There has been a “significant” fall in the number of Irish farms with uncovered slurry storage facilities according to a new report from Eurostat.
Based on its 2020 agricultural census data on manure storage, published this week (January 29) the share of farms with “liquid manure storage facilities without cover” in Ireland fell by “36 percentage points”.
Overall there was a drop of five percentage points in the share of EU farms with slurry storage facilities “without cover” between 2010 and 2020.
Storage facilities for slurry with permeable or impermeable covers were found in relatively high numbers in Ireland, Switzerland , where it represented 44% of all storage facilities and in Austria – where it accounted for 35% of all storage facilities.
The report highlights that slurry storage facilities without cover, such as uncovered manure lagoons, tanks or ponds, present an environmental risk in the EU due to ammonia emissions and nutrient leaching or run-off into surface and ground waters.
In the Netherlands and Malta, there are no longer any farms with uncovered slurry storage facilities.
According to Eurostat in many other countries, the share of farms with “such facilities dropped significantly”, especially in Luxembourg, where it fell by 43 percentage points, Ireland by 36 percentage points, Germany by35 percentage points and Belgium by 32.
However, in two EU countries, the use of uncovered slurry facilities has become more common, specifically in Spain and Estonia.
Manure
The latest Eurostat report outlines that in 2020, 40% of all farms in the EU had manure storage facilities and there was a “greater likelihood” of manure storage facilities on farms with higher livestock numbers.
The highest shares of farms with manure storage facilities were in Slovenia – where it was nearly 100%, then Latvia at 98% and Estonia at 92%.
However the lowest shares were recorded in Cyprus which had just 7% and Greece at 11% and Italy with 18%.
For a majority of EU countries, more than one half of farms either stored solid and or liquid manure in facilities or stored solid dung on the field, covered or not.
Eurostat
The latest data also shows that in 2020, 57% of farms with manure storage infrastructure had facilities for storage of solid dung, 16% had covered facilities for liquid manure and 10% had deep litter systems.
But 6% of farms in the EU also had pits below animals, 5% had liquid manure storage without cover and the remaining 6% had manure storage in other facilities.
