Handing over and receiving manure in Germany: records and reports

Livestock farms hand over slurry and digestate, and arable farms are glad to take it as organic fertiliser. Contractors and manure exchanges often sit between them. For these nutrient flows, in addition to the Fertiliser Ordinance, Germany applies the Ordinance on the Placing on the Market and Transport of Manure, the WDüngV. It requires records when manure is handed over, transported and received, and an annual report when manure is brought into another federal state. Some federal states also run their own reporting programmes. This article explains who must document what and when.

Who is affected

The WDüngV distinguishes three roles:

• Supplier: whoever places manure on the market, i.e. hands it over to another business, such as a pig farmer or a biogas plant
• Transporter: whoever transports manure, such as a contractor or haulier
• Recipient: whoever takes over manure, such as an arable farm

Under section 2 WDüngV, direct application by third parties on the recipient's land also counts as taking over. A farm can have several roles in one year, for example receiving slurry and handing over solid manure.

Records under section 3 WDüngV

Suppliers, transporters and recipients must record no later than one month after completing the placing on the market, transport or taking over:

• name and address of the supplier
• date of handing over, transport or taking over
• quantity in tonnes of fresh matter and type of material
• nitrogen and phosphate content
• name and address of the recipient

Recipients who use the manure on their own farm have two months. Transporters acting only on behalf of others do not need to record nutrient content. If the details already follow from business documents, such as a complete delivery note, no separate records are needed.

Records must be kept for three years from the date of the transaction and presented to the authority on request.

Report under section 4 WDüngV

The reporting duty under section 4 WDüngV applies when manure is brought into a federal state, i.e. comes from another state or from abroad. The recipient then reports to its competent authority by 31 March for the previous year the name and address of the supplier, the date or period of taking over and the quantity in tonnes of fresh matter. Deliveries within the recipient's own state do not trigger this federal report; state rules may still require other reports.

Exemptions

Under section 1 WDüngV, the duties in sections 3 to 5 do not apply, among other cases:

• if in total no more than 200 tonnes of fresh matter are placed on the market, transported or taken over in the calendar year
• to transactions within one business or between businesses of the same holder within a radius of 50 kilometres
• to small farms that do not have to keep records under the Fertiliser Ordinance and whose nutrient output does not exceed 500 kilograms of nitrogen a year
• to packages under 50 kilograms supplied to non-commercial end users

Check the exact conditions in the text of the ordinance. Anyone close to a threshold should still record quantities to be able to show that it was not exceeded.

Placing on the market for the first time

Anyone who places manure on the market commercially, transports it or brings it in from abroad for the first time must notify the competent authority one month before starting the activity under section 5 WDüngV. This affects, for example, new transport companies or biogas plants handing over digestate for the first time.

State reporting programmes

Some federal states require additional reports in their own programmes. In Lower Saxony the Chamber of Agriculture runs the manure reporting programme (Meldeprogramm Wirtschaftsdünger). According to the fertiliser authority, farms handing over more than 200 tonnes or cubic metres of manure in a calendar year receive an annual invoice for the reporting fee. The chamber describes the reporting duties, deadlines and access in the programme itself. Other states have their own procedures; if in doubt, ask your fertiliser authority.

Link to the Fertiliser Ordinance

The WDüngV governs nutrient flows between farms. The recipient also records fertilisation on its own fields under section 10 DüV: field, type and quantity of material, total nitrogen, available nitrogen and phosphate, no later than 14 days after application. The quantities received also count towards the limit of 170 kilograms of total nitrogen per hectare from organic fertilisers as a farm average. The nutrient content on the delivery note therefore matters twice: for the WDüngV record and for the fertiliser requirement calculation. More in Fertiliser requirement under the German DüV and Closed periods for fertilising in autumn.

Common mistakes

• delivery note without nutrient content or without the recipient's address
• record made months after taking over
• direct application by the contractor not recorded as taking over
• report due on 31 March forgotten although the slurry came from another federal state
• nutrient content of the delivery not carried over into the farm's own fertilisation record
• delivery notes discarded after three years although they also underpin seven-year fertilisation records

How to proceed on the farm

1. Check the delivery note: does it show supplier, recipient, date, quantity, nitrogen and phosphate?
2. Record promptly: enter deliveries into the field records within the deadline, with a reference to the delivery note.
3. Add up quantities: form an annual total per supplier, for the report due on 31 March for deliveries from other states and for state programmes.
4. Link to fertilisation: record application per field with the nutrient content from the delivery note.
5. Clarify filing: keep delivery notes as long as the longest dependent period runs.

Manure in PhytAI

PhytAI keeps manure handed over and received per year: date, partner with address, type such as cattle slurry, pig slurry, solid manure or digestate, quantity in tonnes or cubic metres, nitrogen, phosphate and delivery note number. For application per field, PhytAI requires total nitrogen and phosphate, for organic fertilisers also available nitrogen. The overview can be exported as CSV or XLSX. PhytAI does not yet offer an import format for state reporting programmes; reporting continues in the state's own programme.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to record as a recipient if the delivery note contains everything? If all details follow from the delivery note, it is sufficient to keep it.

Does digestate count as manure? Digestate from biogas plants that contains manure is covered by the WDüngV. Check the composition in each case.

Does the 200-tonne limit apply per supplier? Under section 1 WDüngV, what counts is the total quantity placed on the market, transported or taken over in the calendar year.

Sources

• Federal Ministry of Justice: Verordnung über das Inverkehrbringen und Befördern von Wirtschaftsdünger (WDüngV), retrieved 17 Sep 2026
• Federal Ministry of Justice: Section 3 WDüngV, retrieved 17 Sep 2026
• Chamber of Agriculture Lower Saxony, fertiliser authority: Gut vorbereitet in die Verbringungssaison, 25 Mar 2026, retrieved 17 Sep 2026
• Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture: Verordnung über das Inverkehrbringen und Befördern von Wirtschaftsdünger, retrieved 17 Sep 2026