Assessment of the cost of manure management in different types of pig farms

The good practices and, in certain situations, European and French regulations compel animal producers to limit manure spreading on agricultural lands. In areas with high density of herds, treatment techniques, aiming to reduce the nitrogenous charge per acre, can also be necessary. Those practices of manure management lead to different costs levels depending on real herds situations. The study tries to assess them from the emission of the manure in barns until its final destination. 39 herds have been inquired according to ten actual types from the manure spreading to the biological treatment with activated muds or with composting until physicochemical treatment, that can be in individual, collective or mobile station. The assessed costs take into account the investments’ depreciations and interest charges on financial debts, the operational charges and the savings on mineral fertilizer.Comparing costs expressed by managed or treated m3 from pit storage, the total lowest cost is manure spreading and the highest is physicochemical treatment in mobile unit. Expressed in cents of euros per kilo deadweight, this hierarchy of costs gives a favourable place to herds in types without treatment (from 2,2 to 3,4), then those in physicochemical treatment in mobile unit (5,5) and those in other treatment stations (from 6,1 to 10,6).With an increase of production costs by 4 to 10 %, the income of the producer can be heavily reduced and, in certain cases, the economic viability of the firm be called into question.