Representative Survey for Evaluating Housing and Manure Handling Technologies of the Hungarian Pig Sector

SIMPLE SUMMARY: A major source of ammonia emissions in Hungary is pig production. The NEC Directive requires Hungary to achieve significant reductions in ammonia emissions by 2030 compared to the base year of 2005. In order to clarify the data available for 2005, a questionnaire was used to collect representative data on the housing and manure management technologies used in the Hungarian pig sector in 2005 and 2015, as well as the age groups and numbers of pigs affected by each technology. As our aim was to use the data for the calculation of the national emission inventory, a novel expert-based calculation method was developed to ensure that the data for the age group categories provided by the farmers were converted into the accepted statistical categories. ABSTRACT: In Hungary, there is a lack of information on the pig production technologies in place in the base year of 2005 and changes since then, as well as a lack of information on the number of pigs kept in different age and production categories, which makes it difficult to calculate ammonia emissions and reductions in the national inventories. Our research team conducted a representative survey of pig farms to assess housing and manure management technologies in the Hungarian pig sector in 2005 and 2015. Novel expert-based calculation methods were developed to convert farm data on pig populations into daily average numbers (DAN) of animals in different statistical categories and feeding phases. The survey resulted in a representative database of housing, manure handling, storage and manure application practices in Hungarian pig production. The data and methodology from the survey helped to develop an ammonia emission calculator and knowledge transfer tool (AGEM-S) for use by farmers.