Animal Manure Management

While tillage has been used to prepare a seedbed, it also destroys the existing root structures in the soil and some of the soil's biological life. Without this biological life, soil structure suffers and many of the nutrients are not as available for crop uptake.

Have you ever wondered how technology is being used in modern manure management? Find out with the University of Nebraska's "Modern Manure Management" Video.

This article is Part 1 of a two-part discussion on the value of manure. Part 2 focuses on soil quality benefits provided by manure and appeared in the March 6, 2017 CropWatch.

When a swine lagoon is abandoned, the owner has the choice of decommissioning the lagoon or maintaining the integrity of the lagoon. Decommissioning means dewatering the lagoon and land applying the sludge at the bottom. One cannot just fill in the hole. The process of removing the water and the sludge is time consuming and takes resources and planning to complete properly. One aspect of the process does have some cost recovery and that is utilizing the sludge in a beneficial way.

A value-added market for woody biomass (wood chips) generated during management of Eastern Red Cedar and native trees in riparian forests and rangeland is critical to offset the cost to landowners of managing forested areas for fire prevention, invasive plant species control, improving wildlife habitat and ecological preservation. Utilization of wood chips alone and co-mingled with livestock manure or nitrogen fertilizer is being investigated (since 2015) as a land treatment practice on local landowner crop fields with research focused on evaluating impacts on soil moisture holding capacity, temperature, biology, & other properties that impact crop productivity.

Farmers and ranchers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of soil quality/health to the productivity and sustainability of their agricultural system. Research and field observations have demonstrated that carefully managed manure applications can contribute to improved soil quality with limited environmental and social risks. However, a comprehensive assemblage of outputs and conclusions from research studies, field trials, soil labs databases, and other sources has never been developed.

Wind direction and speed affect dust and odor risk. A first step in assessing and minimizing potential dust and odor nuisance risk of a livestock operation is identifying the most likely downwind directions. This article will share wind frequency data for 44 Nebraska locations to consider siting options for reducing these nuisances.

With ground opening up for manure application following wheat harvest, this is a good time to ask about the fit for manure with wheat? There are some good opportunities to use manure following wheat harvest.

Manure increases formation of larger and more stable soil aggregates. Several benefits result for fields fertilized by manure compared to commercial fertilizer including reduced runoff and soil erosion and increased water infiltration leading to greater drought tolerance.

This article reviews the value that results from changes to soil’s physical characteristics. Charles Wortmann and Dan Walters, faculty with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln monitored soil erosion, runoff, and phosphorus (P) loss from replicated field plots over three cropping seasons immediately after manure application and four subsequent years when no manure was applied. Significant erosion and runoff benefits were observed for sites receiving animal manures.