Poultry Litter Management

Sheila Purdum Author

10/24/2018 Added

187 Plays

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Poultry Litter Management with Richard K. Koelsch

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[00:00:02.717]And started
[00:00:05.300]Well, thank you, Sheila for the opportunity to share
[00:00:09.200]a little bit on the topic of poultry litter management.
[00:00:12.920]I'm gonna put into the chat box a copy or a link
[00:00:17.930]to my slides and a link to a two page handout for today,
[00:00:21.920]so if you're interested in those,
[00:00:24.740]grab those out of the chat box right now.
[00:00:30.560]I've been asked to share some thoughts
[00:00:33.210]on the topic of poultry litter management.
[00:00:36.080]I'll primarily do it from the
[00:00:40.070]agronomic or integration of the litter
[00:00:42.900]into a land application program
[00:00:46.130]and some of the issues that we need to consider.
[00:00:48.990]I had in mind addressing five questions here today.
[00:00:54.710]Not sure we're gonna get to all of them
[00:00:57.160]with the time that we have, but we'll see how this proceeds.
[00:01:01.160]You have access to the slides that kind will detail
[00:01:03.950]maybe the couple that I don't make it
[00:01:05.610]it ends up being that way, but how is the litter managed?
[00:01:08.890]We'll just give you a little bit
[00:01:09.870]of a visual appearance there.
[00:01:12.120]How much land is needed for managing
[00:01:14.880]the N and P of a broiler house?
[00:01:16.600]How do you integrate this into a fertility plan in terms of
[00:01:20.530]some rates that we might think in terms of recommending?
[00:01:23.870]What fields will benefit the most,
[00:01:27.360]and then how do I plan litter application
[00:01:30.370]to avoid neighbor nuisance would be the five topics.
[00:01:33.830]Rick, if you're doing that last one when you do odor,
[00:01:36.300]maybe I could skip that one in particular,
[00:01:38.580]so when I get there, I may ask you what you think.
[00:01:43.180]Alright, I'll just give you a quick overview.
[00:01:46.330]I don't have the best slide sets in terms of poultry litter.
[00:01:50.770]Amy helped me out with a couple,
[00:01:52.280]and I found some from some friends here over the weekend,
[00:01:55.170]but this is one of the new facilities.
[00:01:58.190]This, I think, is the grandparent facility.
[00:02:01.630]The grandparents of the chicks that will be going
[00:02:04.110]through the broiler operations will be raised here,
[00:02:08.215]but it gives you an idea of what
[00:02:09.450]these facilities look like indoors.
[00:02:13.791]The base of these house has a floor, a clay floor,
[00:02:17.990]and then on top of that, typically we will add about
[00:02:21.050]four to six inches of finely ground wood shavings
[00:02:26.240]or sawdust, I guess is maybe a better term,
[00:02:29.730]but it's a pretty fine material.
[00:02:32.630]This base will be used for approximately six,
[00:02:37.780]growing out six additional flocks,
[00:02:40.320]and we'll talk more about that with some of these pictures.
[00:02:43.790]After you get the litter or the sawdust base,
[00:02:48.020]you grow out a group of birds over a period of time.
[00:02:52.010]I think Costcoo's talking in terms of growing
[00:02:54.510]these animals to six pounds roughly over a 44 day period,
[00:02:58.580]and then following with about a two week down period
[00:03:01.540]between that and the next group of birds.
[00:03:04.680]The litter that you're having coming resulting from that is
[00:03:08.721]a mix of the wood chips, excrement of the animals, feathers.
[00:03:14.780]It's a fairly dry material, typically the average material
[00:03:19.250]that's coming out of here is about
[00:03:20.750]70% dry matter or 30% moisture.
[00:03:25.140]Now there are areas within these barns,
[00:03:28.420]underneath the waters and feeders and along the area
[00:03:32.770]where the evaporative panes are, that litter can be higher,
[00:03:37.270]and Amy created this little drawing for me
[00:03:39.800]that kind of showed the length of a barn,
[00:03:41.870]and in certain areas, you'll see an area
[00:03:44.500]of higher moisture litter, and it's common that
[00:03:50.550]between flocks, they will try to rake up
[00:03:53.730]and harvest some of that higher moisture litter.
[00:03:57.110]Try to also rake it up so that it dries out.
[00:04:00.240]There is some harvesting between individual flocks
[00:04:03.800]that's often referred to as a cake material,
[00:04:08.690]but much of the material is gonna be
[00:04:11.230]recycled and reused for the next flock,
[00:04:14.070]so they'll come in with equipment such as this
[00:04:17.010]and pull that litter to a central place in the barn,
[00:04:23.130]creating a wind row, and they will
[00:04:25.470]attempt to compost that material.
[00:04:29.600]Now, I've not been around these barns during the composting
[00:04:33.110]yet, but that material is really only 30% moisture.
[00:04:38.110]It's probably on the dry side for getting the compost,
[00:04:42.370]so there might be some heating, but my guess is
[00:04:45.100]it's not a true compost process.
[00:04:49.090]Amy, you have any experience there you want to share?
[00:04:51.680]Yeah, I think you probably saw me unmute there.
[00:04:54.390]I will tell you that down in Mississippi
[00:04:56.180]when we did the work with windrowing,
[00:04:58.580]we did kind of windrow sections in a controlled environment,
[00:05:03.770]and that litter came in at around 22% moisture,
[00:05:07.820]and we did reach 40 degrees C over about 85%
[00:05:13.310]of that pile for seven days.
[00:05:16.910]And we did reach 50 over, we got 50 degrees
[00:05:21.170]for the like 24 hour was our target,
[00:05:24.880]and we got 55 degrees in just the core of it,
[00:05:27.700]so it got pretty hot for as dry as it was.
[00:05:31.370]Sure, okay well, that's good to hear because we would
[00:05:33.900]like to see those higher temperatures because that will help
[00:05:37.160]reduce some of the pathogen a little bit that could be
[00:05:39.253]in that manure before the next flock comes in.
[00:05:43.850]That will be windrowed and composted
[00:05:46.450]for a week's period or so and then leveled out,
[00:05:50.690]and then after we've done that approximately six times,
[00:05:57.110]Lincoln Premium Poultry is talking about
[00:05:58.970]doing that process six times and then
[00:06:00.930]once a year, hauling out all of the litter from barns.
[00:06:05.510]Most likely will be stockpiled, I would think,
[00:06:08.310]temporarily on a local crop field on the vicinity
[00:06:12.260]of where it's gonna be land applied,
[00:06:14.610]and we'll use equipment such as this for land applying it.
[00:06:18.580]The spreaders that have a side discharge or layout to them
[00:06:23.220]that spread it out over a larger pattern, little bit
[00:06:26.480]different than what we see with our feed lot manures.
[00:06:30.620]So that's pretty much the process of managing that litter.
[00:06:37.780]Once a year, we'll have a barn
[00:06:39.860]that needs to be cleaned out and that litter,
[00:06:41.890]a home for that litter found in nearby crop land.
[00:06:47.960]The second question I proposed is how much land
[00:06:50.320]is needed to manage these nutrients.
[00:06:55.800]Reviewing the literature from a variety of places,
[00:06:58.970]talking with some of the folks,
[00:07:01.410]my colleagues down in Georgia,
[00:07:03.740]litter production the range of about
[00:07:05.393]1.3 to 1.5 tons per thousand birds per year,
[00:07:13.180]assuming that we're pulling this out on an annual basis,
[00:07:16.660]would be about where we would expect.
[00:07:18.520]Those would be the litter and the
[00:07:19.840]cake production combined is what I'm told.
[00:07:23.972]It would amount to roughly 90 pounds of nitrogen,
[00:07:29.030]70 pounds of phosphate, phosphate-equivalent
[00:07:33.190]that we would pull out of these barns
[00:07:35.920]per thousand bird per year basis.
[00:07:39.470]If you look over here at the red box,
[00:07:42.700]it gives you some idea of the land required
[00:07:45.240]for managing those nutrients.
[00:07:47.650]We're putting it into continuous corn and applying.
[00:07:51.700]Just to meet the nitrogen requirement of the crop,
[00:07:54.780]we'd only need about 40 acres per four houses,
[00:07:59.860]so about 10 acres per house meeting the needs if we were to
[00:08:04.980]just apply it on a phosphorus utilization basis.
[00:08:08.900]We're talking about 45 acres per house
[00:08:15.360]or 180 for the four house system,
[00:08:18.770]and it might be just a little bit higher if we're in
[00:08:21.100]a corn/soybean rotation, not a big difference at all.
[00:08:25.670]That's an idea of the land base.
[00:08:27.360]It's not gonna be a large land base.
[00:08:30.290]Many of these farms we're probably dealing with,
[00:08:32.620]the land base will be within the farm that also manages
[00:08:37.400]these buildings, so they'll be applying it
[00:08:39.750]on their own land rather than trying
[00:08:42.480]to find neighbors that need to utilize this.
[00:08:48.760]When we begin thinking in terms of integrating into our
[00:08:51.940]fertility plan, just a quick reminder what our goal is,
[00:08:56.103]we're trying to balance various nutrient sources
[00:09:00.230]entering that crop with what the crop is gonna remove,
[00:09:06.016]Our nitrogen, we'll balance that on a annual basis.
[00:09:09.840]In most cases, we'll probably be overapplying phosphorus,
[00:09:13.821]and then over a three to five year period,
[00:09:16.070]we would not return to that same field preferably
[00:09:20.105]and utilize that phosphorus.
[00:09:22.240]That would depend upon how much litter we provide
[00:09:26.780]or apply in any one year.
[00:09:29.210]So that would be kind of the intended goal.
[00:09:32.470]Try to put some numbers on this here.
[00:09:35.290]One thing that we do need to know for this
[00:09:38.750]is the composition of that manure's
[00:09:42.551]or that litter's nutrient content,
[00:09:44.930]and I'll just pull out the broiler litter numbers,
[00:09:48.880]and you can see there's a fair amount of nitrogen.
[00:09:51.810]Most of that nitrogen is in an organic nitrogen form,
[00:09:55.260]so it's a slow release nitrogen.
[00:09:59.430]Small parts in ammonium,
[00:10:01.450]and we probably won't be able to take advantage
[00:10:03.500]of that ammonium form unless we incorporate it,
[00:10:07.150]that manure, within 24 hours or less after its application.
[00:10:12.410]My guess in most cases, we won't be
[00:10:14.380]incorporating that litter.
[00:10:16.930]There's also a fair amount of phosphorus and potassium
[00:10:19.720]and a number of micronutrients that you can see
[00:10:22.260]in the table below.
[00:10:23.800]Course, there's a lot of variability in this litter.
[00:10:26.043]There was a study, I think a slide I didn't show,
[00:10:29.710]from Kansas that showed a degree of variability
[00:10:32.690]they were experiencing in one location,
[00:10:35.360]so you're always gonna need your own manure sample
[00:10:39.280]for doing that final estimate of application rates,
[00:10:42.550]but we'll use these numbers as a starting point today
[00:10:46.080]to give you some ballpark ideas where we should be.
[00:10:53.240]We have procedures and NebGuides.
[00:10:55.670]This is a NebGuide 1335.
[00:10:59.580]Many of you have used this before.
[00:11:01.690]It has a procedure in there for estimating
[00:11:03.920]the availability of nitrogen in the manure,
[00:11:07.890]and here's some numbers that we may be pulling out
[00:11:11.600]probably not incorporating, so not expecting to get much
[00:11:14.800]out of the ammonium nitrogen over here
[00:11:17.700]from the organic nitrogen here on the right-hand side,
[00:11:23.650]we would expect about 30% of that nitrogen
[00:11:27.930]to become available in the future first year
[00:11:30.820]and then some additional nitrogen, say 15%,
[00:11:34.310]the following year and declining after that.
[00:11:37.840]I've noticed that the values that are used in many
[00:11:40.000]of the southern states are up near
[00:11:41.990]50% availability that first year.
[00:11:44.910]My guess is that longer warm season that they have
[00:11:48.040]allows more of the nitrogen to
[00:11:49.590]become available during the growing season.
[00:11:53.080]Compare these numbers with some research
[00:11:55.610]that was done recently at Iowa State with poultry litter,
[00:11:59.540]and our 30% availability factors
[00:12:02.820]match up well with what they were seeing,
[00:12:04.930]so I feel good still about those numbers there
[00:12:07.960]we have in that NebGuide.
[00:12:09.980]So we take that sample and those availability factors,
[00:12:15.220]and we can begin to estimate a manure application rate.
[00:12:20.520]We did it on a nitrogen rate,
[00:12:22.120]we would apply about 10 ton of litter per acre
[00:12:26.130]to meet the nitrogen need of a 200 bushel corn crop
[00:12:30.040]and in doing so, we would way overapply the phosphorus.
[00:12:33.140]We'd have a nine year supply of phosphorus available.
[00:12:38.020]Probably higher than what we'd want
[00:12:40.360]potential for runoff risks from that field
[00:12:43.720]carrying a fair amount of phosphorus with it.
[00:12:47.180]If we applied to meet 50% of that nitrogen,
[00:12:49.140]we'll need roughly half, or just to meet the P,
[00:12:54.675]it would be about 1.2 tons of litter per acre,
[00:12:58.700]and in the end, I'm guessing we're gonna be somewhere
[00:13:01.720]between those latter two values, some compromise of those.
[00:13:06.870]I think if we can apply to meet about half of that nitrogen,
[00:13:12.010]we'd have about four years of phosphorus,
[00:13:14.370]and so we would just try to get on a cycle
[00:13:17.720]that every four years, we would return to that same field.
[00:13:21.190]This might work in most fields except for where we have
[00:13:25.030]a high erosion and runoff risk, and then we might
[00:13:29.350]think in terms of something closer to a P-based rate,
[00:13:32.910]possibly even a P-based rate that we'd incorporate.
[00:13:38.522]In that NebGuide I mentioned before, there are procedures
[00:13:41.080]in that NebGuide for calculating that out
[00:13:43.680]on a individual analysis basis.
[00:13:46.880]If you sit down with a farmer to try to make a nutrient plan
[00:13:53.790]get a analysis, that procedure and that NebGuide
[00:13:56.730]will help you guide you through that calculation process.
[00:14:03.080]Third question I thought I would ask would be
[00:14:05.840]around the issues of what fields are gonna benefit
[00:14:08.290]the most from that poultry litter,
[00:14:09.900]and I think we really wanna talk with farmers about
[00:14:13.270]looking at the fields around their property
[00:14:15.530]or possibly at neighbors and deciding which fields
[00:14:19.070]are they gonna get the most value out of this manure.
[00:14:23.330]So let's just walk through it first
[00:14:25.360]maybe from more of a fertility perspective.
[00:14:29.100]What I've done here is put a estimate
[00:14:31.860]on the value of that litter, and I'm gonna
[00:14:34.640]lower estimate and a higher estimate.
[00:14:38.680]The low estimate doesn't give any value to the potassium
[00:14:42.760]or to a yield increase, and the higher estimate does,
[00:14:46.000]so I'd say that probably is gonna bracket
[00:14:49.030]the value of our poultry litter.
[00:14:53.480]If you look at what the source
[00:14:55.340]of the value is in these two diagrams, you can see
[00:14:59.120]it's the phosphorus that we really need to utilize
[00:15:02.360]if we're gonna get the value out of this manure.
[00:15:05.490]If we're considering there's good value in the potassium,
[00:15:08.360]yields that was nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
[00:15:12.313]The nitrogen is a rather small part of it.
[00:15:15.100]The yield increase would likely be
[00:15:17.410]a relatively small part of it as well as the micronutrients.
[00:15:21.270]We're really after those fields that can utilize that P
[00:15:25.207]and that K and the ones that we'd like to target first.
[00:15:31.110]We also need to consider cost of transporting this.
[00:15:35.710]Like I said, I'm guessing many of these farms
[00:15:37.970]won't be going long distances.
[00:15:39.520]I'm guessing there'll be a land base close by
[00:15:42.150]many of these barns that can manage this,
[00:15:44.840]but if we have to go some distance,
[00:15:47.660]this would give you some idea how far
[00:15:50.370]we could potentially transport,
[00:15:53.120]and this is some numbers that Settje Agri-Services
[00:15:56.140]had shared with us.
[00:15:58.430]Transportation distance is one driving factor
[00:16:01.830]for estimating the transportation cost, and
[00:16:04.380]I just showed a situation of transporting it 20 miles.
[00:16:09.080]The cost was $6 to haul it that 20 miles,
[00:16:13.180]and the application cost would be another
[00:16:15.980]one where we'd consider it.
[00:16:17.130]Let's say we're applying it five ton per acre,
[00:16:20.270]we'd add another $9 per ton, so the total
[00:16:23.700]between these two of around $15 a ton.
[00:16:28.764]If you remember the previous slide, we were dealing
[00:16:30.670]with something that had a value
[00:16:31.960]of somewhere in the $30-$60 a ton basis,
[00:16:35.180]so we can afford to transport this
[00:16:37.523]some fairly significant distances.
[00:16:40.350]Course, if we can apply it close to home,
[00:16:43.128]we do set some of that transportation cost.
[00:16:47.400]Alright, so what fields are the win
[00:16:50.239]from a fertility perspective?
[00:16:52.300]I would start by looking at fields that need phosphorus,
[00:16:56.540]those that are lower in their phosphorus,
[00:16:59.410]and I'm guessing we'll have a lot of the farms
[00:17:04.000]where these poultry houses are being yutted to
[00:17:06.013]that have low phosphorus fields nearby.
[00:17:09.440]We might think in terms of crops that benefit
[00:17:12.340]from a higher soil P level, such as wheat.
[00:17:15.610]Might also think in terms of crops that uptake
[00:17:18.330]a higher level of phosphorus, such as corn silage
[00:17:21.362]or irrigated alfalfa being a couple examples.
[00:17:25.420]I think we'll be thinking in terms of applying manure
[00:17:29.230]one year and then delaying our return to that field
[00:17:32.670]until we see that soil phosphorus level drop down
[00:17:35.890]close to that 20 part per million range,
[00:17:38.840]and that would be one way of getting
[00:17:40.460]the greatest value out of that litter.
[00:17:43.830]Some other things to consider are just fields that need
[00:17:46.810]potassium would be my next place I would look,
[00:17:49.870]and then my last place would be making sure
[00:17:52.420]we try to credit some of that nitrogen that's in that litter
[00:17:57.020]to the nitrogen need to that crop soil.
[00:17:59.170]Applying ahead of a non-legume crop is an example.
[00:18:04.500]I would also encourage us to think about the organic
[00:18:08.500]value of that manure and target fields
[00:18:11.180]that would benefit the most from that.
[00:18:14.570]There is value of that organic matter in that litter
[00:18:21.710]both short-term, short-term benefits that we can see,
[00:18:25.810]and then some longer terms from slowly building
[00:18:28.840]organic matter in the soil, but I think it's really those
[00:18:32.490]short-term benefits that we're after.
[00:18:35.780]Manure provides an excellent energy source
[00:18:39.120]for the soil microbial activity.
[00:18:41.660]After manure application, we see an explosion
[00:18:44.810]of that soil microbial activity,
[00:18:47.470]and that leads to a number of benefits, such as
[00:18:51.670]crude aggregation of the soil and lower erosion,
[00:18:54.580]lower runoff, and a better cycling of nutrients,
[00:18:57.850]a number of things that benefit from that
[00:19:00.910]increased microbial activity in the soil.
[00:19:05.335]I'm not gonna go into any detail of that.
[00:19:07.650]This site even pointed to two publications
[00:19:10.750]that will show up in that handout.
[00:19:13.900]One is a Michigan State publication,
[00:19:18.870]really nice summary of the benefits of manure
[00:19:22.950]to soil organisms and to soil quality.
[00:19:25.840]I think it's an excellent read.
[00:19:28.490]Over the last two years, we've also created a web blog
[00:19:33.160]that has about 15 plus articles on manure's value
[00:19:37.870]to soil quality and it provides, I think,
[00:19:41.730]a pretty good summary of some of the research
[00:19:43.870]that we have access to, so you can see
[00:19:46.980]some additional detail that you might be interested in.
[00:19:52.100]In terms of fields that would benefit the most,
[00:19:55.430]here's kinda my list.
[00:19:56.640]I think that benefit is gonna be greatest
[00:20:00.280]for finer texture soils, those that tend to crust over,
[00:20:05.326]those that have experienced some tillage in the past,
[00:20:09.750]and needed a lower wet organic matter.
[00:20:13.380]I've also has farmers that use manure regularly
[00:20:16.190]that say they like to target fields
[00:20:18.730]that commonly experience ponding or drown out spots.
[00:20:23.130]By using manure in those fields, they say those spots
[00:20:25.960]will disappear within a year or two after application.
[00:20:30.420]Some example of fields that would gain value
[00:20:33.410]out of the manure from an organic value basis.
[00:20:39.110]I was gonna talk a little bit about odor,
[00:20:41.060]but our time's running out.
[00:20:43.330]Sheila, would you like me to wrap this up
[00:20:44.877]or should I...
[00:20:47.550]Comment or two here?
[00:20:50.960]You're on mute, Sheila.
[00:20:59.447]Go ahead and talk, keep talking.
[00:21:03.510]Rick, was this a topic you were gonna address
[00:21:06.240]from a land application perspective?
[00:21:08.400]Rick Stoll?
[00:21:09.510]Go ahead and cover this, Rick,
[00:21:11.410]I will address some other things.
[00:21:17.500]I'm gonna point you to manure.unl.edu,
[00:21:22.110]a web article that we written recently on how do you
[00:21:26.450]plan your application of manure to avoid neighbor nuisances.
[00:21:31.770]We've talked about the value of manure,
[00:21:33.440]but we also have to recognize there's a side to manure
[00:21:37.440]that our neighbors don't often appreciate,
[00:21:40.290]and odor is probably the biggest concern among those,
[00:21:44.130]and if we can deal with the odor issue,
[00:21:46.143]give some thought and planning of how to avoid those odors
[00:21:49.790]for the neighbor from the land application perspective,
[00:21:53.020]I think you'll find communities
[00:21:55.390]a lot more accepting of this product.
[00:21:59.010]I'll start with this graphic or this table
[00:22:03.800]and this shows you the atmospheric conditions that's where
[00:22:08.060]the risk of holding odors near the ground is the highest.
[00:22:13.180]Many of you have probably see this occurring right now.
[00:22:17.348]These fall days as we're harvesting soybeans
[00:22:20.180]and you notice in the evening that plume of dust that just
[00:22:23.850]sets right near the ground and really concentrates.
[00:22:27.890]Last night I drove through one of those clouds out here
[00:22:30.800]west of Lincoln and I had to slow down
[00:22:33.740]and wonder what it was up ahead of me
[00:22:35.190]because you just couldn't see,
[00:22:36.500]that dust had concentrated so much at the ground level.
[00:22:40.220]The reason for that was it was evening conditions,
[00:22:43.890]wind speeds were low and the air was cooling,
[00:22:49.420]not much cloud cover, and so that is our
[00:22:51.980]high risk conditions whether it be that soybean dust
[00:22:55.630]or the odors from the litter.
[00:22:58.810]These are the high risk conditions, and we will see
[00:23:01.480]those risk conditions extend up
[00:23:03.640]to maybe range of 10 mile per hour,
[00:23:07.130]but it's those nighttime conditions,
[00:23:09.410]low wind speeds that really the ones that we worry about.
[00:23:13.530]As you recall, if you've seen those plumes of smoke
[00:23:16.430]or dust that stay near the ground,
[00:23:18.120]they stay pretty much together, they don't spread laterally.
[00:23:21.310]They kinda go in that direction
[00:23:23.610]that the breeze is slowly taking them.
[00:23:27.250]With that information, we can take a look
[00:23:32.260]at a weather forecast for the next 48 hours or so
[00:23:35.910]and make a good prediction as to are we gonna have a problem
[00:23:40.740]and if so, what fields might we select.
[00:23:46.300]I like to get a weather forecast that has wind speed,
[00:23:51.140]wind direction, and temperature or sky conditions,
[00:23:55.990]one of the two, handy at the same time.
[00:24:00.390]I'm looking for those lower wind conditions,
[00:24:03.800]primarily at the nighttime when temperature is dropping.
[00:24:09.230]Using those values in that previous table,
[00:24:11.450]and I can identify those red areas, those high risk areas,
[00:24:16.640]that like that soybean dust plume,
[00:24:19.430]those odors will stay concentrated near the ground
[00:24:22.580]and potentially cause a neighbor an issue.
[00:24:28.476]If I were to apply manure on this day right here,
[00:24:33.440]I've got that evening, some conditions
[00:24:36.690]that are gonna cause problems for neighbors
[00:24:39.230]to the northwest and north of my property,
[00:24:42.860]so I'd like to select a field that there are
[00:24:46.060]no neighbors to the north and northwest
[00:24:48.090]if I'm going to apply on that day.
[00:24:51.150]If I'm looking at this next day, I gotta good day, barely
[00:25:01.210]weather conditions that will cause that odor to disperse.
[00:25:05.670]We'll have gone, if I'd applied it
[00:25:07.090]on this day here where it shows low odor risk,
[00:25:10.460]I'll have a couple of days' drying time
[00:25:13.060]to dry out that litter and the drier the litter,
[00:25:16.170]the less of the odor we're gonna have,
[00:25:18.190]and so buy the time we reach this period
[00:25:20.630]of next risky condition here, a lot of that odor plume
[00:25:24.690]should've disappeared from that application of litter,
[00:25:28.500]so with these three pieces of information
[00:25:32.160]and looking out 48 hours, 72 hours in advance,
[00:25:36.340]you can decide what field would have neighbors around
[00:25:40.790]that you want to avoid or what conditions you can apply
[00:25:45.087]and just simply not be a risk that you have to worry about.
[00:25:49.760]I think we've made it through the questions
[00:25:51.780]I was hoping to answer today.
[00:25:54.996]I'd like to answer any questions
[00:25:56.630]that folks online might have for me here.
[00:26:03.970]I think this is really helpful, Rick.
[00:26:06.770]I have a question about standard consultants' policies.
[00:26:12.870]Do they generally look at both nitrogen and phosphorus,
[00:26:16.160]or are they still just mostly focusing on nitrogen
[00:26:20.020]in their calculations?
[00:26:24.400]We would certainly start with managing for nitrogen
[00:26:29.840]because nitrogen is a compound that's fairly leaky,
[00:26:33.520]and if we don't use that nitrogen up in the year in which
[00:26:37.040]we apply it, we're gonna lose it to the ground water,
[00:26:41.620]and as you were experiencing up at Enrec.
[00:26:44.900]We would start there, but because poultry manure's
[00:26:48.480]balanced between nitrogen and phosphorus, with so much
[00:26:52.020]of that nutrient source in that phosphorus side,
[00:26:55.410]when we apply to meet something close to a nitrogen need,
[00:26:59.160]we're gonna overapply phosphorus significantly.
[00:27:04.520]Phosphorus, if we have a field, especially one
[00:27:07.170]that has a risk of runoff or erosion,
[00:27:10.670]that means that phosphorus is gonna be contaminating
[00:27:13.330]our surface water nearby, so we really need to consider
[00:27:18.590]both, I think, in the end.
[00:27:20.720]My guess is we're gonna apply something near 50%
[00:27:24.710]of that nitrogen needs or less and we might go less
[00:27:30.000]as the risk of a field erosion grows in risk.
[00:27:38.890]Agronomists are becoming more aware of that, I mean,
[00:27:42.600]that's the whole intent here, isn't it?
[00:27:45.680]They should be, yes, yeah.
[00:27:55.240]In the case where we do find a higher level of nitrates
[00:27:59.190]already in the groundwater table, would you advise
[00:28:07.560]changing application rates as well on those lands?
[00:28:13.036]You know, my recommendation would be that
[00:28:15.200]as long as we're giving a reasonable credit to the litter
[00:28:21.030]and offsetting our fertilizer nitrogen by that credit,
[00:28:28.970]poultry manure will not be any greater risk
[00:28:32.140]than the commercial fertilizer.
[00:28:34.950]In fact, there is a fair amount of research that says
[00:28:38.496]manures, because of their slow release of nitrogen,
[00:28:42.080]have a lower nitrogen risk as long as
[00:28:46.070]we're properly crediting it,
[00:28:48.100]so I certainly wouldn't say we need to reduce the litter
[00:28:52.050]in a region that's higher in nitrate.
[00:28:54.960]I'd say we just need to make sure
[00:28:56.590]we're giving it adequate, accurate credit.
[00:28:59.898]Okay
[00:29:01.630]Rick, this Steve.
[00:29:03.732]When I was in industry, the biggest comment I heard
[00:29:05.810]about manure application from several different producers
[00:29:10.380]was the fact that it just doesn't get applied
[00:29:12.580]uniformly enough, so sure that nutrient's there,
[00:29:15.290]but then there's a significant portion of the field
[00:29:17.430]that didn't receive any of the litter, the manure,
[00:29:21.750]and so we're just gonna go with our standard recommendation
[00:29:24.390]on fertilizer that we do on every other field,
[00:29:27.090]which really concerned me a lot when hearing that,
[00:29:29.550]but I heard it several times.
[00:29:31.490]Have you got some recommendations on equipment to
[00:29:34.450]and procedures for this group that talks about
[00:29:38.820]uniformity and the importance of that?
[00:29:42.629]Can you address that a little bit?
[00:29:45.110]Steve, that's an excellent point,
[00:29:47.000]and that's one of the reasons we find people still
[00:29:50.440]not wanting to credit manure is the lack of uniformity.
[00:29:54.680]That is a challenge for our application equipment.
[00:29:57.570]I think it has gotten better over the years, but I think,
[00:30:02.510]especially as you're getting involved with this
[00:30:05.180]the first time, you need to go out to a field
[00:30:08.860]and do some calibration in the spreader, and look at
[00:30:12.950]the pattern of spread across the width of the spreader.
[00:30:18.370]There's a real good video out at
[00:30:21.350]North Carolina State Extension that shows
[00:30:24.320]this being done with poultry litter.
[00:30:26.340]It would work the same with any manure.
[00:30:28.770]That shows that distribution pattern,
[00:30:32.450]how you adjust the equipment to improve that uniformity,
[00:30:36.170]and how you also overlap on the sides
[00:30:39.660]to get better uniformity as well.
[00:30:43.950]My suggestion is we should never encourage somebody
[00:30:47.340]not to credit the nitrogen in the manure.
[00:30:50.700]We need to work with them to understand
[00:30:53.470]the uniformity of that equipment
[00:30:55.090]and what they can do to get a decent adjustment,
[00:30:58.630]and we've gotta treat it as a fertilizer.
[00:31:03.040]I fully agree.
[00:31:03.873]That was just I heard that comment lots of times,
[00:31:07.720]you know talking about it,
[00:31:10.255]and of course, I was applying what I was working with
[00:31:12.130]was liquid manure through center pivots which,
[00:31:14.590]you know, gets around a little bit of that
[00:31:16.060]uniformity issue if you don't plug things up,
[00:31:19.761]but I know you guys have worked with this a lot,
[00:31:21.500]and I figured you had some recommendations
[00:31:24.180]on how to make sure it's getting applied uniform,
[00:31:26.140]but boy, that's gotta be a key point
[00:31:27.840]to keep people that are doing this the first time
[00:31:30.530]from getting discouraged with it right up front.
[00:31:34.005]Excellent question, excellent point.
[00:31:36.790]Steve, talking with two groups here in Nebraska
[00:31:40.400]that do a lot of that brokering of manure
[00:31:45.120]from feed lots to neighboring crop farms,
[00:31:48.150]Settje Agri-Services and Nutrient Advisors,
[00:31:52.330]both of them have, with their customers,
[00:31:54.700]have come a long way in getting them to get that value.
[00:31:58.430]They're actually charging those neighboring crop farmers
[00:32:00.810]for that manure.
[00:32:05.340]There's maybe a little bit more incentive there because
[00:32:08.785]they're gonna get that value, that cost, back
[00:32:11.390]that they've gotta credit it, but they've learned
[00:32:14.440]that it's possible to do this, but it does take some work.
[00:32:21.490]Just for added information,
[00:32:25.120]I have heard that Costco's gonna be working with
[00:32:28.030]one particular company in applications,
[00:32:31.770]so hopefully that person, that company, will be
[00:32:35.870]professionally trained in working with the crop consultants
[00:32:40.390]on a responsible application.
[00:32:45.800]I think there's a role for extension
[00:32:47.610]even in that discussion today.
[00:32:50.030]I don't think our crop consultants
[00:32:51.680]are all that convinced yet as hearing
[00:32:53.730]some of the same stories that Steve just repeated.
[00:32:57.060]I think we need to also be involved
[00:33:01.130]in these kind of discussions and really encouraging
[00:33:03.830]that accurate crediting of the nitrogen in manure.
[00:33:06.970]With the producers?
[00:33:08.358]With the producers and with the consultants.
[00:33:11.880]And if Costco is recommending somebody for
[00:33:15.890]that project, that's a professional at it, that's important,
[00:33:20.120]and I don't know who's determining where that manure goes,
[00:33:23.870]a mean a lot of times, with the pig operations,
[00:33:26.530]it's been the farmer gets that
[00:33:28.280]and whether he wants it or not and
[00:33:30.120]as it's his responsibility, and so I'm not sure
[00:33:32.660]with this project is Costco doing something with that or
[00:33:37.140]some leadership from that side of the business or
[00:33:39.980]does the farmer just get the product
[00:33:42.020]whether he wants it or not kinda thing?
[00:33:46.790]I believe it's, in most cases, the farmer's
[00:33:50.220]doing a nutrient management plan to have it applied
[00:33:53.950]to their own resources.
[00:33:56.500]So it's a farmer's product.
[00:33:58.280]It's his responsibility to take it.
[00:33:59.660]Yeah, that's kinda what I figured is probably the deal,
[00:34:02.550]so yeah, there probably is Rick, a big place there
[00:34:05.190]for extension to kinda be a little bit involved in you know,
[00:34:09.690]steering that in the right direction a little bit.
[00:34:13.460]And each of these farmers are being required
[00:34:15.990]by Costco to have a nutrient plan,
[00:34:19.320]and part of that nutrient plan requires that they document
[00:34:23.980]that manure application and the credit they give,
[00:34:27.890]so it will be an expectation
[00:34:30.330]from the new queue review process.
[00:34:35.340]Just from that perspective,
[00:34:37.240]stay out of regulatory concerns, they need to also
[00:34:40.810]be crediting it and accurately placing it.
[00:34:49.350]I think it's very important that we work with
[00:34:51.480]producer groups and get this information out there
[00:34:56.270]in order for us to continue to have expansion
[00:34:59.520]and permits pass, be given to potential producers.
[00:35:05.670]We certainly don't want to have any, I wanna say,
[00:35:10.240]black eye images out there of misapplication or storage.
[00:35:16.580]It's good to hear that Costco is gonna be
[00:35:19.450]working with a contractor that may be moving
[00:35:23.640]a lot of the manure.
[00:35:26.436]I think Costco's services
[00:35:31.090]to date that they been providing
[00:35:33.440]have been primarily for managing issues
[00:35:36.020]inside the barn with the housing and the animals.
[00:35:40.300]The manure is generally, historically been left up to
[00:35:44.040]the producer to make the decisions on so
[00:35:47.290]I think there's a good role for us to play
[00:35:49.530]in combination with somebody that's trained
[00:35:53.020]and that was experienced, I guess in applying manure.
[00:35:57.730]I think that might be a good combination
[00:36:00.450]for making things happen right.
[00:36:03.400]And their manager also said that
[00:36:06.970]you know, three to four years down the road,
[00:36:09.980]a producer may decide to buy their own equipment
[00:36:12.880]and do their own applications themselves.
[00:36:14.930]They're not closing that door.
[00:36:17.500]That is certainly a possibility,
[00:36:19.610]and within the options available long-term.
[00:36:24.630]They just didn't want all the producers to think
[00:36:27.010]they had to go out and get the equipment immediately,
[00:36:29.960]so they have hired a professional
[00:36:33.710]to help with the application.
[00:36:39.760]Any other questions for today?
[00:36:42.920]You primarily focused on litter material.
[00:36:48.550]Do you have much comment on more of a pure manure,
[00:36:53.010]such as out of layer operations?
[00:36:55.710]That's probably a whole nother set of data
[00:36:58.350]and presentation, I would assume.
[00:37:01.670]I think much of what we shared today
[00:37:03.950]would be very similar.
[00:37:05.920]The biggest difference is the characteristics.
[00:37:09.950]The concentration of nutrients would be different,
[00:37:12.570]and so I would have to
[00:37:13.890]always want to have a good sample
[00:37:15.450]of whatever plot will land apply,
[00:37:18.940]and we would use some of the same procedures
[00:37:21.700]we used for today, but
[00:37:23.770]we just need to know what the concentration is.
[00:37:26.800]In addition with these operations, if they do a de-caking,
[00:37:31.080]that will be a wetter material.
[00:37:34.188]It will have a lower concentration of nutrients
[00:37:36.890]on a per wet pound, and so again,
[00:37:40.750]we need to have a manure sample of that,
[00:37:42.990]and we'll need to go through the calculations
[00:37:45.160]for that individual circumstance
[00:37:47.990]and determine what's the best rate.
[00:37:50.600]Won't use what I shared here as just
[00:37:52.670]something that works in all situations.
[00:37:55.970]That's good, good to know.
[00:37:59.120]Alright, well if there are no more questions,
[00:38:01.140]we will go ahead and stop recording,
[00:38:04.750]and I'm trying to look up here real quick
[00:38:06.440]who is next week's presentation.
[00:38:09.360]Looks like it's Dr. Reynolds
[00:38:10.990]Healthy Poultry and Disease Monitoring,
[00:38:13.460]so we're going to move from waste management issues
[00:38:17.590]over to health in bird management next week,
[00:38:21.970]and I appreciate everybody's participation.
[00:38:24.740]Thanks very much.

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Tags:
poultry litter management
richard k. koelsch
sheila purdum
unl department of animal science
unl poultry interest team

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Poultry Litter Management

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