Avoiding Complaints: Considerations when stockpiling and applying manure

Leslie Johnson Author

03/05/2021 Added

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From "Mind Your Manure Manners" portion of Land Application Training 2021

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[00:00:00.120]For me, I'm Leslie Johnson.
[00:00:01.610]I'm the coordinator for the manure team
[00:00:03.720]here in the state of Nebraska.
[00:00:05.410]I want to know what factors you consider
[00:00:08.000]when you're hauling, stockpiling, and applying manure.
[00:00:11.360]Note that there's no wrong answer,
[00:00:12.620]and you can write as many answers as you want, go ahead.
[00:00:24.540]Setbacks, good.
[00:00:27.410]Rules, wonderful. Wells.
[00:00:36.010]Water, all right. Anything else?
[00:00:51.240]People.
[00:01:05.080]Odors.
[00:01:10.830]I think that says water again, wonderful.
[00:01:14.120]You can see that there's lots of factors to consider
[00:01:17.170]when you're hauling, stockpiling, and applying manure.
[00:01:20.700]I'm gonna tell you, you should go ahead and make a plan
[00:01:23.140]to stockpile or haul your manure,
[00:01:25.640]but then be ready to change that plan.
[00:01:28.200]Things can change, weather can change,
[00:01:30.130]and that can and should change your plans.
[00:01:33.710]Learning more information,
[00:01:35.240]like maybe the neighbor's having a barbecue,
[00:01:38.120]maybe that should change your plans too.
[00:01:39.680]But whatever it is, just be prepared to change,
[00:01:41.910]even though you have a plan in place already.
[00:01:47.350]So what should you include in that plan?
[00:01:50.320]Of course, there's logistics to consider.
[00:01:52.750]Which roads do you take?
[00:01:53.930]What bridges have weight limits,
[00:01:55.770]and therefore have to be avoided?
[00:01:58.490]And of course, there's always timelines that need to be met.
[00:02:00.890]The manure has to be hauled.
[00:02:02.720]Maybe the power's gone out
[00:02:04.440]and you're dealing with generators.
[00:02:06.190]We know that these things happen,
[00:02:08.040]and things change in a moment's notice,
[00:02:11.660]but manure has to be hot and hauled
[00:02:13.430]in between other important things,
[00:02:14.960]like caring for your animals,
[00:02:16.570]or getting a new load of pigs in,
[00:02:18.060]or like I said, maybe getting those generators ready
[00:02:20.520]if the power's gonna go out.
[00:02:22.450]So, we'll talk most of the, most about manure regulations
[00:02:27.230]in a different presentation,
[00:02:30.050]but remember to plan around setbacks
[00:02:32.090]to prevent contamination of water by the manure.
[00:02:36.300]You probably know this already,
[00:02:37.580]but permitted animal feeding operations
[00:02:39.440]are required to stay 100 foot
[00:02:41.360]from surface water wells and open tile lines.
[00:02:46.750]As an alternative though,
[00:02:47.980]you can use a 35-foot vegetative buffer
[00:02:51.600]to substitute for that 100-foot setback.
[00:02:54.270]And small and medium operations do have a 30-foot setback
[00:02:57.660]that need to be maintained.
[00:03:00.000]We know that these setbacks are kind of arbitrary,
[00:03:03.300]but they are the rules that we do have to live by.
[00:03:05.510]That is what is in the regulations.
[00:03:08.540]So, the best advice I have, and as Amy said before,
[00:03:13.290]is slow that water down,
[00:03:15.210]and make sure those manure nutrients
[00:03:16.840]and the other contaminants are not leaving the site.
[00:03:20.180]That might mean setbacks,
[00:03:21.230]or it might mean leaving just a wider buffer strip.
[00:03:24.390]If you have a situation where you don't feel
[00:03:26.370]like the full 100 foot is necessary, ask DEE.
[00:03:29.600]They may have another plan that you might be able to follow.
[00:03:33.850]And you know your fields better than anyone else,
[00:03:37.132]so, you know how the water's gonna flow
[00:03:39.370]from the hills into the valleys,
[00:03:41.370]and you know how to avoid manure moving off site
[00:03:44.350]for that reason.
[00:03:46.140]You know that you probably shouldn't be stockpiling
[00:03:48.130]in the valleys, where the water collects
[00:03:49.820]and then runs out of the field in a rainstorm
[00:03:52.430]because that's when you're gonna move nutrients off there.
[00:03:55.490]Or maybe the snow is melting in the spring.
[00:03:57.600]Again, if the manure's moving off site,
[00:03:59.410]if the water's moving off site,
[00:04:00.710]the manure's gonna move off site.
[00:04:03.450]We're gonna go ahead,
[00:04:04.640]and we're gonna put a mark on this field
[00:04:07.660]where you think the setbacks are.
[00:04:11.230]The main field is in blue, surrounded by blue,
[00:04:15.200]and the neighborhood is in this other map here.
[00:04:19.550]Write on the screen where you think those setbacks are.
[00:04:49.610]So I'll tell you, that intermittent stream
[00:04:52.330]that you're seeing here, marked by the red,
[00:04:55.210]that is, unless there's water flowing through that,
[00:04:58.860]it's sort of a trick question.
[00:05:01.010]If that's dry, there's not really a setback there.
[00:05:04.290]If it is wet, and the spring has opened up,
[00:05:07.880]and there's water running through there, or it's gonna rain,
[00:05:10.510]and there's going to be water running through there,
[00:05:12.350]then yes, you have to follow a setback there.
[00:05:14.810]Otherwise, the only time that there is a permanent setback
[00:05:18.390]is around the neighbor's irrigation well,
[00:05:20.730]here on this part of the screen.
[00:05:24.590]We need to keep 100 foot back from that one.
[00:05:29.380]All right, so we've tackled setbacks,
[00:05:30.910]but what about the weather?
[00:05:32.680]What weather do you look at when you're making your plan?
[00:05:35.480]Do you look at the weather that has been, or what is now?
[00:05:38.830]Or maybe you look at the forecast of what's coming up.
[00:05:42.080]The correct answer is
[00:05:43.480]that you should be looking at all of those things.
[00:05:45.530]If it's been wet and the soil is saturated,
[00:05:48.010]you probably should wait, if at all possible,
[00:05:50.220]because any added liquid, be it manure or precipitation,
[00:05:54.230]is more likely to run off, because the soil can't hold it.
[00:05:57.400]If the temperatures have been cold and the ground is frozen,
[00:06:00.210]the same situation with runoff risk is heightened.
[00:06:04.290]Ideally, we apply when the weather is dry,
[00:06:06.420]as Amy has stated, and it's going to stay dry for a while,
[00:06:09.900]but we know that's not always possible.
[00:06:12.610]Do your best, and document why you did what you did
[00:06:16.800]to cover your tail, so to speak, should something come up.
[00:06:23.020]What about wind, though?
[00:06:24.940]Have you ever thought about wind as a potential issue
[00:06:28.410]with stockpiling or applying?
[00:06:32.540]I'm gonna go ahead
[00:06:33.570]and talk about that more in a later slide,
[00:06:35.390]but go ahead and start thinking about that.
[00:06:37.290]What about wind do we need to factor in
[00:06:40.190]when we're thinking about manure hauling and stockpiling?
[00:06:45.500]Where do most of our complaints come from?
[00:06:54.370]Neighbors, yeah, of course it's the neighbors,
[00:06:58.640]but what neighbors?
[00:07:00.600]It depends on what you're doing, of course.
[00:07:03.080]If you're loading manure,
[00:07:04.190]or you're making a stockpile right on the facility,
[00:07:07.470]then it's probably the neighbors
[00:07:08.520]that are closest to that facility.
[00:07:10.800]However, if you're stockpiling manure
[00:07:12.550]on a field down the road,
[00:07:13.930]it's probably the folks that are within a mile
[00:07:15.870]of the field that you're stockpiling at,
[00:07:18.610]or maybe it's those that are along the route
[00:07:21.290]that you're taking to the field.
[00:07:23.860]And we all know that some neighbors, like Becky said,
[00:07:26.430]are gonna be more sensitive than others.
[00:07:28.640]People that don't have a lot of ag experience
[00:07:31.010]or livestock experience
[00:07:32.670]are often more likely to be more sensitive.
[00:07:35.080]So that neighbor that just moved into an acreage
[00:07:37.380]out from the city, may be more likely to complain
[00:07:39.930]than the one that used to have their own livestock.
[00:07:45.990]So, in our next activity,
[00:07:47.750]you'll see I noted where that permanent setback is.
[00:07:51.090]We're gonna figure out
[00:07:52.160]where we're going to stockpile the manure on this map.
[00:07:56.490]I'm not gonna be able to spread it right away.
[00:07:58.230]So I want you to show me,
[00:07:59.770]on that same map where we drew setbacks on,
[00:08:02.660]where you would place that stockpile.
[00:08:05.190]Remember, that only setback
[00:08:06.560]is the one up here that is noted.
[00:08:09.470]And there is a road
[00:08:11.360]that runs along the south side of the field,
[00:08:13.740]and an entrance on both the left-hand corner
[00:08:16.770]and about where that number five is
[00:08:18.610]on the right-hand corner.
[00:08:27.600]Right inside, right inside the gate hole.
[00:08:29.920]Not surprising there, not a bad place.
[00:08:37.750]Well, there's not a correct answer to this question,
[00:08:40.810]but there are obviously a couple of wrong answers.
[00:08:44.450]You can see that my field is kind of hilly.
[00:08:47.010]It does have some terraces to the south
[00:08:49.100]to keep the runoff contained, but there's also water
[00:08:52.310]running through that one valley part of the time.
[00:08:56.250]So it probably wouldn't be a good idea
[00:08:57.560]to place the stockpile in that valley
[00:09:00.900]where the intermittent stream is,
[00:09:03.040]and it probably isn't a good idea in any valley
[00:09:05.250]where that water might concentrate when it's raining.
[00:09:08.000]I would note that this, where this valley is,
[00:09:12.550]there is a good grass waterway here in this southern valley.
[00:09:18.840]But with the neighbors to the west,
[00:09:20.750]we're gonna need to watch the forecast,
[00:09:23.480]make sure that the wind
[00:09:24.430]isn't gonna be blowing out of the east when we're piling,
[00:09:27.690]and probably for a few days after,
[00:09:29.540]so that stockpile has time to crust over.
[00:09:32.560]Otherwise, as long as we're not too close to water
[00:09:34.990]or the wells, most any place on this farm
[00:09:37.210]is an okay place for a stockpile.
[00:09:41.570]So, the next activity is to pretend you're hauling
[00:09:45.360]from the turkey operation over here
[00:09:48.688]to my farm that's over here.
[00:09:51.470]Please ignore this corn down here, the southern one.
[00:09:54.250]I don't exactly know why it's there.
[00:09:56.980]But you're gonna go from the turkey operation
[00:09:59.040]over to my field that we just looked at.
[00:10:01.770]And I want you to draw your route on the map.
[00:10:27.820]What did you use in making that decision?
[00:10:31.410]What kinds of things are you thinking about?
[00:10:40.080]Bridges, good.
[00:10:49.410]All right, well, here's a few things here
[00:10:52.090]that I would have you consider.
[00:10:55.810]Things like urban neighbors,
[00:10:57.290]like we talked about a little bit.
[00:10:58.940]Turns, good, maybe you don't want to go the same route
[00:11:02.770]and meet your own trucks.
[00:11:04.040]So, I saw that one person went one way to get there
[00:11:07.270]and a different way back.
[00:11:09.380]Sometimes that's good to do.
[00:11:11.200]Road conditions and highway travel, also very good things.
[00:11:14.080]Here's a few other things that you might consider.
[00:11:16.840]And everybody's a little bit different,
[00:11:18.680]but just kinda keep those things in the back of your mind
[00:11:21.150]as you're planning those things.
[00:11:25.860]So I mentioned earlier
[00:11:26.910]that we should be watching the weather forecast
[00:11:28.930]before stockpiling or applying manure.
[00:11:32.010]Rick Koelsch wrote a really great article
[00:11:33.790]that explains this in a lot more depth.
[00:11:35.700]And he's gonna talk about it a little bit more
[00:11:37.940]in session three.
[00:11:40.410]But of course, we need to watch
[00:11:41.700]for precipitation that's coming, like we've talked about,
[00:11:45.500]but if we're thinking about odors,
[00:11:47.630]we also want to look at trends in temperature,
[00:11:49.700]wind direction, and the speed, the wind speed,
[00:11:53.210]and the nighttime cloud cover.
[00:11:56.510]Odor is a lot like smoke.
[00:11:58.120]And how smoke rises into the atmosphere
[00:12:00.350]depends on several weather factors.
[00:12:03.000]When temperatures are steady or dropping,
[00:12:05.080]smoke will hang around the ground more.
[00:12:07.710]However, when the temperature is rising,
[00:12:09.650]that smoke is going to rise higher into the atmosphere
[00:12:12.180]and will be less of a nuisance to people on the ground.
[00:12:15.570]Because temperatures usually fall at night,
[00:12:18.400]smoke tends to concentrate lower in the atmosphere,
[00:12:21.000]and it's more of an issue when wind speeds are lower.
[00:12:24.750]So when the wind is blowing harder,
[00:12:26.500]even though the temperatures might be lower,
[00:12:28.170]that smoke is diluted and less of a nuisance.
[00:12:31.320]However, that smoke does travel farther and faster,
[00:12:34.750]so neighbors farther away
[00:12:36.400]may notice a little bit of smoke too.
[00:12:38.960]However, it's probably not at a level that is annoying.
[00:12:43.450]So if you're burning your brush pile,
[00:12:45.100]and you want to minimize
[00:12:46.080]the amount of complaints you receive,
[00:12:48.130]watch for days and nights with higher wind speed,
[00:12:50.530]and temperatures that are rising,
[00:12:52.500]to allow for maximum dilution and rise into the atmosphere.
[00:12:56.640]Or better yet, look for wind
[00:12:58.190]to be in the opposite direction of the neighbors,
[00:13:00.410]along with those rising temperatures.
[00:13:04.070]So now that you know all about smoke,
[00:13:06.570]remember that odor behaves very similarly to that smoke.
[00:13:13.590]When temperatures are steady or dropping,
[00:13:15.470]that odor is gonna hang around the ground more.
[00:13:18.310]However, when the temperature is rising,
[00:13:20.140]those odors are going to rise higher into the atmosphere,
[00:13:23.410]and will be less of a nuisance to people on the ground.
[00:13:27.320]This is especially noticeable at night
[00:13:29.530]because the temperatures typically drop at night,
[00:13:32.470]which also reduces the ability
[00:13:33.950]for odors to rise into the atmosphere.
[00:13:36.440]Additionally, neighbors are also more likely
[00:13:38.830]to be home in the evenings,
[00:13:40.270]especially if they're folks that work in town.
[00:13:44.000]So when the wind is diluted and blowing harder,
[00:13:46.600]even if the temperatures are lower,
[00:13:48.430]that odor is also diluted, and less of a nuisance.
[00:13:52.370]However, the odor may travel farther and faster.
[00:13:56.100]So neighbors farther away
[00:13:57.240]may notice a little bit of that diluted odor as well.
[00:14:01.460]So when you're spreading or stockpiling,
[00:14:03.390]you're minimizing complaints by watching for days and nights
[00:14:06.340]with higher wind speed
[00:14:07.940]and temperatures that are on the rise,
[00:14:10.160]which allows for maximum dilution
[00:14:11.840]and rise into the atmosphere.
[00:14:14.330]Or better yet, look for wind
[00:14:15.890]to be in the opposite direction of the neighbors,
[00:14:17.980]along with those rising temperatures.
[00:14:21.520]So like I said before, you can make your plans,
[00:14:24.780]but as you gather more information,
[00:14:27.605]be prepared to make changes to-

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Avoiding Complaints: Considerations when stockpiling and applying manure

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