The requirement for dairy farmers to have 21% more slurry storage in place by 2028 can be “easily solved”, according to former IFA president Tim Cullinan, who is planning to build an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility in Toomevara in north Tipperary.
Speaking at a stakeholder engagement meeting last Thursday night, Cullinan reiterated the fact that what he’s planning will be the only AD facility in Ireland which will be taking animal byproducts only. It will not take maize or grass as feedstock.
As part of his plans, Cullinan aims to provide a solution to deal with the slurry generated on his own pig farms but also to reduce the volume of slurry generated on local farms.
“We want to work with farmers in the area. During the housed period, we are planning to build a mobile [slurry] separator that will separate the manure on-farm, we will take the solid fraction to the plant in a sealed tank.
“The farmer will be left with liquid nitrogen which will get 80% uptake from the grass plant or the cereal crop which means there will be far less ammonia being lost to the atmosphere.
“The important thing here is that we will be removing the phosphorus from the farm as well.
“We’re all talking about nitrates at the minute and it is a huge concern, but when you continue to spread manure on the soil obviously there is a build-up of phosphorus, we want to eliminate that and turn it into a valuable resource,” he said.
SHARING OPTIONS