Interested in learning about manure? So are we

On October 24th, we were lucky to have a producer from Nova Scotia, an extension specialist from Minnesota, and a recent PhD candidate from Iowa, all to come talk about one thing, Manure. The day was based around poultry manure management. It was a great session, diving into composting, nutrient values, the importance of testing, and factors that influence nutrient content, application timing, and more. After the session, it was clear we were barely touching the surface on what there is to learn about manure in our region.

Mainly, we have dairy, poultry, beef, and some hog and mink. But there are different sizes of operations, field capacities, storage options, genetics, feed, and many other variables that can impact the management of manure. Additionally, there’s an endless amount of agronomic information. With this, lies many learning opportunities for producers, agronomist and overall industry.

Under the BMPs of OFCAF, manure falls well into Nitrogen Management as it is a valuable resource that can supplement or replace N-fertilizer, has soil health building properties, can recycling nutrients, and have economic value. Additionally, the more we know, the more we can reduce the environmental impacts of manure management such as nitrate leaching and volatilization.

So, we want to hear from you! What are some topics on manure and manure management that you are curious about?! I created this Manure Survey   to learn more about what YOU are interested in learning about through the Extension team here at Perennia, resources, and guest speakers. A few ideas we have are manure equipment demonstrations on application, differences in pelleted manure and raw, webinar on separation, manure and cover crop agronomics, its endless!

We are going to keep the  Manure Survey  open for a few months as this is going to be an on-going process and because we can never learn enough. There is a lot of open-ended options too, so please add detail or include options that I forgot.

Thanks everyone for your continued support and interested! Greatly appreciated!

Here are some photos from the Poultry Manure Management session in Berwick on October 24th.