This the first in a six-part series of articles covering basic water law in the United States, predominately in the western part of the country, and how it affects this finite resource.

The UNL manure team has been working on building an app to connect the public to the manure people they need, and maybe learn a little bit about manure along the way. Our goal with the app is to enable folks to find a manure applicator, broker, advisor, or resource person in their area. We’ve been testing and updating, and we think it’s ready for its full debut! The app is available for both Android and Apple devices.

The Pesticide Safety Education Program’s (PSEP) primary goal is always to deliver quality training to Nebraska’s current and prospective applicators. Most agree that the best way to accomplish that is through conventional, in-person training sessions. For that reason, Nebraska Extension intends to host in-person training for both private and commercial/noncommercial applicators in 2021 while adhering to local and state health guidelines. This includes training for recertifying applicators and for people getting licensed for the first time (“initial” training). Most, if not all, training sites are expected to operate at reduced capacity during the training season. This will allow meetings to continue under state and local health guidelines, but will also mean space for participants will be limited. Some counties may schedule more meetings to accommodate for reduced capacities. Online training for private applicators is also available.

The Animal Manure Management team has opted to change the format of live Land Application Training events this year. In February and March, the team will host a series of three1.5-hour long zoom sessions that will serve as the first portion of initial land application training. Recertification training and the last segment of initial training will be held at a later date, hopefully in-person. Anyone is welcome to participate in the zoom sessions, but participation at each session will be limited to keep them interactive and informative.

One of the key rules of manure management is to pump and spread manure whenever weather and field conditions allow so that you can maintain storage capacity in case of inclement weather. Unfortunately, “perfect manure application weather” is rare and seldom lasts as long as you need it to. So, if you’re heading into winter with a manure storage that hasn’t been pumped down as much as it needs to be, consider these tips when planning for application.