Nitrogen and Intensification of Livestock Farming in EEC Countries

The general objective of the paper is to present an account of the role of fertilisers, in particular nitrogen, in the intensification of livestock farming in EEC countries.

The situation in the UK is treated in more detail in:

Proceedings No. 197 : The Role of Fertilisers in Milk Production, by W. Thompson and T. Blair.

Proceedings No. 198 : The Role of Fertilisers in Meat Production, by H.K. Baker.

Chapter 1 outlines general characteristics of the structure of livestock farming in relation to land use and forage supply.

Chapter 2 deals with various aspects of herbage production, such as rate and timing of nitrogen application and type of nitrogen fertilizer.

Chapter 3 provides a review of grazing experiments and grazing systems in various countries and examines aspects such as feeding of concentrates at pasture, conservation and animal health.

Chapter 4 discusses grassland management and its implications in farm profitability. The discussion is restricted to dairy farming, mainly because of the difficulties in obtaining adequate data for beef from countries other than the UK.

Chapter 5 concentrates on some effects of animal manure and nitrogen fertilisation on the environment.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our colleagues in Italy, Belgium, France, Germany FR, Denmark, UK, Ireland and The Netherlands for their contributions and for the discussions we had with them.