By Natalie Rector

Livestock manure is chock-full of beneficial nutrients that can enhance your crop production potential and lower your fertilizer bill. Doing a few things now can save you money next spring.

Make sure you have updated soil tests for all your fields. Following this old tried-and-true recommendation is the single most important thing you can do to make sure you recoup your investment in manure and fertilizer applications. If your soil tests are more than three years old, get out the soil probe and get to work. Sometimes the field that will benefit the most from manure nutrients is a distance away. (Join us for Manure $ense to learn more about hauling costs.)

Grab a new manure sample as it goes to the field this fall.

• Get samples from each type of storage system, and be sure to test the top, middle and bottom of each systems.
• Know where the manure came from. On a dairy farm, roughly 85 percent of the phosphorus is found in the milking and dry cow herd manure. This has a huge impact on the application rate and which field should be receiving it.
• Use plastic containers for samples, leave head space when you fill them, and freeze samples until you have time to mail them.
• Visit www.animalagteam.msu.edu for a listing of testing labs with their addresses.
• Be sure to ask for both total N and ammoniacal-N tests. Testing three samples will cost less than it costs to fertilizer 1 acre of corn. Use manure samples to determine future application rates, nutrient credits and reduced fertilizer rates in 2009. Various manures have different handling needs to help maintain the nitrogen value.

Use manure samples to determine future application rates, nutrient credits and reduced fertilizer rates in 2009. Various manures have different handling needs to help maintain the nitrogen value.

• Nitrogen in swine finishing manure is largely in the ammonium form, so it needs to be injected or incorporated the same day, especially during hot and dry conditions.
• Generally, about half of dairy manure is in a form that can volatilize, and that is too much to lose at today’s nitrogen prices.
• Manures that have been stacked or piled for some time, or heavily bedded, will have lower nitrogen values, so there is less urgency to incorporate them. For surface applications, take note of potential runoff issues and develop plans to decrease these risks.

For surface applications, take note of potential runoff issues and develop plans to decrease these risks.

• Fall rains and winter snow melt can relocate surface-applied manure nutrients — and that’s money down the drain. Beyond the monetary loss of nutrients, any runoff to surface waters, ditches, a neighbor’s property, etc., can lead to unwanted visits from a regulatory agency representative.
• Fall-seeded cover crops provide a host of benefits. Picture the difference in surface-applied manures, be it fall, winter or spring, between applying to a field of soybean residue and applying to a field that has wheat, rye, oats, oilseed radish, etc., growing. Cover crops create a surface that speeds the infiltration of liquid manure and impedes runoff. Cover crops are also noted for taking up nutrients and releasing them back to future crops.

Read the full issue of the November Scoop