Dairy farming and manure disposal
While time is running out for arable crops, the people of Kempen still have some flexibility in their manure sales. With last year in mind, he invested in two large manure bags for the temporary storage of manure at the beginning of this year. “I am happy that I made this investment. Normally our manure cellars would already be empty, but this year we have only been able to apply ten percent of our animal fertilization.”
Although the manure pits do become empty in his case, this may not apply to other farmers. “I have heard that farmers in the Polder region no longer want liquid manure, but are switching to artificial fertilizer because they cannot wait any longer,” says Willems, who also accepts manure from other farmers. This dilemma also applies to him in the long term.” Next week will be decisive. If we don’t get a longer period of dry weather, I will have to cancel a lot of liquid manure and switch to fertilizer.”
This means that livestock farmers will not be able to empty their manure pits this year and will have to rely on manure processing. But this manure processing is also burdened by the limited sales opportunities on the land. Effluent orders, a residual product from manure processing that is mainly used by arable farmers as a potassium source, are being canceled in droves for these reasons. “Effluent makes your land even wetter,” says Willemse, who has also had to cancel batches of effluent.
