Getting the Most from Your Manure - Dr. Daniel Andersen, Iowa State University, from the 2016 Missouri Pork Expo, February 9-10, 2016, Columbia, Missouri, USA.
More presentations at http://www.swinecast.com/2016-missouri-pork-expo
4. How has this changed?
4
0
200,000,000
400,000,000
600,000,000
800,000,000
1,000,000,000
1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020
Nitorgen(kg)
Year
Crop Capacity
Available Manure Nutrients
Manure as excreted
8. Switching Gears – What’s Manure Worth
8
• Typical Swine Manure
– 50-35-25 pounds N, P2O5, K2O per 1000 gallons
• Ammonia - $726.14 per ton ($0.44/lb N)
• Potash - $476.75 per ton ($0.40/lb K2O)
• MAP - $605.25 per ton ($0.49/lb P2O5)
• About $49 worth of nutrient value per 1000
gallons
9. 9
• But are we capturing that value?
– Getting it to the right field, at the right amount, at
the right time, and in the right way?
– Minimizing losses of N before and as we apply?
Lot’s of Potential Value
10. How far can we haul?
10
Break-Even
Hauling
Distance
(miles)
Swine Slurry Dairy Slurry Beef Solids Layer
Manure
Turkey Litter
All Nutrients 12 (5-20) 8 (2 -13) 14 (9-20) 25 (16-34) 16 (13-19)
N Only 1 (0-4) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 (0-3) 2 (1-2)
P & K Only 5 (0 -10) 6 (2-11) 11 (8-13) 21 (13-28) 11 (9-13)
11. What are we seeing
11
• Fewer lagoons, more pits
• Higher N content
– More DDGS in diet
– Lower water wastage
• Lower P content
– More DDGS in diet
– More phytase in diet
• Lower Application Rates
12. Watering System Impact Waste Volume
• Gate-mounted Nipple Drinker (GMND)
• Swinging Nipple Drinker (~ 15% reduction vs. GMND)
• Stainless-steel Bowl (~ 20% reduction vs. GMND)
• Wet-Dry Feeders (~ 30% reduction vs. GMND)
15. Is P Level Getting too low?
15
• Corn-Soybean Rotation
– Want about 150 lbs N to 100 lbs P2O5 (3:2)
• Corn-Corn Rotation
– Want about 200 lbs N to 50 lbs P2O5 (4:1)
• Average Swine Manure
– Have about 50 lbs N to 35 lbs P2O5 (3:2)
• Low P Swine Manure
– Have about 50 lbs N to 15 lbs P2O5 (3:1)
23. Manure Sampling
23
Value of information is the amount of money a decision maker would be willing
to pay for the information prior to making a decision.
29. Manure Application Costs
• Application costs a function of:
– Manure application rate
– Manure transport distance
– Distance Surcharge of $0.01 per kg manure per km transported
29
y = 0.1456x-0.33
R² = 0.9935
y = 0.011x-0.138
R² = 0.9387
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0.006
0 30000 60000 90000 120000
ApplicationCost($/L)
Application Rate (L/ha)
Injection
Broadcast
30. Developed Spreadsheet Tool for Calculations
Tool lets user input:
Animal type (currently swine or dairy)
Number of Animals
Separation efficiency
Nutrient application rates
Model outputs:
Amount of land needed
Estimated manure application costs with and without separation
Tells user price saved in $/L
*Cost to treat has to be less than money saved to be economically feasible
30
31. Example of Output
31
0
0.001
0.002
0.003
0.004
0.005
0 20 40 60 80 100
LandApplicationCost
($/L)
% of Manure Nutrients in Specified Volume
In 1%
In 5%
In 10%
In 20%
Swine finishing operation
4000 head with deep pit storage
Nitrogen limited application
In determining the value of the manure test, it is important to understand how having this information alters the farmer’s nutrient management and affects farm profit.
Input costs: cost estimates of field activities, the cost of purchased inputs (herbicide and seed) the sale price of corn, the cost of synthetic N fertilizer, maximum potential yield, and the response of the corn to the applied N.
N (MRTN) or P (P removal rate) selected
Book N values w/ st dev, A normal probability distribution function was used to assess the percent chance of different nutrient application rates occurring.
Pre or during application
Pre: select rate based on results
During: apply more synthetic N if under applied
Result: producer saves money by ensuring that nutrients are applied at crop needs so yields and therefore profits are maximized.
This graph shows the corn response to Nitrogen. As you can see, the maximum yield is obtained between 150 and 200 kg N/ha for a corn after soybean rotation and at about 250 kg N/ha for a corn after corn rotation. It is important to know the exact N content of the manure because applying above the maximum yield does not increase yield and the excess N has the potential to leach into surface water. If not enough N is applied, even a 5-10% reduction in yield can greatly reduce the producer’s profit.
1000 head swine farm with continuous corn rotation
first four years of manure sample values were 0.84%, 0.72%, 0.98%, and 0.62% N for an average and standard deviation of 0.79% ± 0.16% N. The N content for the current year was 0.92% N.
Without testing: assume available N content of 0.79%
Pre-sampling: test is worth $30.96 ha-1 with overall value of $1,759
Sampling during application: test is worth $14.20 ha-1 with overall value of $1,589.
In both cases, the producer would have under applied N if they had assumed the four year average N content, which would have resulted in reduced corn yields and reduced profits.
Manure sampling is a good return on investment for this case with return of about 9:1
Many factors cause differences in the value of the manure test. The test is especially dependent on the type of manure tested because different manures have different uncertainties in nutrient contents.
Value determined by rotation because corn-corn rotations are more sensitive to N application rate than corn-soybean
Result: pre-sampling more economical when application is N-limited. These results are in $/ha, so a typical farm could potentially save thousands of dollars just by testing their manure.