New Environmental Rules for Smaller Pig Farms

Gerard McCutcheon Ciaran Carroll

Initially the proposal was to include all livestock farms with over 150 Livestock Units (LSU) in a permitting or licensing system under the Industrial Emissions Directive (Council Directive 2010/75/EU). Bovines, pigs and poultry were included in the calculation of livestock units at the start. The requirement to bring in the permitting of livestock rearing was to reduce health issues associated with ammonia emissions and associated respiratory issues in humans.

As discussions and amendments progressed on this proposal the 150 LSU threshold increased, and bovines were removed from the calculation. The new threshold figure for the “rearing of pigs” is now 350 LSU – so if you exceed this you must comply with the amended Industrial Emissions Directive. There is a different threshold for poultry farms depending on the system. If a farm is rearing pigs and poultry the threshold is now if the livestock units of the combined pigs and poultry exceed 380 LSU.

Relevant EU Directive

The Directive was finalised as Directive 2024/ 1785 and is dated 24^th April 2024. The LSU level is calculated based upon the following conversion rates for pigs (shown in Annex 1a):

• Breeding sows > or equal to 50kg liveweight are 0.500 LSU
• Piglets < or equal to 20kg liveweight are 0.027 LSU – suckling piglets are excluded from this calculation
• Other pigs are 0.300 LSU

This Directive also lays down rules “designed to prevent or, where that is not practicable, to continuously reduce emissions into air, water and land, to prevent the generation of waste, improve resource efficiency, and to promote the circular economy and decarbonisation, in order to achieve a high level of protection of human health and the environment as a whole”.

Article 70 (i) 2 of the Directive states that the Commission shall by 1 September 2026 adopt an implementing act to establish uniform conditions for operating rules for each of the activities referred to in Annex 1a. This “implementation date” was missed by the Commission but it is expected that an “implementing act” will be established before the end of 2026, and the date that it is established will determine when exactly farms will be required to be registered or permitted (see reference to 4, 5 and 6 years below).

The uniform conditions for operating rules shall be consistent with the use of best available techniques (BAT) for the activities listed in Annex 1a and shall take into account the nature, type, size and stocking density of those installations, the size of the herds of single animal types in mixed farms, and the specificities of pasture-based rearing systems, where animals are only seasonally reared in indoor installations.

The “operating rules” are defined in the Directive as “rules included in permits or general binding rules for the operation of activities referred to in Annex 1a, setting out the emission limit values, the environmental limit values, associated monitoring requirements, and where relevant, land spreading practices, pollution prevention and mitigation practices, nutritional management, feed preparation, housing, manure management, including collection, storage, processing and land spreading of manure, and storage of dead animals, and which are consistent with the use of best available techniques”. It should be noted that the “land spreading of manure” is only relevant to any manure spread within the “installation”.

Uniform Conditions for Operating Rules for Livestock (UCOL)

It is required that each Member State shall apply the laws, regulations and administrative provisions for farms with pigs only within:

• 4 years of for an installation with a capacity of 600 LSU or more, after the Implementing act date,
• 5 years of for an installation with a capacity of 400 LSU or more, after the Implementing act date,
• 6 years of for an installation with a capacity of 350 LSU after the Implementing act date.

The threshold figure of 350 LSU is reached on a pig unit rearing pigs from birth to sale and producing 27 pigs per sow per year at an integrated sow herd of c.118 sows plus progeny. The 350 LSU is reached on a finishing unit above 1,166 finisher places. Post 2032 all pig farms above this size will require a “permit” to comply with the requirements of this Directive.

This new permitting system will be administered and controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency. They will ensure compliance with the requirements of the UCOL rules that apply to the pig sector and are summarised below.

There are 18 uniform conditions (UC 1 to 20, excluding UC 3 and 4 which are specific to poultry rearing), rules that relate to pig production. These are briefly outlined below in Appendix 1. Most of these “rules” aim to the prevent or, where that is not practicable, minimise emissions of nitrogen, phosphorus, ammonia, methane, odour, dust and microbial pathogens to the environment. More refer to noise nuisance, and the efficient use of water, electricity and fuel, and require monitoring of some input items (feed, electricity, fuel, water) in the pig production operation to assess how efficiently they are used.

There are techniques which are very similar to the Best Available Technologies (BAT) that current EPA licensees must comply with as part of their Industrial Emissions Licence. Where new pig “plants” or buildings are being considered, they will need to be designed to reduce future ammonia and methane emissions, thereby adding extra construction costs.

Conclusion

These new requirements will bring extra monitoring, recording and reporting requirements for smaller pig farms in the years to come. This will bring some extra cost in terms of pig production costs. The upgrade in new housing requirements will also require extra capital expenditure. It is important that pig producers are aware of these new requirements and factor them into any future developments for their farms.

APPENDIX 1:

A Brief overview of the relevant Uniform Conditions for the activity of pig rearing: Each “Uniform Condition” or UC is numbered.

• UC 1 requires diet formulation and nutritional strategies to minimise total nitrogen and total phosphorus excreted, thus preventing and/or minimising nitrogen and phosphorus efficiency, while meeting the nutritional needs of the animals.
• UC2 Requires animal housing to be designed and operated with techniques to prevent or, where that is not possible to minimise ammonia and methane emissions to air. There are maximum values of ammonia emissions for new, existing and specific plants (buildings), and techniques are similar to the BAT requirements for larger farms.
• UC 5 Refers to animal houses being designed to prevent or minimise ammonia, methane, dust and odour emissions, and the efficient use of water and energy and list techniques to achieve this.
• UC 6 Refers to manure storage and techniques to prevent or, where that is not practicable, minimise emissions to air of ammonia, methane and odour, and emissions to soil and water of nitrogen, phosphorus and microbial pathogens.
• UC 7 Looks at techniques of on-farm processing of manure is used, what techniques are used to prevent or, minimise emissions of nitrogen, phosphorus, methane, odour and microbial pathogens to the environment.
• UC 8 Outlines techniques to minimise emissions in the case of on-farm landspreading of manure to prevent or, minimise emissions of emissions of nitrogen, phosphorus and microbial pathogens to the environment. (Note this only relates to landspreading in the installation).
• UC 9 Refers to on-farm storage of dead animals to prevent or, where that is not practicable, minimising emissions of odour.
• UC 10 States that odour emissions and/or odour impact shall be prevented or, where that is not practicable, minimised, ensuring appropriate distances between the plant/farm* and sensitive receptors by using an appropriate combination of techniques in animal housing, on -farm storage, on-farm manure processing and on-farm manure landspreading. *Is only applicable to new farms/plants.
• UC 11 Outlines techniques to prevent noise emissions and/or noise impact or, where that is not practicable, minimised, using one or a combination of techniques outlined. This only applies where a noise nuisance at sensitive receptors is expected and/or has been substantiated.
• UC 12 Refers to using water efficiently and waste water should be properly managed. It lists techniques that may be implemented.
• UC 13 Refers to using energy efficiently and monitored. It lists techniques that may be implemented.
• UC 14 Requires Total nitrogen and total phosphorus to be monitored annually using a Mass balance of N and P based on feed intake, crude protein, total phosphorus in the diet, and animal performance.
• UC 15 Refers to ammonia emissions monitoring to be done annually using a mass balance technique or an emissions factor technique.
• UC 16 Refers to annual methane emissions monitoring using an emissions factor technique.
• UC 17 Requires annual dust emissions from animal houses to be monitored using an emissions factor technique.
• UC 18 Requires odour emissions to be monitored in cases where an odour nuisance at sensitive receptors is expected and/or has been substantiated.
• UC 19 Requires the performance of air cleaning systems to be monitored at commissioning phase and on a monthly basis thereafter.
• UC 20 Requires water consumption, electric energy consumption, fuel consumption, feed consumption, the number of animals including births and deaths, and the quantity of manure generated to be monitored annually.