The author is the president of Menke Consulting LLC, an agronomic and environmental consulting firm in Greenville, Ohio.
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I assumed to have seen everything of importance after 45 years of nutrient management. That changed in 2022. About a decade ago, I assisted a significant client in siting and permitting a fully i
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I’ve written numerous articles and made many presentations extolling the virtues of manure. Yes, we know it has some unpleasant characteristics and can be dangerous when not respected, but when well
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I recently helped a client work through a regulatory quagmire. The violation was a storage pond freeboard exceedance. The resolution was application of manure on cropland — two months later. An anti
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I read an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about how food is produced and labeled. The following statement raised my ire: “Confinement livestock operations have polluted ground and surfac
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One of the enigmas of manure management is how to account for the nitrogen it provides after application. Some discount it altogether, assuming it has either all been lost or simply “unavailable.”
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I have developed countless manure management plans over the past 44 years. They all boil down to three basic principles: quantity, quality, and opportunity
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You’ve got a problem, and we’ve got the solution!” How many times has that statement made you bristle? Often, we deny that we have a problem but readily admit better solutions might be...
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There was a period of time when phosphorus was rarely a consideration with manure applications — it was all about nitrogen. Now nitrogen is a secondary consideration and phosphorus is paramount.&nbs
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Over 40 years ago, I told a client not to put any fertilizer on his corn crop — zero — after a liberal application of poultry manure. Five months later, a record corn yield was seen