Waste Management in Dairy Cattle Farms in Aydın Region. Potential of Energy Application

Abstract

In this paper, the dairy cattle waste management systems on farms in Aydın region in Turkey were investigated. Number of farms and livestock herd size, type of barn, type of machinery and farm labour force were studied. The collection, management and storage systems of manure produced in dairy cattle farms were taken into consideration. Additionally, biogas amount, which is produced from animal waste, was calculated for all districts of Aydın by using the number of livestock animals and various criteria such as the rate of dry matter. Results show that the typical and representative farm in the Aydın region is facility with a total head over 100 heads. 89.6% of the farms have heads in the range of 100 to 200. The amount of biogas that can be produced from all manure collected in Aydın region in the biogas plants is approximately 160,438 m3/day (based on 0.5 m3/day biogas per cattle), which would produce around 100 GWh/year that can be used for own needs of farms owners.