Manure and Soil Sampling

Leslie Johnson Author

03/05/2021 Added

41 Plays

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

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[00:00:00.120]So I'm, going to talk to you a little bit
[00:00:01.990]about sampling related to manure application.
[00:00:06.270]And here's my boring slide.
[00:00:07.960]I promise I'm not going to read this to you
[00:00:09.908]because, I'm not going to spend a lot of time
[00:00:12.450]on the regulations.
[00:00:13.283]We're going to do that in another session,
[00:00:15.406]but I do want to point out that both soil
[00:00:18.029]and manure sampling are required by Title 130.
[00:00:21.459]All manures have to be sampled annually
[00:00:25.040]for both nitrogen and phosphorous content,
[00:00:28.030]but, we recommend looking at other nutrients as well.
[00:00:30.620]Because as you know, there are micronutrients
[00:00:32.971]in manure that should be accounted for
[00:00:35.220]in your fertilizer program.
[00:00:37.066]Soils do have to be sampled prior
[00:00:39.610]to initial manure application,
[00:00:41.630]and then again annually for nitrogen
[00:00:43.419]if you're going to apply manure again.
[00:00:46.720]You only need to do a phosphorus analysis every five years,
[00:00:50.618]if manure is applied again on that field.
[00:00:54.606]I would note that if effluent is run
[00:00:57.450]through an irrigation system
[00:00:59.000]that is also connected to a well.
[00:01:00.758]You also need to test that irrigation water
[00:01:03.130]every five years for nitrogen and make sure
[00:01:05.560]that effluent is not going backwards into the well
[00:01:08.440]and getting into the groundwater that way.
[00:01:12.740]Everything you need to know about soil sampling is available
[00:01:15.211]in the Guidelines for Soil Sampling, NebGuide,
[00:01:18.290]and that's available on our handouts webpage.
[00:01:21.470]And everything you need to know about manure sampling is
[00:01:23.595]in the Manure Testing for Nutrient Content NebGuide,
[00:01:28.070]also, available on the handouts webpage.
[00:01:30.830]I'm not going to go through how to, and all of that.
[00:01:33.330]I know a lot of you are probably hiring that done
[00:01:35.970]by consultants and things, but I do want
[00:01:38.112]to point out a few things.
[00:01:42.250]But I'm going to bring up a phrase,
[00:01:44.770]and I want you to tell me whether it is related
[00:01:47.000]to manure sampling, soil sampling, or both.
[00:01:50.306]So, we'll get started here with Soil Probe,
[00:01:53.730]is that a manure sampling device, soil sampling device?
[00:01:56.380][Female Commenter] Soil.
[00:01:58.397]Both.
[00:01:59.960]I heard somebody say soil both.
[00:02:02.179][Male Commenter] Both. Both.
[00:02:03.420]Both. Yes.
[00:02:05.297]So obviously a soil probe could be used for soil sampling
[00:02:09.328]but it can also be used for sampling solid manure.
[00:02:12.580]As long as you remove the outer few inches
[00:02:15.097]you can use a soil probe to get a sample from closer
[00:02:18.740]to the center of the manure stockpile or the compost pile.
[00:02:21.830]And the reason we move, remove what's on the outside
[00:02:25.170]of the stockpile is because that's going to
[00:02:27.140]be very different than what's in the middle.
[00:02:29.850]And so you want to get a good representative sample
[00:02:32.380]of what you're actually going to be applying.
[00:02:35.510]So the next one is refrigerate.
[00:02:42.460]Is that manure soil or both?
[00:02:44.250]Manure.
[00:02:45.185]Manure.
[00:02:47.600]anybody else have a different answer?
[00:02:49.944]You're right.
[00:02:51.070]It's manure.
[00:02:53.280]There's really not a lot of reason
[00:02:54.610]to refrigerate soil samples.
[00:02:57.170]Though, leaving them on the dash of your pick-up
[00:02:59.370]on a really hot day is probably not a great idea
[00:03:01.746]either because of that transformation
[00:03:04.110]that a job had had to talk about before.
[00:03:08.270]Okay, for Haney test,
[00:03:09.480]when we're talking about soil health type tests
[00:03:15.240]that might be a different situation, but when we're talking
[00:03:17.430]about nitrogen and phosphorus, you don't have to
[00:03:21.325]you don't have to refrigerate your manures
[00:03:23.940]or your soil sample.
[00:03:27.010]By refrigerating the manure sample,
[00:03:28.660]you're going to decrease the odor.
[00:03:30.360]So the shipping guy is going to be a lot happier,
[00:03:32.798]and it's going to reduce those nutrient concentration
[00:03:35.720]changes and give you a better representative sample
[00:03:38.482]of what you are actually applying.
[00:03:41.660]So the next one is prior to application.
[00:03:51.500]Both.
[00:03:54.910]Both.
[00:03:55.743]Okay. So in my mind, this is a soil concept,
[00:03:59.232]but, I can see where you're coming with both.
[00:04:02.840]So, soils have to be sampled prior
[00:04:05.250]to you're going to apply that manure application
[00:04:07.435]and that's done so that you're not
[00:04:09.550]over applying nutrients when they're not needed.
[00:04:12.410]What you're thinking, I assume,
[00:04:14.060]is that you're going to take a manure sample
[00:04:15.940]prior to application of that manure.
[00:04:20.190]Here's the deal.
[00:04:21.240]So, that would be ideal.
[00:04:23.380]But, we know that that's not always feasible
[00:04:25.450]and sometimes to get a good representative sample
[00:04:27.417]you want to do it during the actual application process.
[00:04:31.344]Maybe you take a few samples from the spreaders
[00:04:34.430]as they're going out and get a good sample that way.
[00:04:37.640]So, you can do that.
[00:04:38.770]And that's okay.
[00:04:39.670]You use previous manure samples to get an estimate
[00:04:43.210]of what you should be applying at that point.
[00:04:45.307]And then you're going to go back
[00:04:47.170]once you get that analysis back
[00:04:48.850]and hopefully it happens quickly
[00:04:50.190]and you can adjust on the fly, based on your analysis
[00:04:53.418]otherwise adjust your fertilizer rates to match
[00:04:57.023]up with what you actually applied
[00:04:59.450]after you've already applied it.
[00:05:02.710]So, I agree.
[00:05:03.680]It could be both.
[00:05:05.080]I was thinking soil, but good job.
[00:05:08.920]So, the next one is grid sampling.
[00:05:17.314]Soil, good.
[00:05:20.253]Grid sampling has become a lot more popular
[00:05:21.610]as it allows farmers to
[00:05:23.750]apply nutrients where they're needed
[00:05:25.711]and not that where there's already plenty in the soil.
[00:05:29.330]It's going to be very hard to grid, sample any sort
[00:05:33.270]of manure pile. Just not very feasible.
[00:05:36.310]So, definitely a soil technique.
[00:05:38.860]So, the next one is grab sampling.
[00:05:48.150]Manure.
[00:05:49.840]Yeah. So grab sample from the soil surface is
[00:05:52.177]not going to be very representative of what you're actually
[00:05:55.667]looking at at, at all,
[00:05:57.316]because it's just going to be very much
[00:05:59.410]from the soil surface.
[00:06:01.660]The grabbing a handful of manure
[00:06:03.210]from several loads that you're currently hauling
[00:06:05.350]like I just mentioned, and mixing them in a bucket.
[00:06:08.399]So you can get a really good sample of what you're actually
[00:06:11.370]hauling is a great method of getting a manure sample.
[00:06:15.910]And that can happen from both liquid and solid manure.
[00:06:19.250]So the you're hauling liquid and you get grab a cup
[00:06:23.150]or something from when you let go of the, the host
[00:06:27.640]or whatever from loading the tanker.
[00:06:29.910]Also a great sample, as long as you do it multiple
[00:06:32.860]times to get a good representative sample.
[00:06:36.240]So, the next one is subsample.
[00:06:47.330]How about soil?
[00:06:48.700]Soil.
[00:06:50.150]It's actually both.
[00:06:51.900]So, every sample that you take should consist
[00:06:54.243]of a whole bunch of subsample.
[00:06:57.250]That way you get a good representative sample
[00:06:59.220]that's not going to have as much variability
[00:07:02.820]or it will combine the variability
[00:07:04.580]so that you have a lot more representative sample.
[00:07:08.190]You take all of those subsample, you're going to mix them
[00:07:10.480]in a bucket and then send a small subsample
[00:07:13.000]of that big composite sample to the lab
[00:07:15.130]because they don't need the whole five gallon bucket.
[00:07:17.180]They just need a small amount.
[00:07:19.260]So that's subsample.
[00:07:21.150]The next one is variability.
[00:07:32.220]Manure. Both.
[00:07:36.040]Yeah, different soils
[00:07:37.572]are going to hold nutrients very differently.
[00:07:40.620]Sandy soil is not going to hold as much nutrients
[00:07:42.770]as a clay soil because of,
[00:07:44.687]just because of the size of the soil particles
[00:07:47.990]and oftentimes the organic matter in those soils.
[00:07:51.790]So, and a lot of things affect manure
[00:07:53.587]and nutrient content causing tons
[00:07:55.850]of variability and manures.
[00:07:58.170]And especially in manure can be really variable
[00:08:00.330]between different operation
[00:08:02.030]different parts of the operation, different times of year.
[00:08:04.869]Sometimes even over the years. Actually, most of the time
[00:08:07.890]over the years, every year, it's going to be different.
[00:08:10.139]Sometimes manure can really vary even from load to load,
[00:08:13.090]depending on where you're hauling it from.
[00:08:15.580]Maybe, this part of the feed lot has been fed
[00:08:22.685]a finishing ration.
[00:08:24.410]The other part is just a growing ration
[00:08:26.260]that you just got those cattle in.
[00:08:28.290]Those manures are going to be really different,
[00:08:30.150]because what goes in must come out, right?
[00:08:32.560]So, you're going to have a lot different manure
[00:08:35.030]from feeding different things as well.
[00:08:40.546]The next one is, annually.
[00:08:51.780]Both.
[00:08:55.480]Maybe.
[00:08:56.420]I will tell you both.
[00:08:57.675]But, maybe.
[00:08:58.794]Manure definitely has to be sampled every year.
[00:09:02.137]If you're applying manure to a field every year, though
[00:09:05.640]that soil also has to be sampled
[00:09:08.310]for nitrogen every single year.
[00:09:10.850]And then every five years for phosphorus.
[00:09:13.080]You're probably not going to grid sample annually, but
[00:09:15.910]if you have a bad spot where you particularly
[00:09:19.010]want to continue adding nutrients
[00:09:20.470]you might be doing a smaller sample
[00:09:23.356]or a smaller soil sample there
[00:09:25.600]on an annual basis.
[00:09:26.630]Watching to see if that manure is
[00:09:29.090]helping to improve that soil.
[00:09:30.600]So it could definitely be both
[00:09:32.310]but definitely manure.
[00:09:35.540]Nitrate nitrogen.
[00:09:47.890]Both.
[00:09:49.840]So, sort of yes.
[00:09:53.260]Nitrate nitrogen,
[00:09:54.270]we're primarily looking at as a soil nutrient.
[00:09:57.092]It is in some maneuvers, but usually only in compost.
[00:10:01.039]So, most of the time nitrate nitrogen
[00:10:03.200]isn't a big issue in manure.
[00:10:07.250]It is the form of nitrogen that is found in soil.
[00:10:10.540]And it is the one that is likely to be lost
[00:10:12.650]by leaching as Javid was describing earlier.
[00:10:15.220]So, it is more likely to be found
[00:10:17.380]in the groundwater and more of an issue environmentally.
[00:10:23.000]So, the next one is
[00:10:24.790]fall and spring varies.
[00:10:39.021][Male Commenter] How about Manure?
[00:10:40.574]Manure. Both.
[00:10:42.770]All right, this is actually both.
[00:10:44.779]Nutrient contents are gonna vary
[00:10:47.017]between fall and spring for both manure and soils.
[00:10:50.400]And that's especially true for sandy soils
[00:10:53.570]and manures that are in open lots.
[00:10:55.350]Because, the moisture content can really affect manure
[00:10:58.350]nutrient concentrations, a lot.
[00:11:00.292]And it's really hard to tell when the pen surface is wetter
[00:11:04.233]it's really, really hard to distinguish what is manure
[00:11:09.050]and what is actually the pen surface.
[00:11:11.418]And sandy soils, you're gonna have
[00:11:13.870]that nitrate leaching more
[00:11:15.320]than you would in a clay soil.
[00:11:17.200]And so it's going to vary a lot more
[00:11:19.610]from spring to fall, or from fall to spring, if you sample.
[00:11:23.460]So, we do recommend that you sample sandier soils
[00:11:26.470]in the spring rather than in the fall.
[00:11:29.670]So, the next one is, zigzag pattern.
[00:11:41.870]Somebody said, soil. Another soil, yes.
[00:11:45.800]It's a method of soil sampling.
[00:11:47.580]And this is what I would use
[00:11:48.687]if I was taking a random sample
[00:11:50.665]from a particular area of the field.
[00:11:53.660]Like I said before,
[00:11:54.590]maybe your spot checking the area that you're working on
[00:11:56.497]improving with manure, because, based on the grid sample.
[00:12:00.860]You don't want a grid sample every year
[00:12:02.340]but you can go back and you just zigzag across the field
[00:12:04.635]in that particular area, getting a good sample.
[00:12:08.270]That way you take multiple soil samples,
[00:12:10.279]subsample, to get that good representative sample.
[00:12:13.630]So, definitely a soil technique.
[00:12:17.410]So, phosphorous.
[00:12:29.340]Both.
[00:12:31.070]Yeah, definitely both soil and manure.
[00:12:32.913]Both have to be analyzed for phosphorous.
[00:12:35.950]For soils, you do only need the top eight inches.
[00:12:38.510]You don't have to sample
[00:12:39.790]for phosphorus down deep in the soil
[00:12:41.340]because it doesn't move into the soil very quickly.
[00:12:44.980]And it's especially true for a no-till system
[00:12:47.120]because you're not working that phosphorous in.
[00:12:49.027]So, you may want to even take a shallower
[00:12:51.779]sample than the top eight inches,
[00:12:54.870]because of that stratification that does happen.
[00:12:57.250]Because that phosphorus doesn't move
[00:12:58.990]into the soil very quickly.
[00:13:01.950]But, definitely have to do it for manure as well.
[00:13:06.410]So, mixing.
[00:13:10.490]I hope I've told you this one enough times already.
[00:13:17.070]Both. Definitely.
[00:13:18.900]So, all samples have to be mixed well
[00:13:21.035]before you send that smaller subsample into the lab.
[00:13:25.040]You want to take lots and lots of subsample
[00:13:27.790]and then mix them in the bucket
[00:13:29.240]and then send a smaller subsample to the lab.
[00:13:31.820]That way you get a good representative sample.
[00:13:35.770]Regardless of whether you're doing soil or manure sampling.
[00:13:39.610]Next one should be really easy.
[00:13:40.750]Cause I totally just told you the answer.
[00:13:42.810]Representative samples
[00:13:44.811](laughing)
[00:13:47.830]Both. Yes.
[00:13:49.950]Like I said
[00:13:50.783]you always want to get a good representative sample
[00:13:52.490]because you want that sample to mean something.
[00:13:54.300]You don't want to send it off to the lab
[00:13:55.730]and get something that doesn't mean anything to you.
[00:13:58.330]Cause then you've wasted your money at the lab.
[00:14:01.090]So, you've got to take a good representative sample
[00:14:03.800]by taking lots of subsample and then sending
[00:14:07.250]in that smaller subsample.
[00:14:11.970]Ammonium nitrogen.
[00:14:15.349]Think back to Javids presentation.
[00:14:32.679]It's actually manure.
[00:14:34.070]So that's the form of nitrogen that's bound in manure.
[00:14:36.526]And it does move into the soil.
[00:14:39.370]You're not looking for ammonium nitrogen so much
[00:14:41.600]when you're looking at the soil sample though
[00:14:44.180]because, you're looking at organic nitrogen there.
[00:14:48.420]Organic matter and nitrate nitrogen, excuse me.
[00:14:52.850]So, the ammonium nitrogen is the form
[00:14:55.740]of nitrogen that's found in manure.
[00:14:57.750]It is the one that's crop available
[00:15:00.360]to manure or from manure.
[00:15:02.420]And so it doesn't leach into the soil directly
[00:15:05.140]but it does get transformed into that nitrogen
[00:15:07.439]nitrate nitrogen that can definitely leach into the soil.
[00:15:13.380]Once it's been transformed, again.
[00:15:16.630]Next one, separate different areas.
[00:15:31.960]Both.
[00:15:32.793]Yes. When soil sampling, you're gonna
[00:15:35.530]separate samples that are treated differently.
[00:15:38.720]So, areas. Maybe this field is soybeans
[00:15:41.740]and this field is corn
[00:15:42.890]or maybe this field is cover cropped
[00:15:44.840]and this field is not.
[00:15:45.944]Those all need to
[00:15:47.310]be sampled separately because they're treated differently.
[00:15:49.810]So they're going to have different results.
[00:15:53.390]When you're manure sampling, different barns
[00:15:56.140]different sets of pens.
[00:15:57.970]Those things need to be treated differently.
[00:16:00.460]Particularly, if you're feeding different rations,
[00:16:02.540]like I mentioned before.
[00:16:04.320]The other place that you might think about
[00:16:05.960]if you have an area that is wetter than the others
[00:16:08.470]so maybe the area behind the feed bunk
[00:16:10.094]or around the waterer.
[00:16:12.030]if that part is wetter in the area,
[00:16:15.087]you might consider keeping that separate
[00:16:18.240]because that's probably gonna to be higher
[00:16:20.260]in ammonium nitrogen and the dryer stuff,
[00:16:22.984]maybe not as much.
[00:16:25.130]And so you might have different samples
[00:16:26.901]if you would take those things differently.
[00:16:29.310]Especially, if you happen
[00:16:30.610]to want to spread those things differently.
[00:16:32.560]You definitely want to take them separately.
[00:16:37.050]By keeping them separate,
[00:16:38.610]your samples are more representative
[00:16:40.330]of what you're actually applying.
[00:16:43.610]Last one.
[00:16:45.730]Organic nitrogen.
[00:16:57.260]Soil.
[00:17:00.950]Organic nitrogen is actually manure.
[00:17:03.800]When you're in the soil
[00:17:04.850]you're looking at nitrate nitrogen and organic matter
[00:17:08.220]which I know can be confusing
[00:17:09.628]but organic nitrogen
[00:17:11.180]is the form of nitrogen we find a manure
[00:17:13.900]and that's the one that's like the slow release form.
[00:17:16.810]And it doesn't move down into the soil profile directly.
[00:17:20.270]It has to be mineralized in the soil and then it has to,
[00:17:24.224]and then again, transform to become nitrate nitrogen.
[00:17:29.350]And then that would leach into the soil.
[00:17:31.030]So, it transforms from, or it mineralizes from,
[00:17:35.156]that organic nitrogen to the ammonium nitrogen.
[00:17:38.491]And then it transforms
[00:17:40.510]into the nitrate nitrogen, which can leach.
[00:17:44.100]So, the organic nitrogen is the part
[00:17:47.110]of manure that releases slowly
[00:17:49.850]and is available to the crop later in the season.
[00:17:55.440]So,
[00:17:56.600]a few key points
[00:17:57.450]I'm hoping you heard them a couple of times throughout that,
[00:18:00.820]we want a good representative sample
[00:18:03.068]and that's the key to having a good analysis
[00:18:05.910]and the best way to get that
[00:18:07.030]good representative sample
[00:18:08.673]is to have lots of subsample,
[00:18:10.739]mix them in the bucket and then
[00:18:13.050]take that smaller subsample and send that to the lab.
[00:18:16.082]And we want a sample often enough to have confidence
[00:18:19.170]in our results, so that we know
[00:18:20.780]that we can use those averages for the coming years,
[00:18:22.898]while we're waiting for those samples to come back
[00:18:26.580]from the lab while we're applying.

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Manure and Soil Sampling

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