There is increasing interest in large poultry farms to invest in drying and pelleting system to make chicken manure pellets. There are obvious reasons for this, such as the dry pellets will be easier to be transported. The dynamic farmers are looking to create new revenue by adopting this existing technology, that has been commonly-used in other European countries, such as Netherland, Belgium, and France. This should be encouraged and supported, since the cost on Nitrogen fertiliser and fuel has increased dramatically. We do have the abundant organic N nutrients in our country. Saying that, 1.94 million tons of manures are produced in our country every year. Livestock manures often thought of as waste. Regional intensive farming is a barrier. The nutrients resource from one type of farming is not easy to be transported to another type of farming. For example, there are many poultry farms in Herefordshire, that the land there just cannot take any more nutrients. Whist, a veg/fruits grower in Kent or Southampton need to import dry manure pellets from overseas. This is the challenge we will be addressing in this project.

Existing technology, which has attracted quite a few farmers interest is the drying and pellets system, like the one supplied by Big Dutchman. Our focus in this project is to improve and add value to the solution and its end product for UK farmers to uptake the technology, for smooth and successful operational process, and also considering our environment: reduce energy usage, reduce GHG emission and ammonia emission. Considering the location and weather of the UK, it is necessary to bring our farmers attention to the potential barriers they might meet when uptake an existing technology from overseas. This project will better manage and optimise manure characteristics, reduce nitrogen nutrients loss and better valorise manures for greater benefit to soils, pasture or crops. We will define practical models for more circular agriculture that work for the farmers, both practically and financially.

Contributing to Levelling Up, with both small and more substantial farms avoiding the need to import, this project helps to improve economic stability and sustainability. With costs reduced, farmers can take better command of their productivity outlays, offsetting this for the benefit of public consumers.