I attended the Soils and Manure Management Field Workshop on Friday and learned quite a bit. A lot of the research that was shown is still in the early stages, so there will be a lot of good stuff to follow in years to come. Here are some of the highlights:
- Don Flaten and Clay Sawka discussed the long term manure and crop management field laboratory. They’ve set up a bunch of plots so that they can use field scale equipment in replicated trials. The plots we looked at involved different proportions of manure and commercial fertilizer to meet crop needs. It was pretty obvious that the formula that we’re using to calculate available N from solid manure is wrong, so hopefully they can come up with a better formula for us in the next few years.
- Janelle Hamblin and Siobhan Stewart discussed greenhouse gasses. Putting a cover on liquid manure storages, then flaring off the methane to convert it to carbon dioxide is a huge help. For cropping systems, the initial research is that growing perennial legumes puts out a lot less greenhouse gas than annuals, but this research is still just getting started.
- Katherine Buckley and Van Coulter discussed composting. One easy way to tell if your manure is at the right moisture level for composting is the squeeze test. Take a handful of manure, squeeze it, then open your hand. If moisture runs out, it’s too wet. If it falls apart, it’s too dry.
- Martin Entz discussed compost on organic systems. The primary use of compost is as a supply of P. If manure is composted, it can be used in organic systems, regardless of the source but be sure to check with your certifying agency!
- Mitchell Timmerman and Marla Riekman had a field demonstration showing some of the challenges in solid manure application. The biggest challenge is simply the variability of spreading, so field measurements during spreading are the best way of calculating the actual rates. Ideally you would weigh every load and measure the distance covered (at a constant speed and rate of application).
- John Heard and Clay Sawka had a demonstration of ramp calibration strips in manured and non-manured crops. It was surprisingly easy to pick out the point at which the crop’s N needs were met.
- There was a talk on tile drainage in clay soils, but I only got the names of two of the presenters: Curtis Cavers and Chris Unrau. Unfortunately, this project is still in its infancy, so even with a wet year like this one it was hard to say too much about the actual results. It’s definitely something to keep an eye on, especially if we get a lot more wet years.
- Finally Mitchell Timmerman and Trevor Fraser gave us a hands-on demo of several methods of rapidly testing manure in the field. They emphasized that these methods can only complement and not replace lab tests.
It was a very informative day and I’m looking forward to seeing the results from these projects.
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