Technologies and management practices for sustainable manure use in the Baltic Sea Region

Livestock production in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) is often geographically concentrated in certain areas, which creates greater livestock density in those areas. The intensification of livestock production seen in recent decades has compounded this problem by generating large amounts of manure to use in a local area. Poor manure management results in loss of nutrients to the air through gaseous emissions and to water though leaching and runoff. These nutrient losses are responsible for considerable negative impacts to the environment, climate and society.  During the past decade, there have been multiple BSR projects addressing sustainable manure use. Most projects have focused on one or a few aspects of sustainable manure use, such as reducing ammonia emissions, or reducing leaching and runoff problems, or increasing nutrient use efficiency from manure. Some projects have focused on specific technologies while others focused more on management practices that can improve sustainability. The objective of this report was to synthesize relevant results and recommendations from the previous BSR projects to create a comprehensive list of their recommendations for improving the sustainability of manure use in the BSR. This was done within the context of various aspects of sustainability that have been dealt with in previous projects, and in terms of where along the manure handling chain the measures are to be applied. Aspects of sustainability that were addressed here are decreasing ammonia emissions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing runoff and leaching, increasing on farm nutrient use, increasing regional nutrient recycling and addressing odors, pathogens, heavy metals and other risks. Possible measures for improving these aspects of sustainable manure nutrient use recommended in the previous projects were summarized and synthesized in relation to where along the manure handling chain the measures should be implemented. These were presented in a matrix of best practices and techniques for sustainable manure nutrient use in the BSR. Aspects of economic sustainability of manure handling and use were discussed as well as how various governance actions can be used in order to help promote the implementation of these best practices