Spain: Nitrogen emission calculator for pig manure

Livestock can impact the environment, altering air, soil, and water quality, generating greenhouse gases or emitting dust and undesirable odors. These emissions are restricted by various standards, most of which are international. Proper nitrogen management when manure is used as a nutrient is essential to reduce pollution of surface and ground waters, especially in nitrate vulnerable zones. Consequently, proper management of manure is crucial, with farmers being primarily responsible for this, including the application of Best Available Techniques for emission reduction.

This is why the Ministry of Agriculture has developed an online application with two objectives:

• To provide the livestock sector and the relevant authorities with support at the national level to facilitate emissions calculations from each livestock farm, providing essential information to meet the previously mentioned regulations and commitments.
• To carry out estimates with uniform standards following a proven, internationally recognized, audited, and public methodology, such as the Animal husbandry guidelines to calculate the nutrient balance of nitrogen and phosphorus in pigs and the reduction coefficients of the different BATs provided by the Spanish Inventory System.

The tool is a Excel sheet for download on your computer.