Feed Lot Magazine Online, July/August 2002

Volume X Number 4

July/August 2002

Manure Analysis Improves Nutrient Management

Manure sampling and analysis can help farmers turn livestock wastes into a valuable source of nutrients for crops.

Manure offers considerable economic potential for farmers. For example, a livestock producer finishing 500 head of swine annually will have about $5,000 of fertilizer nutrients -- including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium -- available for crops, said Richard DeLoughery, a water quality educator with the University of Nebraska's (NU) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

"Manure testing is the foundation for optimizing both the economic and environmental benefits of manure," DeLoughery said. "In fact, without testing and management of manure as a fertilizer, manure can become an environmental contaminant."

Two new NU Cooperative Extension publications summarize procedures for sampling manure piles and lagoons for analysis, and for obtaining usable information from tests. They are NebGuide G02-1450-A, Sampling Manures for Nutrient Analysis, and NebFact 02-507, Manure Testing: What to Request. Both are available on the Web at http://www.ianr.unl. edu/pubs/wastemgt/ under Waste Resource Management.

Manure sampling and analysis improve crop and soil management and reduce risks associated with the variability of manure nutrient content.

Knowing what's in manure helps reduce the chances that it will be overapplied and contaminate water, said Charles Shapiro, NU soils specialist.

For farmers to benefit from manure testing, they need to collect samples representative of their livestock operations. Obtaining usable results from samples sent to labs for testing depends on understanding proper handling, packaging and shipping, as well as knowing the right questions to ask at the lab.

Seven laboratories across Nebraska test manure samples for total nitrogen, ammonium-nitrogen, phosphate, potassium, zinc, sulfur and dry matter content. Anaerobic lagoon samples also are tested for electrical conductivity, or soluble salt content. Analysis costs about $30 for the most complete results, but varies by lab.

While sampling costs money, knowing the nutrients in manure is worth the expense, DeLoughery said.

Test results also help livestock feeding operations to market their excess manure as an alternative fertilizer, said Charles Wortmann, NU nutrient management specialist.

Some livestock producers are required to have a livestock waste control facility operating permit, which includes a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan. Manure sampling and analysis should be done according to that plan, which details management practices that minimize nutrient impacts on soil, water and air resources, Shapiro said.

"Manure sampling and testing are necessary as producers need to know the nutrient content of manure to implement the plan well," Wortmann said.

Manure sampling and analysis also can help farmers determine proper fertilizer application rates.

The maximum rate of manure application is limited to the nitrogen needs of the crop," Wortmann said. "Using manure nutrient data, crop producers can adjust fertilizer application rates to comply with environmental regulations and meet crop needs, preventing excess nutrients from polluting ground water."

Information on testing in your local area can be optained from your local extension service. ©

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More than 60 cattle producers, veterinarians, government agency representatives and staffs from state and national cattle organizations addressed the handling of possible animal disease outbreaks during a special session at the 2002 Cattle Industry Summer Conference.

Participants discussed the need for cattle producers in each state to help drive the process. A key theme was that government agencies are understaffed and underfunded and it is important for the industry and producers to get involved and take the lead.

Dee Ellis, DVM, Texas Animal Health Commission, noted that it is important for the industry to drive management plans to the producer level, saying this is done by holding planning meetings, conducting test exercises and playing a role in policy development.

Speakers at the meeting agreed that to protect animals and the industry there must be an integrated management approach involving federal, state and local agencies, industry organizations and producers. Communications plays a key role, they said, requiring a relationship between the disease management plans and communications plans to lessen the economic impact of a disease outbreak to the industry. For example, communications both within the industry and externally through the media is a critical part of the response process.

"I'm very pleased with what we are doing for response and prevention," said Lynn Cornwell, immediate past president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). "But I'm very concerned about how we communicate the disease outbreak possibilities to the industry and the public." ©

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