Closing the mineral cycle on dairy farms

In the CMCD project Lely demonstrated a barn system to reduce ammonia emissions and to close the nitrogen loop in dairy farming. The project demonstrated during the demonstrations actions with the prototype and 0-series versions that the aimed reduction of ammonia, PM emissions and other Green House Gasses can be achieved with the RFX concept. On 1 July 2017 the project started (according to plan) and successful ended on 30 June 2021. The farmers, which allowed demonstration actions in their (operational!) cowshed and technical successes with the product engineering, contributed to a timely implementation.

This LIFE project demonstrated (and proved!) a technically unique system to strongly (+70%) reduce ammonia and GHG emissions on a farm level to close the nitrogen loop. By strongly decreasing the emissions and converting animal nitrogen into emission fertilizing resources, the farmer is less dependent on artificial fertilizer and is able to close the nitrogen cycle for the farm. This, together with the animal wellness improvements by - increased labour productivity (reducing repetitive work with robots) - leads to a solid economical revenue model (less costs on labour and fertilizers)

This project was funded from the LIFE EU funding instrument.

For more information please visit: www.cinea.ec.europa.eu