Holistic decision-support system for organic slurry storage and treatment techniques for maximum nutrient use efficiencies (SLURRY-MAX)

牲畜泥浆是一种有价值的营养来源，但在英国农业部门并不总是得到有效利用，这主要是由于基础设施不足，土地使用限制，土壤类型和气候差异，以及缺乏与无机肥料使用的综合规划。更好地管理泥浆，重视其潜力，以满足作物对营养物质的需求，或作为厌氧消化（AD）的能源，同时尽量减少其对土地和水质的负面影响，对于确保有弹性和可持续的农业系统，满足经济和环境需求是必要的。尽管关于泥浆储存和使用的知识和实用技能相当多，其中大部分是直接针对农民的，但许多农场的泥浆管理仍然是临时性的，在经济、环境和社会方面都不是最佳的。提高肉牛养殖场生产的牛肉浆作为营养源的有效性，并减少其对环境的负面影响。它将通过审查下放国家和欧洲其他地方农民现有的泥浆管理工具来做到这一点。然后，它将探讨（与当前和未来的牛肉农民和耕地农民）他们如何获得和使用有关其农场生产（或可能使用）的泥浆营养价值的信息，以及如何最好地管理它们。通过与农民合作，了解影响他们围绕泥浆管理/使用决策的关键知识差距，环境，文化和其他因素，我们将确定影响他们决策的方法，以最大限度地提高泥浆的价值，使他们能够充分利用信息。我们还将确定与农场实践有关的农场外基础设施限制，这些限制目前阻碍了泥浆的最佳利用。与现有工具专家和提供商合作的信息设计项目（ADAS）; B.将社会理解和创新的各个方面（如农民之间的合作）纳入现有工具; c.知识生产和知识交流与政策围绕基础设施创新的泥浆超越农场大门）具有明显的潜在应用和效益。这些应用程序将主要与农场层面的养分管理有关。该研究将有助于牛肉农民优化其浆料的营养效益，以最大限度地提高其农场的生产（草和牲畜），并可能从向耕地或厌氧消化器（AD）出口过剩营养物质中获得经济利益。我们还希望通过提高农作物产量，积极影响可耕地农民从牛肉农场出口过剩营养中受益的潜力。最后，我们希望与政策和机构机构讨论阻碍泥浆最佳利用的非农场基础设施限制，并思考可能需要支持农民的农场创新的非农场创新。优化泥浆作为土地上营养源的使用，减少由于泥浆使用不当而导致的土地养分损失，将对土地产生重大的环境效益。水和空气质量。这将给农民以外的私营和公共部门带来重大利益，例如，通过降低水处理费用和改善农村环境使用者，包括游客、农村居民和渔民的环境质量。

Livestock slurry is a valuable source of nutrients but is not always used efficiently in the agricultural sector in the UK, largely as a result of inadequate infrastructure, land use constraints, differences in soil types and climate, and a lack of integrated planning with inorganic fertiliser use. Better management of slurry which values its potential to meet crop demands for nutrients, or as an energy resource for anaerobic digestion (AD), whilst minimising its negative impacts on land and water quality is necessary to ensure a resilient and sustainable agricultural system, meeting both economic and environmental needs. Despite a considerable amount of knowledge and practical know-how about slurry storage and use, much of it targeted directly at farmers, slurry management on many farms continues to be ad-hoc and sub-optimal in economic, environmental and social terms.This project aims to pool together available knowledge on slurry management and use, with expertise about how science can be effectively translated, to improve the effectiveness of slurry produced on beef farms as a nutrient source and reduce its negative environmental impacts. It will do this by reviewing the current tools available to farmers for slurry management in the devolved countries and elsewhere in Europe. It will then explore (with both current and future beef famers and arable farmers) how they access and use information about the nutrient value of slurries produced (or potentially used) on their farms and how to best manage them. By working with farmers to understand the key knowledge gaps, environmental, cultural and other factors which affect their decision making around slurry management/use we will identify approaches which influence their decision making towards maximising the value of slurry enabling them to make the most of the information available to them. We will also identify the off-farm infrastructural constraints that connect to on-farm practices and currently impede optimal use of slurry.The outputs of the research (a. information design projects in collaboration with existing tool experts and providers (ADAS); b. incorporation of aspects of social understanding and innovation (e.g. farmer-to-farmer cooperation) into existing tools; c. knowledge production and knowledge exchange with policy around infrastructural innovation for slurry beyond the farm gate) have clear potential applications and benefits. The applications will be primarily relevant for farm level management of nutrients. The research will help enable beef farmers to optimise the nutrient benefits of their slurry to maximise production (of grass and livestock) from their farms and potentially to benefit economically from the export of excess nutrients to arable farms or anaerobic digesters (AD). We would also hope to positively influence the potential for arable farmers to benefit from the export of excess nutrients from beef farms through enhanced production of crops. Finally we hope to discuss with policy and institutional bodies of the off-farm infrastructural constraints that impede optimal use of slurry and to think through off-farm innovations that may be needed to support the on-farm innovations of farmers.Optimising the use of slurry as a nutrient source on land and reducing the potential loss of nutrients from land due to inappropriate use of slurry will be of significant environmental benefit for land, water and air quality. This will result in significant benefits for both private and public sectors beyond farmers, for example, through decreased costs of water treatment and improved environmental quality for users of the rural environment including tourists, rural dwellers and fishermen.