Energetic and environmental benefits of co-digestion of food waste and cattle slurry: a preliminary assessment

The research evaluated the feasibility of centralised pre-processing and pasteurisation of source-separated domestic food waste followed by transport to farms for anaerobic co-digestion with dairy cattle slurry. Data from long-term experiments on the co-digestion of these two substrates was used to predict gross energy yields; net yields were then derived from full system analysis using an energy modelling tool. The ratio of cattle slurry to food waste in the co-digestion was based on the nutrient requirements of the dairy farm and was modelled using both nitrogen and phosphorous as the limiting factor. The model was run for both medium-size and large farms in which the cattle were housed either all year round or for only 50% of the year. The results showed that the addition of food waste improved energy yields per digester unit volume, with a corresponding increased potential for improving farm income by as much as 50%. Data for dairy farms in the county of Hampshire UK, which has a low density of dairy cattle and a large population, was used as a stringent test case to verify the applicability of the concept. In this particular case the nutrient requirements of the larger farms could be satisfied, and further benefits were gained from the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions avoided through improved manure management and fertiliser imports. The results indicated that this approach offered major advantages in terms of resource conservation and pollution abatement when compared to either centralised anaerobic digestion of food waste or energy recovery from thermal treatmen

Livestock Farming Systems in the Northern Tablelands of NSW: An Economic Analysis

The Northern Tablelands region of New South Wales covers an area of approximately 3.12 million hectares including 2.11 million hectares occupied by some 2300 agricultural establishments producing agricultural commodities valued at more than $220 million. Sheep and wool production and cattle production are the dominant agricultural enterprises. In this Report, a whole-farm model of a representative livestock farming system in the Northern Tablelands is developed. Whole-farm economic models of the relevant farming system are a useful first step in understanding the nature of the biological and economic constraints facing producers in their decision making in relation to their choices of inputs and outputs. Such models are also useful in relation to more general concerns such as the expected impacts of investments in new technologies applicable to grazing systems, or of external events such as drought conditions or a depreciation in the exchange rate. A whole farm budget for a representative farm includes a statement of assets and liabilities, based upon estimates of the various capital items including land, livestock and plant and machinery and farm structures. There is also an annual operating budget that includes the cash income and costs associated with each of the farm enterprises as well as the fixed costs incurred for running the farm over the year to derive the farm cash income. Allowances for depreciation and interest costs are deducted from farm cash income to determine farm operating surplus. No family labor allowance is subtracted, so the resulting farm operating surplus represents a return on owner-operated labor, management and farm assets. Pasture costs are not apportioned to the specific animal enterprises and therefore appear as separate negative gross margins. Similarly, supplementary feeding costs and fodder conservation activities are listed as a separate negative gross margin. A representative farm model of the Northern Tablelands livestock farming system was developed based on ABS and ABARE data on the relevant industries, from simulations with a linear programming model, and from discussions with local graziers and extension officers. The farm comprises 920 ha of which about half is native pasture and about half is introduced pasture. This farm runs a flock of 1,108 first-cross ewes, a flock of 1,732 Merino wethers and a 127 cow herd producing 18 month old steers suitable for the heavy feeder steer market. Using average prices and costs over an extended period of time, the annual operating budget for the farm shows a total gross margin of$86,191 and total overhead costs for the year of $24,720. This results in a farm cash income of$61,471 and a farm operating surplus of $37,471 after depreciation and interest costs. The statement of assets and liabilities shows total assets of the farm to be$1,498,060 and liabilities of $100,000 which equates to an equity level of 93.3 per cent. The farm operating surplus achieved on this model farm as a percentage of the owner's equity is 2.7 per cent. This represents a return on operator and family labor, management and equity. Low returns to equity are typical of Australian broadacre agriculture. Other scenarios examined included whole-farm budgets based on 2002 actual market prices and on 2003 expected prices. Given the relatively high prices for sheep relative to cattle in these years, the representative farm would be more profitable running 1,558 first-cross ewes and 3,595 Merino wethers. Such an enterprise mix would achieve a farm total gross margin of$165,736. After overhead costs, depreciation and interest costs there would be a farm operating surplus of $111,818. Based on equity totaling$1,472,870, this operating surplus would represent a business return on operator labor, management and equity of 8.1 per cent. However, while the Northern Tablelands representative farm model would suggest that greater profits could be achieved from changing enterprises as commodity prices change, in practice various biological lags, infrastructure, financial and management constraints prevent regular changes in farm enterprises. In fact, diversification amongst a variety of farm enterprises between various sheep and cattle enterprises as evidenced in the Northern Tablelands is one management response to this commodity price variability. A hypothetical new improved-pasture technology suggested by researchers, involving the selection of pasture varieties with improved winter pasture growth, was examined using the whole-farm model. If the existing 450 ha of improved pasture was replaced by a new variety that gave a 10 per cent increase in winter pasture growth, this would result in a 4.9 per cent increase in farm total gross margin. This corresponds to an increase in farm cash income of 6.9 per cent. These improvements in the profitability of the representative farm would be achieved by increasing the investment in first-cross ewes and in cows producing heavy feeder steers (by 3.5 per cent and 7.8 per cent respectively) and by decreasing the Merino wether enterprise from 1,732 to 1,672 wethers. This indicates that the prime lamb and cow enterprises, under the current assumptions of the model, are better able to utilize the farm resources available given an increase in winter pasture growth. The main conclusions from the analysis are that: Returns to equity are quite low in the Northern Tablelands livestock farming system; variable commodity prices, largely determined in world markets, result in variable levels of profitability of the farming system over time; The optimal farm plan is quite sensitive to small changes in the relative prices of the different outputs produced; In practice farm plans do not change very much as prices change, with most farms maintaining a range of cattle and sheep enterprises; Thus a "representative year" is a more realistic basis for assessing potential changes in farm plans; and new technologies can potentially have large impacts of farm profits and on the mix of resources used and outputs produced.Industrial Organization, Production Economics,

Towards a breakthrough in nutrient recycling : State-of-the-art and recommendations for developing policy instruments in Finland

The report has been complemented on 11.9.2018This report describes the state-of-the-art in phosphorus and nitrogen recycling in Finland and looks at basic data on the volumes and geographical distribution of biomasses and their nutrients. Based on this data, the report makes proposals for measures aiming to promote nutrient recycling. This report was prepared collaboratively by experts at the institutions making up the Finnish Partnership for Research on Natural Resources and the Environment (LYNET) to underpin a national action plan on nutrient recycling. Of all sectors in Finland, agriculture is the largest user and recycler of phosphorus and nitrogen. Different biomasses contain an annual total of approximately 26,000 t of recyclable phosphorus, which exceeds the fertilisation needs of grasslands and cereal crops in the entire area of Finland. The volume of nitrogen contained in biomasses is approximately 95,000 t. Still, approx. 11,000 t of phosphorus and 152,000 t of nitrogen are annually used in Finland as conventional inorganic fertilisers. There is a regional imbalance between manure production and crop nutrient requirements. The breakthrough in nutrient recycling means increased implementation of manure processing, thus making manure nutrients easier to transport and reducing the use of conventional inorganic fertilisers. At minimum 20% of the entire volume of manure generated in Finland will require advanced processing to enable long-distance transport of the manure phosphorus to areas in need of it. This requires separation of water. The highest demand for advanced processing is experienced in the regions of Ostrobothnia (approx. 60% at minimum), South Ostrobothnia and Satakunta (approx. 30 %) and Southwest Finland (13%). In the agricultural sector, fertilisation is currently guided by a wide array of different policy instruments, which make up an incoherent and unstructured whole. The instruments cause considerable amounts of regulatory burden, but appear to do little to promote sustainable nutrient recycling. This report proposes a total reform of the policy instruments to boost the recycling of nutrients. All legal standards related to fertilisation should be merged into a single statute, for example by developing the Nitrate Decree. At the same time, the current policy that controls nutrient use via the EU agri-environmental scheme should be abandoned, and the role of the environmental permit for livestock installations and its relationship with general regulatory instruments be clarified. A field plot specific nutrient database should be created to support guidance. The knowledge base of nutrient recycling should be developed by creating and maintaining a comprehensive data system on the quantities, properties and locations of nutrient-rich biomasses and ashes and their current processing methods. The report also proposes setting regional processing targets for livestock manure. Key objectives should include reducing excessive fertilisation in crop production. The goal of normative guidance should be nutrient use according to the crop needs.201

Sustainable valorisation of organic urban wastes : insights from African case studies

Understanding the problems and potentials of the organic waste stream is perhaps the single most important step that city authorities in Africa could take in moving towards sustainable, affordable, effective and efficient waste management. This publication presents four examples of recent attempts to manage organic waste sustainably in the African context. The participants in the ‘Nairobi organic urban waste’ project have structured this case exercise in order to use the case studies as object lessons, to harvest genuine insights into the feasibility of a variety of ways to successfully and sustainably valorise urban organic waste streams. Three contemporary case examples of compost production are presented. These include composting by a community-based organisation in the Kenyan private sector and by a public-private partnership in Malawi. In all three cases, the project and case study focus is on the relations between city waste and the agricultural supply chain. A fourth case study describes the technical and economic potential to produce and use biogas from urban organic waste

An Economic Comparison of Sheep Grazing Systems on the Northern Tablelands of NSW

Three 54ha "farmlets" were established in 2000 near Uralla, NSW to trial high input, moderate input and intensive rotational grazing systems. A representative farm approach was used to interpret the profitability results of the trial from July 2000 to June 2005 at a commercial scale level to make research results more relevant to farmers. At the gross margin level, the high input farmlet had the highest annual gross margins, but this farmlet had the worst whole farm performance. These contrasting results support the claim that annual activity gross margins cannot alone indicate the profitability of an investment. This demonstrates that whole farm analysis is the most suitable method to assess different grazing systems.sheep, grazing systems, pastures, whole farm analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

GHG emissions of green coffee production : toward a standard methodology for carbon footprinting : report

In this project, the scope for product specific rules for carbon footprinting of (green) coffee is investigated and a proposal is drafted for further work toward actual definition and implementation of such a standard

Precision fertilisation technologies for berry plantation

Increased cost-effectiveness in crop production can be achieved by automating technological operations. This is also the case for berry cultivation in plantations. Starting any berry cultivation automation process should, quite naturally, begin with fertilisation, since this is the first technological operation to be carried out during the vegetation period and is a relatively simple one. The main task here is to apply the correct amount of fertiliser under the canopy of plants. Blueberry plantations that have been established on milled peat fields have plants that have been planted in parallel rows at a pre-designated interval. The fertilisation of plants must take place individually in the first years of their growth, so that each plant is fertilised separately. This form of fertilisation can be referred to as precision fertilisation. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the levels of technology now available when it comes to precision fertiliser equipment and to introduce the concept of a new precision-automated fertiliser unit, while also justifying the efficiency of using automated equipment. The automated fertiliser unit that is to be designed will be autonomous, will move unmanned through the plantation, and will include the necessary sub-systems for the precision fertilisation of individual plants, such as a plant detection system, a fertilising nozzle, a motion system and, additionally, a service station. On the basis of the results obtained, it can be argued that the use of an automated precision fertilisation unit increases productivity levels by approximately 2.25 times and decreases the specific fertiliser costs by approximately 8.4 times when compared with the use of a portable spot fertiliser

Jatropha Assessment. Agronomy, socio-economic issues, and ecology. Facts from literature.

Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) has been promoted as a potential renewable energy source for many of its advantageous properties in comparison to other biomass feedstock. This report summarises the agronomy, socio-economic issues, and ecology facts from literature on Jatropha. Such an overview is essential to formulate recommendations and policy guidelines to stimulate best project practices and also help to avoid the promotion of unviable or unsustainable practices

Analysis of EEC Regulation 2092/91 in relation to other national and international organic standards

This Deliverable 3.2 report presents an analysis of differences between EEC Regulation 2092/91 and other organic standards and their implementation, using a specially developed database (www.organicrules.org). It further reports on database development. The work was carried out as part of the “EEC 2092/91 (Organic) Revision” STREP project (No. SSPE-CT- 2004-502397) within the EU 6th Framework Programme. The main objective was to identify differences in organic standards in relation to Regulation (EEC) 2092/91 and to analyse selected national governmental and private organic standards with the aim of identifying specific areas in the (EEC) 2092/91 where revision in terms of harmonisation, regionalisation or simplification may be possible