How to use, store or move manure, guano and digestive tract content
Find out how you can use manure, guano and digestive tract content, including how to store and move them.
Applies to England, Scotland and Wales
Manure is excrement or urine from any farmed animal apart from fish. It can include litter (pieces of animal bedding).
Guano is excrement from bats or wild sea birds.
Digestive tract content is any content from the digestive tract of a mammal or ratite (ostrich, emu or rhea).
You send any of these products to a compost or biogas facility.
Processing manure, guano and digestive tract content into fertiliser
You can sell manure, guano or digestive tract content as fertiliser in the EU if you meet certain processing requirements. Find out how to process manure for sale as fertiliser in the EU.
If you don’t meet EU processing standards you can still sell your product as fertiliser if you partially process it using heat or pressure.
Partially processed manure or guano can be sold as a fertiliser in the UK, generally as a prill (dried pellets). Contact Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to apply for approval to make fertiliser from partially processed manure or guano.
Digestive tract content can be processed into a prill and sold as a fertiliser made from processed ABPs. Read the guide to fertilisers made from processed ABPs to find out restrictions that apply to prills made from digestive tract content.
Get approval to store fertiliser
You need approval to store an organic fertiliser or soil improver if you receive a fertiliser made from manure, guano or digestive tract content in bulk and then repackage it for final sale. Contact APHA to seek approval.
When you can spread manure, guano and digestive tract content on land
If the manure, guano or digestive tract content isn’t from poultry you can do the following without restrictions under ABP regulations:
- spread it on your own land - you may need an Environment Agency waste disposal permit unless you qualify for an exemption from waste permitting
- supply it for use on other farms or markets gardens
It is good practice to avoid spreading manure, guano or digestive tract content on land where farmed animals have access or to stop animals grazing on the land for 21 days (or for 2 months in the case of pigs) if it has been spread to land.
Further restrictions may be imposed during an outbreak of a notifiable disease, but these would be publicised at the time.
Requirements for spreading poultry manure on land
You can spread poultry manure on your own land or supply it for use on other farms and markets gardens if you take the following steps to avoid the spread of botulism:
- inspect your birds regularly and remove any dead ones from the litter immediately so carcasses don’t end up in the manure
- don’t dispose of feathers or cracked eggs in your manure (some feathers will naturally fall into the litter but don’t dump bulk quantities, eg after the slaughter of turkeys at Christmas)
If a botulism outbreak is traced to your farm the government investigation will take into account:
- your practice for dealing with carcasses
- the quantities of feathers and eggshells found in your manure
If you spread poultry manure on land where farmed animals graze you should stop animals grazing on the land for 21 days (or 2 months for pigs). You also need to:
- stack the manure as far as possible from the livestock
- fence it in until you use it
Burn poultry manure to generate power
You must get approval to burn poultry manure in a combustion unit.
Use cattle manure to make cattle bedding
You can process some types of recycled manure solids (RMS) for use as cattle bedding, sometimes called green bedding.
Find out how to use recycled manure solids as cattle bedding.
You must also complete and keep a self-assessment and annual vet review form to show the Red Tractor assessor and your vet, who’ll review your use of RMS as bedding.
Export manure
Find out what you need to do to export manure.
Import manure from outside the EU
Contact the APHA Centre for International Trade in Carlisle if you want to import processed manure from a country outside the EU.
You can’t import unprocessed manure from countries outside the EU.
Store manure, guano or digestive tract content
You don’t need approval to store manure, guano or digestive tract content at the:
- farm or premises where it’s produced
- place where it’s going to be used (as long as it’s stacked or kept in a slurry tank or tanker until used)
Digestive tract content from abattoirs is normally mixed with lairage manure (manure produced by animals at the abattoir). You don’t need approval to store the tract content at the abattoir or the lairage manure at the place where it’s going to be used.
If you are storing manure, guano or digestive tract content anywhere other than where it was produced or where it’s going to be used, the storage site must be approved to store category 2 ABP material.
Complete form ABPR3 to get approved to store ABP material and send it to APHA.
Transport manure, guano or digestive tract content
If you move digestive tract content or guano off the premises where it was produced, you must follow the requirements for transporting ABP material and keeping commercial documents with ABP material.
You must also follow the transport and commercial document requirements when handling manure except in the following cases:
- when moving manure between farms
- when moving manure from a farm to place where it’s going to be used
You don’t need to label manure, guano or digestive tract content as ABP material.
Updates to this page
Last updated 26 January 2017 + show all updates
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Updated section 'Burn poultry manure to generate power' to link to 'Burn poultry manure in a combustion unit' guidance and remove duplication. Updated section 'Exporting manure' to link to new 'Export animal bones, protein and other by-products' guidance and remove duplication.
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Added link to new detailed guidance on burning poultry manure to generate power.
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Updated 'Use cattle manure to make cattle bedding' section to include link to the notification form AB144 and conditions document AB143, and a link to Red Tractor self-assessment and vet review forms.
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AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
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AHVLA documents have been re-assigned to the new Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
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First published.