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.”
Soil productivity is a function of several interacting factors including parent material, soil texture, drainage, pH, nutrient levels, and soil organic matter content
“A farm should be built around the manure system,” is the advice dairyman Jim Winn would give to someone planning to build a new dairy. “It’s the most important part.”
I have developed countless manure management plans over the past 44 years. They all boil down to three basic principles: quantity, quality, and opportunity
Dairy farmer Dean Swager isn’t one to just maintain the status quo. “If we can do something better, God gave us an opportunity to learn more and be better in our lives,” he said
Manure collected from open lot animal housing systems varies due to weather conditions, management of cattle and pens, and other factors resulting in substantial changes in manure characteristics
For several years, Nick Dallmann was interested in adding an anaerobic digester to his family’s dairy farm. “I knew some other people who had one, and I saw the benefits from having a digester,”
When it comes to accidents that lead to manure spilling where it doesn’t belong, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension specialist Kevin Erb asks farmers to remember this
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), soil health is defined as the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living system, within ecosystem and land-use boundaries
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
Interpreting manure analysis reports may seem to practically require a doctorate degree. Confusing is just the tip of the iceberg of obstacles one might face when navigating through the ocean of information
The author is a senior extension associate for Penn State University.Legislated mandatory certification of custom applicators in Pennsylvania began in 2006 with a unique five-level educational format.
Biochar is a carbon-based product resulting from pyrolysis, where feedstocks (wood chips, corncobs, or even manure solids, for example) are heated without oxygen to high temperatures to produce oils
Corn silage production offers a great opportunity to plant cover crops for erosion control and water quality benefits. In Northern climates, cover crops can be hard to establish following grain harvest
In their busiest seasons, professional manure applicators are constantly in a race against time to meet the needs of their clients. These farms depend on custom applicators to empty their manure