reactions in the atmosphere close to earth and determine the concentrations of ozone and hydroxyl radicals in the atmosphere.
Analysis done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that a 1 kg of CH4 (Methane) does have a 63 times warming effect of 1 kg of CO2 (carbon dioxide) over a period of 20 years following the release of the gas. Many researchers implicate that the major contributor of Methane is Agriculture (Duxbery, 1994) and a recent FAO study (2006) shows that around 35% global greenhouse gas comes from Animal production.
Hence, appropriate technologies are needed to keep this damage at bay.
FASIL TADDESE GEBREMARIAM Join group Use of bacteria to reduce ammonia emission from cattle slurry Ammonia (NH3) emission from livestock production systems is responsible also for N2O emissions. N2O is one of the primary GHG-s (Easterbook, 2016). NH3 emission from agriculture is responsible for a large portion of the...Read all Use of bacteria to reduce ammonia emission from cattle slurry Ammonia (NH3) emission from livestock production systems is responsible also for N2O emissions. N2O is one of the primary GHG-s (Easterbook, 2016). NH3 emission from agriculture is responsible for a large portion of the nitrogen that enters into the waterbodies and air. Reducing of plant nutrient loss from agriculture is important to minimise eutrophication. The world's lakes and surface waters will emit more greenhouse gases as they become greener and more nutrient-rich (DelSontro et al 2018). NH3 emission is mainly originated from animal manure and causes loss of nitrogen what could be used in crop production (EMEP, 2011). The emission levels are from cattle barn 8-10%, open storage 10-25% and non-tilled field 40-70% of slurry-N.
A novel approach is to use living microbes to reduce the pollution of environment. Positive effects have been shown with direct fed microbial. For example, strain of Bacillus megaterium has been isolated from chicken cecum and the content of ammonium nitrogen in chicken manure was significantly reduced when drinking water of chickens contained B. megaterium (Wang et al. 2018). In addition, direct application of microorganisms has been used in wastewater to reduce organic matter (Low and Chase, 1999). For instance, using B. megaterium with microalgae Chaetoceroscalcitrans and nitrifying bacteria reduced significantly nitrite and nitrate concentration in white shrimp rearing container (Rahim et al. 2018). Few studies have been shown that adding microbial additives directly to liquid or solid manure have an impact on odors and NH3 emissions. For example, two commercially available microbial additives reduced significantly odors from pig slurry after 80-day storage period in containers (Choi et al. 2015). Also, using only Bacillus amyloliquefaciens reduced significantly NH3, H2S and SO2 emission from big slurry (Kim et al. 2014). In 2018, Estonian Crop Research Institute (ECRI) researcher Loide, V. obtained initial positive results in maize fresh matter yield and protein content if bacteria B. megaterium was mixed into pig slurry and spread to the maize pots.
In crop production, where N is often in fertilizer in form of ammonium or ammonia, the nitrification can have a essential environmental risk due to nitrate leaching and nitrous oxides (N2O) emission. Nitrification is a biological oxidation of ammonia or ammonium to nitrite followed by the oxidation of the nitrite to nitrate. These steps are both performed by microorganisms. In slurry, it is important to convert ammonia (NH3) to nitrate (NO3) or ammonium (NH4) immediately to minimise ammonia emission. However, also movable nitrate ions (NO3) applied to the field with manure is essential to bind because the ions could leach into groundwater and thus contribute eutrophication.
Thus, the use of microorganisms which bind nitrogen is one possible alternative to other technologies to minimise emissions in manure handling chain. The high microorganism’s concentration causes the binding of ammonia which afterwards is exposed to the soil in available form for the plants. In comparion of acidification technologies where 3-5 litre sulphuric acid is used per cubicmeter of slurry, by use of bacteria in slurry is no risk to exceed amounts of S consumed by plants and thus endanger drinking-water quality with that element. Also, the usage of microorganisms is far more safe, comfortable and less investment-demanding compared to acidification technology.
The research hypothesis is that use of specific microorganisms helps to decrease ammonia emission from cattle slurry in storage and in field. The aim of the study is to determine the effect of monoculture bacteria B. megaterium and Bacillus subtilis use on NH3 emission from cattle slurry in storage on field and thus evaluate the ability of this technology to reduce NH3 loss from slurry and increase the competitiveness of livestock farms.
In 2018 spring were developed for ECRI two percostations with total 8 sensors for continuous measurement of soil electrical parameters. The percostations can be used to determine continuously by electrical parameters the soil salinity, moisture content and soil temperature and thus compare total nutrient levels in soils fertilised with treated slurry and non-treated slurry. The higher is nutrient concentration in soil the less is it emitted to the air. The percostations send data after every half hour to data-server, and connected with local weather data on same time. Thus the change of nutrient concentrations can be analysed to find how is it related to weather condition. This information gives better possibility to advice farmers by choosing of application time by weather conditions for slurry treated with bacteria B. megaterium and Bacillus subtilis.
Thus, the other objective of the study is to increase efficiency of cattle slurry nitrogen and decrease NH3 as secondary greenhouse gas emission from cattle slurry by determining best timing for the application of cattle slurry by local weather conditions and N need of crops if the percostation is used to measure continuously total level of soluble salts in soils.
Kalvi Tamm Join group
