DELEGATES attending this week's Ulster Arable Society Conference, held at AFBI Hillsborough, were told that burning poultry litter constitutes the waste of a home grown resource that could be put to better use as a value-for-money fertiliser by growers of spring sown cereal, potato and vegetable crops.
"We grow 40,000 hectares of spring barley, 5,000 hectares of potatoes, 1,500 hectares of forage maize and 1,300 hectares of vegetable in Northern Ireland annually," Co Down arable farmer Allan Chambers further explained.
"If producers used poultry
litter on half this area at rates which comply fully with the current RB209 Fertiliser Guidelines and Nitrates' Directive, we would utilise 250,000 tonnes of the product each year. So why burn it?"
Allan added: "I have been using poultry litter on my own farm for the last 15 years or so, applying the product every third year. Our fields are soil tested annually and I can confirm that the P Index of our soils has not increased at all in this period. We started off with an Index that was slightly over three and that's where we remain today."
Allan spreads 1,100 tonnes of poultry litter on his spring grown crops each year.
"We have found that the product will have a beneficial impact on soil fertility for up to three years. The reality is that phosphate is becoming an extremely expensive commodity.
"It is essential for crop growth, yet we are told that current global reserves will run out in 100 to 150 years or so at current usage rates," he continued.
"Figures produced by DARD confirm that phosphate usage in Northern Ireland has dropped from 12,500 tonnes in 2007 to 4,500 tonnes last year. In my opinion we are in danger of running into significant phosphate shortages on a number of local farms. Analysis confirms that 250,000 tonnes of poultry litter contains about 4,000 tonnes of active phosphate. My understanding is that the ash left, following the combustion of poultry litter plus meat and bone in the proposed Rose Energy incinerator, contains all of the initial phosphate and potash. However, this residue must be sent to landfill: it cannot be spread on land. This, in my opinion, represents the complete waste of a very valuable raw material."
But Allan did admit that the use of poultry litter on farms does come with a health warning – botulism in cattle.
"For this reason it must be ploughed in without delay and I would anticipate that the industry is capable of getting together and drawing up a voluntary code of practice, where the use of poultry litter is concerned," he concluded.
"Another suggestion worthy of merit is the possible introduction of a small levy on each tonne used. These funds could provide a free vaccine for concerned livestock farmers."
