Lowering the crude protein content of dairy cow diets leads to reduced ammonia emissions from manures, a NI based research project has found.

Scientists at the Agri Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) found that reducing dietary crude protein levels from 17% to 14%, reduced ammonia emissions by an average of 64%.

Ammonia is produced when faeces and urine from cattle mix and this can happen on shed floors, during slurry storage and at field spreading.

The AFBI researchers state that the results from their latest study “clearly demonstrate” that ammonia production was highest during the days after the faeces and urine were produced, and gradually decrease over time. The four-year DAERA funded research project is being conducted by AFBI, in partnership with John Thompson and Sons and Trouw Nutrition.

Overseas labour is not cheap – BMPA

Meat factories have to pay up to £15,000 per worker in “one-off costs” to recruit staff from overseas, according to the British Meat Processors’ Association (BMPA).

“It’s an extra cost on top of wages that we never had before we left the EU. It’s also in addition to a near 20% rise in wages,” said Nick Allen, BMPA chief executive.

The lobby group has been asking the UK government to make it easier to recruit foreign workers, although it seems to have made little progress on the issue. Last week, the government announced plans to further increase costs associated with work visas, including a 65% rise in the “immigration health surcharge” from £624 to £1,035.

“These extra costs get passed on down the supply chain,” Allen said.