The Umbilical Slurry Injection Process

What's this about Ammonia?

About 350,000 tonnes of Ammonia gas are released into the air each year in the UK. Nearly 50% of this comes from farming. The rest comes from numerous small sources including industry, sewage, wild birds and animals etc.
Farming is a major source because livestock excrete much of the Nitrogen ingested in their diet as urea which is readily broken down into Ammonia.
Following emission Ammonia may be deposited on the ground or on plants nearby.

Ammonia is damaging to the environment because it:

• Contributes to Acid Rain which can damage forests, lakes and rivers
• Adds Nitrogen to nutrient poor soils (e.g. heathland) which can change the type of vegetation that grows there.

Strong environmental pressures within the EU to reduce Ammonia emissions are likely to lead to national regulations in the UK within the next few years. Large pig and poultry farms will be affected much sooner by the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive.

The best way to reduce emissions is to control losses from the storage and spreading of manures. On many farms it will be necessary to accept a range of measures that may include:

• Fitting a suitable cover to slurry tanks and lagoons
• Applying slurry to grass and arable land with band spreaders* or injectors
• Incorporating solid manure soon after spreading, preferably by ploughing.

These measures have the added advantage of conserving Nitrogen in the manures for use by crops. Band spreaders and injectors also reduce the contamination of grass swards intended for silage or grazing.

*(trailing shoes/hoses)