Benefits of Using DIGEST-IT Slurry Additive

Dairygold Agri Business in conjunction with Devenish and Gouldings are pleased to introduce DIGEST-IT®, a biological slurry additive designed to increase nutrient recovery from slurry while also reducing ammonia emissions.

Digest-it® is a microbial inoculant added to slurry that increases nutrient recovery from slurry, reduces ammonia emissions from slurry and grows more, better quality grass, by improving soil health.

Benefits of Digest-it® in the tank:
– Reduces time required to agitate and pump slurry
– Less smell from fresh slurry when agitating or
spreading
– Converts solids into plant-available liquid nutrients
– Reduces surface crusting
Slurry store pre-treatment with Digest-it®

Slurry store three months post-treatment with Digest-it®

Benefits of Digest-it® in the field:
– Digest-it® treated slurry grows more, better quality
grass
– Digest-it® treated slurry reduces odour when
spreading
– Digest-it® treated slurry improves soil health by
supplying “good” microbes to the soil
– Digest-it® treated slurry is kinder to the soil organisms
living in your soil, including worms
– Digest-it® treated slurry has a lower Biochemical
Oxygen Demand (BOD) than untreated slurry

Digest-it® growth trials – 5 year yield comparison
Grass Silage DM Yields on Untreated & Digest-it® Treated Dairy Slurry – Rossin Field (2015-2019)

Digest-it® delivers on average, a 20% increase in yield over 5 years of cutting trials on a commercial dairy farm in Co. Meath. This additional grass is worth €171 per hectare, representing an 11:1 return on investment after product costs have been deducted. This is delivering improved sustainability benefits and a significant financial
benefit to farmers.
Over a 4-month period in Dowth, County Meath Digest-it increased total slurry N by 30%. If you’re applying 3000 gals of slurry per acre this is equivalent to and extra 1/3 of a bag of CAN.

During this research programme it was also found that digest-it reduced slurry ammonium and increased total P and K levels.

The reduction in % ammonium of total nitrogen (NH3-N) and increase in total nitrogen (N) shows that the ammonium is being converted to microbial N by the composting process. The substantial increase in total phosphate is due to the aerobic microbes digesting the solids at the bottom of the slurry tank and these subsequently being incorporated into the slurry. The total potash value would not be expected to change considerably for potash is associated with the liquid fraction of the slurry.

Application rate of Digest-it®
1 litre treats 5,000 gallons (22,500 litres) of slurry
20 litres treats 100,000 gallons (450,000 litres) of slurry