Farm Environmental Management in Canada

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Highlights

The majority of all farms with livestock in Canada had solid/semi-solid manure storage systems (68.8%). A total of 14% of farms had liquid manure storage systems.

The hog sector had the highest proportion of animals (85.7%) using liquid manure storage systems, while the beef cattle sector almost entirely used solid manure storage systems (93.9% of animals).

More than half of the hogs (56.8%) were produced on farms that use tank manure storage systems consisting of open tank, tank below slatted floor or sealed tank. Additionally, 11.7% and 12.4% of the hogs were found on lined or unlined lagoon, respectively.

Most farms with liquid manure storage had a storage capacity of more than 250 days. Furthermore, 9.9% of farms had liquid storage capacity with more than 400 days.

In dairy and hog production, larger farms had a higher proportion of liquid manure storage systems than smaller farms.

The majority of manure storage structures, both liquid and solid/semi-solid, were located more than 30 metres from the nearest water sources.

The share of farms that have liquid or solid/semi-solid manure storage systems varies by province depending on the relative importance of livestock production, the characteristics of the production systems and the environmental conditions in which these systems have evolved.

Quebec had the highest proportion of farms with liquid manure storage systems (36.2%) because of the importance of hog and dairy production in this province. The Atlantic provinces had the highest proportion of farms with solid/semi-solid manure storage systems (87.4%) because of the predominance of small beef cattle herds.

Canada’s principal beef producing provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, had the lowest proportions of liquid manure storage systems (4.5% and 2.1% respectively). On average, 40% of farms with livestock in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia had no manure storage, as open range farming is more common in these provinces, especially for cow-calf operations.