Manure management practices in Lombardy (Italy)

Area of Science:

• Environmental Management
• Agricultural Science
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Background:

• The Lombardy Region implemented a specialized software, GIARA, for integrated environmental management.
• This system assists farmers in creating and submitting nutrient management plans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate manure management practices in the Lombardy Region using a regional database.
• To assess the adequacy of current indicators for evaluating farm-level pollution risk.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the GIARA software to create a regional database of manure utilization linked to a GIS.
• Collected nutrient management plans from over 5500 farms, representing significant livestock populations.
• Analyzed data on nitrogen amounts per hectare in relation to crop requirements.

Main Results:

• The database contains nutrient management plans from over 5500 farms, covering more than one million cattle and 3.5 million pigs.
• Analysis revealed significant variations in nitrogen amounts per hectare (100-300 kg) even with similar crop requirements.
• These variations suggest that current indicators may not be sufficient for accurate farm-level pollution risk assessment.

Conclusions:

• The integrated environmental management system in Lombardy provides valuable data on manure utilization.
• Current indicators used for evaluating pollution risk at the farm level appear inadequate due to observed nitrogen variations.
• Further refinement of assessment methods is needed to accurately gauge environmental impact from farm-level manure management.