Manure Management

The April 15, 2013 issue of National Hog Farmer delves into strategies for capturing manure’s value at a time when pork producers are tightening their belts to weather less-than-favorable hog prices, persistent high feed costs and escalating energy charges....More

The eXtension Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center will be hosting a webinar at 2:30 p.m. (CST) on May 17, devoted to the topic of mono-slope beef barn design and management....More

Redoubling efforts to retrieve data on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) illegally sent to environmental activist groups in February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a second letter this past week. The first letter sought to retrieve the previously issued data and resend in a redacted form. The latest letter seeks to retrieve the redacted information and replace it with new, further redacted information as EPA recognized that their release still contained significant amounts of private data....More

Calibration of manure and wastewater application equipment is essential. This is a good example of the linkage between “plan” and “performance.” How do you know what rate of manure application you attain if you haven’t tested and calibrated the equipment? Do you have records from prior seasons that show what rates were actually applied? Nutrient management plans that are part of a regulatory requirement call for calibration records. Know how to do a valid calibration and what data to record....More

When a swine producer is first confronted with the need for a nutrient management plan, his reaction might be: “Bottom line, what do I have to do?” Once he learns that a nutrient management plan has less to do with swine nutrition and more to do with tracking the crop nutrient ingredients in manure, he may be tempted to tune out the nutrient management message, concentrating instead on feeding and caring for his animals. But it’s all connected — from feed management to manure collection, storage and land application to crop uptake. It’s a system that works together and demands attention from start to finish....More