SCOTLAND produces more than 700,000 tonnes of animal waste annually, with Aberdeenshire at the forefront, a study has revealed.
The Muck Map, created by Materiality, Friends of the Earth, Compassion in World Farming, and Sustain, exposes the shocking amount of waste from intensive farming across the UK.
Since 2016, the number of intensive livestock units in the UK has risen by 20%, with 65 megafarms operating in Scotland alone.
The Muck Map tracked the spread of manure or slurry from pig and poultry factory farms, highlighting the environmental impact across regions, constituencies, and water catchments.
The data, sourced from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), only covers farms large enough – factory farms and megafarms – that require environmental permits with over 40,000 birds or 2000 pigs.
Anthony Field, head of the UK at Compassion in World Farming said that megafarms and factory farms are “intensive indoor operations” where the animals won’t have access to the outdoors and are fed high-energy food to always produce more.
“The idea that Old McDonald is on his farm, and his animals are out on pasture, living the life that we all see in picture books when we're younger, is simply not true anymore,” said Field.
“We don't need megafarms. We produce too much livestock already,” explained Field.
“This is a system that is hung up from the old days when we thought food security was all just about producing more and more food.
“We saw a 20% increase [in intensive livestock since 2016].
“That is showing us that in the UK, intensive factory farming is not just expanding across the UK, it's actually intensifying as well, and that's a concern because of all the external impacts and costs of those farms,” said Field.
Who is polluting the most in Scotland?
IN Scotland, the Muck Map show that Aberdeenshire is the region producing the most amount of animal waste with 226,811 tonnes per year or 621.40 per day followed by the Scottish Borders with 87,523.35 per year.
Fife comes in number three, with 73,036.50 tonnes of animal waste a year.
However, 17 areas in Scotland reported no waste due to the study's focus on farms that require an environmental permit and have a certain amount of animals.
Field stated that in Scotland, there are 65 megafarms, housing a total of 16 million birds and pigs confined at all times.
To estimate the amount of manure produced by these farms, Friends of the Earth, Compassion in World Farming and Sustain had access to official data.
Clare Oxborrow, Friends of the Earth's lead expert on food, sustainable diets and supply chains, explained that cattle are excluded from the study because the factory farm registry, which requires environmental permits, only covers poultry, pigs, and fish. As a result, no official data is available on the number of factory-farmed cattle.
“What comes out in the map is probably a massive underestimation of the actual impact of intensive farming," Oxborrow said.
The study calculated the farm capacity in Scotland by considering the number of animals each farm was permitted to hold, then multiplied those figures by DEFRA’s average waste production per animal, explained Oxborrow.
Another map created by Compassion in World Farming shows that in Scottish factory farms, 16,103,906 animals are reared indoors.
Field explained that there has been a 12% increase in the number of UK factory farms from 2016 to 2023.
What is the problem with too much slurry?
MANURE, often referred to as slurry, presents various environmental and biodiversity challenges.
“Pollution from agriculture is the number one source of river pollution in the UK, and that's being driven by intensive factory farms,” said Field.
He said that 33,500 tonnes of manure is produced daily on UK farms, with 1999.5 tonnes produced by Scotland alone.
“It's a conveyor belt of manure every day coming out of these farms that has to be spread somewhere,” Field explained.
Manure is a valuable source of fertiliser and contains nitrogen and phosphorus.
“Nitrogen is good for growing food and plants in small quantities, but if you put too much of it on the land, you start to poison the land, and you start to change nature," Field said.
When manure enters rivers or water sources, it creates a breeding ground for diseases. Intensive farming is a major cause of wildlife decline, as manure is spread on fields and washes into rivers, increasing nutrient levels. This leads to harmful algae blooms that threaten both wildlife and human health.
A notable example is Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, where algae blooms have overtaken the loch. They are harmful to humans and toxic to animals.
“We want to see a transition away from stock farming in the UK because of the environmental impact,” Oxborrow said.
“All of these farms of chicken and pigs rely on a huge amount of imported soil to feed the animals and get them to the weight they need to be slaughtered.”
Ruth Westcott, Climate and Nature Emergency Manager at Sustain said: “Our planning rules have failed to prevent factory farm corporations from flooding our rivers with pollution. Local councils and communities are desperate to protect their rivers, but they are facing a wave of applications for large and dangerously polluting units.
“We need to do more than reform planning policy because many farmers have little choice but to intensify. Farmers and farm workers need to earn a decent living from nature-friendly, agroecological farming. That means regulation to ensure farmers get a fair deal and offering just routes to diversify out of intensive livestock.”
