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WestVic Dairy R&D Projects

Environmentally sustainable and productive use of dairy pond sludge for forage production on farm

Project Background and Overview:

The accumulation of excessive amounts of sludge in the first pond of dairy effluent management systems is emerging as a major environmental risk in the dairy industry. Anecdotal information suggests that on a high proportion of Victorian dairy farms, first ponds have not been desludged for 10 or more years due to a combination of the high cost, the physical difficulty of handling the material and a lack of information on how to profitably and safely utilise it on farm.

Where ponds are desludged, the material is often disposed of in ways that:

a) do not effectively or productively utilise the nutrients it contains; and

b) present a major risk of nutrient loss to waterways and the wider environment.

First pond sludge however does contain large amounts of valuable plant nutrients that have the potential to be recycled back onto the farm as a partial replacement for increasingly expensive purchased chemical fertilisers.

The project is investigating the hypotheses that sludge application will:

a) Increase herbage dry matter accumulation of both pastures and forage crops for at least one year.

b) Improve the nutritive value of the herbage grown.

c) Have no detrimental effect on the herbage mineral content.

d) Improve soil chemical health.

By measuring the potential production and soil health responses, it may also provide an insight into the likely environmental effects of applying sludge to land. Later in the project, these results will be used in economic assessments to determine the cost:benefits of applying sludge to pastures and crops. This will determine not only the dollar value of the sludge as a fertiliser but also show if we can recover the costs of, or better still, make a profit from desludging ponds and applying it to land.

Project Objectives:

To develop dairy pond sludge utilisation strategies that efficiently utilise the nutrients contained in the sludge for forage production and minimise nutrient losses to waterways and the environment.
To develop practical and cost effective recommendations for the use of dairy sludge for forage production and as a partial replacement for purchased chemical fertilisers on farm.
To extend the project findings and recommendations developed to the next user extension agents (including nutrient extension officers, EPA compliance officers, dairy industry service providers).

For more information please contact Louise Sheba: louise@demodairy.org.au