Rapeseed field in the east of austria.

Typical meadow from a organic farmer in the werstern part of Austria.

This is a small manureheap from a extensive organic farmer.

A boardcast spreader.

A compost caster.

A lake in the "Alpenvorland".

This is the very popular Danubeloop.

A lake in the mountains.

Austria

In Austria the agriculture varies from region to region. In the eastern parts of our country the arable production outweights. In the western parts however the dairy production is much more important. One speciality of Austria is the organic farming. With about 20.000 organic farmers (that's about 12% of all farmers!) is Austria one of the top organic producing countries in the world compared to its size. It's even the top one in Europe!

Especially for organic farmers, who are not allowed to use chemical fertilizers, it is important to know how a nutrient cycle works. The only possibility for organic farmers to get nutrients in the soil is with natural fertilizers, for example: Manure, legumes, ...

But also for conventional farmers the nutrient cycle is important to optimise the yields.

Manure storage:

In our country there is a difference between the storage of manure. In the eastern parts of Austria the slurry production overweights. In the western parts the manure is more important. There is also a link to the size of the farm, big and intensiv farmers have allmost slurry, small farms, particulary in the west, work extensiv and have manure.

The slurry is stored in concrete tanks with a ceiling, lagoons are seldom. Manure is generally stored on concrete floors, sometimes on the fields.

Manuring machines:

For slurry:

The most popular slurry application system in the western part of Austria is the boardcast spreader. In the eastern part where there is more arable land, the band spreader is the most common system. The use of trailing shoe spreader or injectors is very seldom.

For manure:

In the whole of Austria the manure caster is the most popular system, for windrow there is a special compost caster in use.

Effects on ground water:

In Austria we don't have big problems with pollution of the ground water. Especially in the west we nearly never have problems, because greenland overweights and the farmers don't  fertilize it. Another reason is that in this region the ground water is deep under the ground.

In former times there had been problems with the water quality and algae growth of the lakes in Salzburg because there was a over-fertilization and the nutrients get into the lakes by surface leaching. From this time on instructions and controlls are established and it get managed to solve this problem. Now 98% of all surface waters are drinking water quality.

An average farmer in austria take out 10-15 t/ha, 4-5 times a year.

It depends on the structure of the soil and the nurtritional value of soil and manure. He just apply what the soil and the plants need.

Page updated 6.4.2006