Managing manure and effluent

Manure emissions are a significant source of on-farm greenhouse gases (GHG) in intensive pig production. The quantification of emissions and mitigations from manure management in Australia has been limited.

These studies aimed to develop techniques to mitigate GHG emissions from land-applied livestock manures, gain an understanding of factors which affect GHG emissions, develop alternative handling and anaerobic processing technology for spent litter and understand the emissions resulting from the application of piggery manure compared to the baseline emissions from conventional fertilisers.

The findings were released as a series of factsheets (National Agricultural Manure Management Program NAMMP).

Value for producers:

• Producers can reduce their GHG emissions by adding sorbers to the manure or alternatively composting and pelletising the manure instead of stockpiling it. 
• By incorporating manure in soil, producers can reduce their GHG emissions and improve their soil quality and crop productivity.
• Producers can also reduce emissions by using short hydraulic retention time (<30 days) effluent treatment ponds.