The province of Brabant released 45 million euros from the government last week to make stables a lot cleaner. It gives farmers a greater chance to continue their business, but: no guarantee. In the meantime, the clock is ticking because the first farmers who register to invest in the future get the most money. But which farmers still have faith in innovation? It is not that they have been sitting still in recent decades.
In these uncertain times, farmers are now being asked to invest in their business. Extra money is available for the quick decision maker to entice farmers to make a quick choice. The investment in innovative techniques does not guarantee that this farmer can continue to farm.
It is not the first time that livestock farmers in particular have been asked to work in a more environmentally friendly way. Farmers’ organizations defend the fact that nitrogen emissions in agriculture have already been reduced by 66 percent in the past 30 years. That’s true, but that reduction has almost come to a standstill over the past 15 years. The reason is that the first nitrogen-limiting measures are easy to take, after that it becomes more difficult.
Compare it to lowering your energy bill. This can be done simply by taking a shorter shower, lowering the thermostat by two degrees and replacing all lamps with LED lighting. Once you’ve done this, it becomes more complicated and painful to cut even more.
This is what farmers have done to tackle nitrogen emissions:
Herd size
With a smaller livestock, there is less nitrogen emissions. Dairy cows produce the most nitrogen. The size of the Dutch livestock is quite erratic. This is due to regulations, such as the introduction of the 1984 milk quota and 2018 phosphate rules, which limit growth. As a result, livestock farmers had to downsize or stop. Sometimes a rule was abolished again, milk quota 2015, and cattle were bought.
In addition, diseases also play a role in sudden declines, such as swine fever in 1997 and Q fever in goats in 2007. Millions of animals have been culled as a result.
Inventive with manure
Manure is a headache for many farmers. Because this is the biggest culprit of nitrogen in nature, countless measures have been devised to limit the amount or use it smartly. For example, manure is not spread everywhere, but injected into the ground. With injecting, less ammonia disappears into the air or surface water.
Another trick to reduce the impact of manure is to dilute it with water to reduce ammonia emissions on clay and peat soils. Meanwhile, regulations were introduced that forced poultry farmers, pig farmers and dairy farmers to shrink or at least not expand. Because fewer animals means less manure.
And a substantial administration has to be kept. How much manure is produced, how much is used and how much is left. Manure surpluses have to be processed, which of course costs money. Manure may not be stored just like that, but must be covered to prevent it from spreading through the air.
Required to grow grass
Since the end of 2019, farmers are sometimes forced to grow ‘catch crop’. Catch crops are intended to absorb excess manure in the soil. Corn is a plant that needs a lot of fertilizer to grow. There is a good chance that there will still be a lot of manure in the soil after the harvest, which is why farmers are sometimes obliged to sow and harvest catch crops after the maize harvest. Such catch crops are, for example, grass, winter wheat or leafy cabbage.
Customized animal feed
Cows are the largest nitrogen producers. As soon as their pee and manure come together, ammonia is formed and this is a form of nitrogen. Since 2020, farmers are obliged to feed less protein concentrates to their cows. As a result, those cows produce less ammonia and therefore nitrogen.
Modern stables
Many ranchers have already invested in air scrubbers and floors that can separate urine and manure, but that is not enough. Those air scrubbers were recently in the news because research showed that 90 percent of them do not work properly.
Our province has now released a bag of money to speed up making stables even cleaner and smarter. The latest techniques promise a nitrogen reduction of 70 percent. In 2024, our province wants farmers to modernize stables with the help of extra money from The Hague.
It is looking for the farmer with confidence in technology and government, so that in the future he will no longer be looked at in the event of a nitrogen problem.
Corné Nouws built a low-emission barn in 2019 to be prepared for the future, but is that enough?
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