Manure Management for the 21 st Century

1. Manure Management for the 21st Century Rory Maguire Marlin Burcham, Mark Alley Wade Thomason, Chris Teutsch

2. Why Inject or Incorporate Manure? • Reduce odors, becoming more important with urban sprawl • Agronomic - Improve N use efficiency by decreasing ammonia volatilization, but economic importance depends on N prices • Environmental - Possibly decrease N and P losses in runoff A BMP that is cost effective?

3. Why not just till after manure application?Benefits of No-Till • Reduced time and energy inputs • Buildup soil organic matter • Improved soil tilth (structure, drainage) • Reduced soil erosion

4. Benefits of No-Till (Better Soils with the No-Till System, Penn State Univ)

5. Types of Tools Available • Shallow incorporation after surface application, large range in soil disturbance • Injection of liquid and dry manures using chisels, knifes, coulters • Aeration – helps increase infiltration, sometimes includes aspects of incorporation (e.g. AerWay set at an angle)

6. Manure PlacementPlacement of manure vs soil disturbance Injection: vertical chisel or disk Injection: horizontal sweep Shallow incorporation, s-tine cultivator Shallow incorporation, concave disks Jokela & Cote, 1994

13. Dietrich injector with hydraulic wings

15. Nurse truck In-fieldManure storage container

16. Dragline system (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

17. Dragline system (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

18. No-till Dragline system (Idaho)

19. Side dressing corn with manure (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

20. Side dressing corn with manure (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

21. Aerway Aerator

22. Angle on entry determines the level of disturbance (Basden, 2008)

23. Virginia Plant Available Nitrogen Surface application (25% ammonia capture) = 5.84 lb PAN/1000 gal Injected manure (95% ammonia capture) = 12 lb PAN/1000 gal Increased Value due to Injection = ~ 6 lb PAN/1000 gal @ 70 ¢/lb, added value = $4.20 / 1000 gal Increased Nitrogen Value 500,000 gal = $2,100

24. Drawbacks to manure Injection • Slower, therefore takes more time • Equipment costs more to buy and maintain, can the increased nitrogen use efficiency cover the cost? • Retro fit an existing tanker with toolbar, hydraulic shredder, distributor with hoses , 6 x Yetter Avenger Injection units = $17,134 • Use nurse trucks

25. Virginia Research Results Part 1: Ammonia Volatilization

27. Ammonia volatilization Total ammonia volatilization (mg) Tilled 191 Injected 49 Surface 363

28. Virginia Research Results Part 2: Strip trials

29. Manure strip trials • 3000, 6000, 9000 and 12000 gal/acre surface applied and injected at 3 sites • Also in-field inorganic N response trial • Measuring yield, quality and corn stalk nitrate • Used MILK2000 to covert yield and quality into milk production

30. Chopper Weigh wagon Harvesting strip trials

31. Yield at site 1 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

32. Milk/acre at site 1 Milk (lbs/acre)

33. Yield at site 2 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

34. Milk/acre at site 2 Milk (lbs/acre)

35. Yield at site 3 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

36. Milk/acre at site 3 Milk (lbs/acre)

37. Increased Carbon Capture?

38. Conclusions • Manure injection either increased yield or milk production • Sidedress plots generally unresponsive to UAN, so not sure why • Possibly more carbon/soil water retention? • Corn stalk nitrate tests results coming

39. Corn stalk nitrate

40. Acknowledgements Thank you to the farmers who gave us help and access to their fields and manure pits for this research

41. Questions? Still to Come