Cutting pollution with cleaner barns

Livestock manure is a primary source of ammonia and methane emissions, leading to a poor indoor climate for pigs and cattle and pollution of the surrounding environment.

Danish farm machinery supplier Lind Jensen Maskinfabrik (LJM) develops and refines manure removal systems to minimise these emissions. As growing environmental legislation drives innovation, farmers can rely on LJM systems to help them comply with the most stringent requirements.

Significant improvements have been made. Although Danish law only requires weekly emptying of the slurry pits under the floor slats in pig barns, LJM’s mechanical scrapers make it easy to empty the pits daily. For cattle barns, LJM has designed an automated scraper system to remove manure from solid floors fast and efficiently 12 times a day.

As barns have grown in size over the years, LJM has developed scraper systems for barn floors up to 250 metres in length.

Frequent manure removal reduces methane emissions by up to 90%

In cattle barns, where manure is scraped from a solid drained floor, a recent study has found a 23% reduction in ammonia evaporation compared to barns with a slatted floor and slurry pit.

LJM has an ongoing collaboration with the agricultural research and development organisation Seges Innovation to evaluate and optimise its systems to ensure they deliver the best possible climate benefits at minimum cost.