Environmental and legislative aspects of pig production in The Netherlands, France and Denmark

In areas of highly intensive pig production the amount of nitrogen and mine rals in pig manure may far exceed the amounts of these nutrients that can b e taken up by crops. Due to this imbalance, accumulation of minerals can ta ke place and, by leaching and runoff, exceed tolerated levels of nitrate (5 0 mg/l), potassium (12 mg/l), and phosphate (0.15 mg P-t/l) in fresh water. This may lead to eutrophication. Air may become polluted by odours in the neighbourhood of pig farms, while ammonia emission both from pig houses and from application on the fields may be excessive. Therefore, legislation ha s been implemented in several countries to limit the use of pig manure per ha of land. Comparison of legislation between France, Denmark and The Nethe rlands show distinct differences in legislation as well as differences in t he excretion of N and P in the manure from specific categories of pigs, (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.