NUTRIENT BALANCE AN IMPORTANT TOOL TO BETTER PERFORMANCE FOR ALBANIAN DAIRY FARMS

The big dairy in farms in Albania are getting more complex than before. They have started to be more concentrated in last years with breeds that produce higher yields of milk and very depended on purchase feed outside the farm. The economic factor and environmental impact are very much related with nutrient balance of whole farm. Therefore strategies and software to manage and calculate these balance are important tools in controlling the impact to the environment and the overall performance of dairy farms in Albania. Relation between the nutrient balance and utilization of nutrient in dairy farms are not fully understood from dairy farm operators in Albania and it seems that is new concept. The dairy farms are not requested management plan to control the manure and wastewater as well as a yearly plan of nutrient management. These two plans should be an important objectives in coming years according to the request of a effective management plan of discharges for every dairy farms in Albania. The research on whole farm dairy nutrient balance in central part of Albania is in its initial stages and it aim to provide an overview of whole farm nutrient balance situation and used its findings as an indicator to overall performance and environment impact of Albanian dairy farms. This article provides information of the present situation of dairy farms in relation with nutrient balance and compare it with other international findings. All the calculation of nitrogen ustilization express the balance as proportion. So the information of nutrient balances of diferent farms target evaluated in the study (only based on the information collected direct from target farms in central part of Albania) result on inbalances and direct losses of nitrogen ranging from 62% -89%.