Ruminants have a unique ability to convert fibrous feed materials into high quality milk and meat products thanks to the genius evolutionary development – the rumen. The rumen harbours fibrolytic microbes that allow utilization of e.g., grass that is not directly human edible. Grass cultivation provides many ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, improved biodiversity, less erosion, capture of nutrients, better soil structure etc. Fibrous forages are natural feeds for ruminants and support the health of their digestive system. Typically grass based feeds are also cheaper than concentrate feeds. All these factors support high use of grass in the diets of ruminants, but it requires production of good quality grass-based feeds.
R4D
Resilience For Dairy
Agricultural run-off and subsurface drainage tiles transport a significant amount of nitrogen and phosphorus leached after fertilization. alchemia-nova GmbH in collaboration with University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna developed two multi-layer vertical filter systems to address the agricultural run-off issue, which has been installed on the slope of an agricultural field in Mistelbach, Austria. While another multi-layer addressing subsurface drainage water is implemented in Gleisdorf, Austria. The goal is to develop a drainage filter system to retain water and nutrients. Both multi-layer filter systems contain biochar and other substrates with adsorption properties of nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus). The filter system can be of practical use if an excess of nutrients being washed out is of concern in the fields of the practitioner by keeping the surrounding waters clean. This approach may result in economic value by re-using the saturated biochar as fertilizer and improving the soil structure, thus increasing long-term soil fertility. Link: https://wateragri.eu/a-bio-inspired-multilayer-drainage-system/
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No 858735. FACTSHEET NANOCELLULOSE MEMBRANES FOR NUTRIENT RECOVERY Key information Functionalized nanocellulose membranes can take up nitrate and phosphate. These membranes can be put in a water treatment unit. As the membranes are biobased, degradable materials, they can after use be added to the soil, thus returning the leached nutrients back for their original purpose providing fertilizers (nutrient recycling).
This factsheet explains how bringing a team of farmer, vet, feed and farm advisors together is sharing different sources of knowledge together, making the Multi Actor Farm Health approach an effective approach to improve biosecurity on poultry farms