Project Update – Digestate Project - Llyn Rhys

The digestate has now been spread at Llyn Rhys, a Farming Connect beef and sheep focus site at Llandegla, Wrexham. The main aim of the project was to determine the potential of digestate as an alternative agricultural fertiliser to conventional artificial fertilisers.

The cost-effectiveness, performance (in terms of grass growth) and environmental benefits of applying food waste digestate from a nearby plant as opposed to synthetic compounds will be explored.

The project also aims to determine the ideal application rate for farmers who are considering utilising digestate, by measuring grass growth on a weekly basis. Gaining a better understanding of grass growth patterns for each application rate will allow farmers to make justified management decisions when using digestate as an alternative fertiliser option on their own land. The plots were all mowed prior to application, so they all start with a consistent cover of 2200kgDM/Ha.

Five 20m x 20m plots were allocated for the project in a 4.8ha field which lies in close proximity to the farm yard and buildings. The plots are split as following:

Plot 1 – Digestate will be applied to this plot at a rate of 20m3/ha.

Plot 2 – Digestate will be applied to this plot at a rate of 15m3/ha.

Plot 3 – Digestate will be applied to this plot at a rate of 10m3/ha

Plot 4 – Fertiliser plot – this plot was treated with synthetic fertiliser compound with NPK+S % analysis of 25.5.5.7 at the rate of 125kg/ha

Plot 5 – Control plot – this plot will be left untreated throughout the project, although grass growth will be measured every week similar to the other plots.

Plots will be measured with a plate meter every week for six weeks, to calculate the kgDM/ha. The grass quality will also be measured at the beginning and at the end of the project to record the amount of nutrients still present in the crop.