The project have been developed with the intent to support farmers in identifying the best strategies to distribute manure in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to take advantages from the manure to improve soil fertility.

Strategies included technologies to bury the manure, timing of distribution and use of the best cover crops to catch the nutrients and reduce emissions.

The project followed two distinct lines:

• The first was based on the production area of ​​Parmigiano-Reggiano and, in particular, the management of grassland. In this case, the main results were a reduction in ammonia emissions mainly due to the burying of cattle slurry, a reduction in nitrous oxide emissions in spring and a significant reduction in nitrate leaching with winter distribution. We therefore wanted to evaluate the possibility of a winter distribution with burial, as a solution to the growing storage problems of farmers due to the winter block of spreading.

• The second referred to intensive dairy farm and, in particular, to the production of maize for silage. In this case, the results were first of all a reduction in ammonia emissions after spring (after the winter block) digestate distribution, through the use of a disc burier and exploiting the mitigating function performed by different species of cover crops; secondly, a reduction in nitrate losses due to leaching, thanks to the use of cover crops.

The main impacts of this project for farms consist in the identification of slurry distribution methodology (eg Cover Crops + application method) that could reduce GHGs emissions into the atmosphere, increase the level of environmental sustainability and the efficiency of input utilization, while at the same time generating an increase in soil fertility.