Latest / The Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast / Episode 07 | Handling Livestock Waste: Part 1 Confinement
Transcript
- Episode 07 | Handling Livestock Waste: Part 1 Confinement 00:00:05:24 - 00:00:28:13 Todd Gleason This is the Illinois Nutrient Loss Podcast, episode number seven Handling Livestock Waste, part one of four: confinement. We're now joined by Jay Solomon, an extension specialist in livestock management. He has been in this part of the business for about 25 years. Jay, can you tell me a little bit about your background please? 00:00:28:15 - 00:00:30:21 Jay Solomon Been with extension for a number of years. 00:00:30:21 - 00:00:57:21 Jay Solomon Been here for about 18 years in Illinois and and a few years before that in Missouri. And working on livestock has been part of what I've done, done for most of my career. Although in my position as an engineer and in my current role, working in environmental issues, I get into quite a few different topics from energy, energy efficiency and, and clear down to some livestock water quality issues. 00:00:57:21 - 00:01:03:28 Jay Solomon So it's kind of nice to be working in this area. It's one that carried through all my career. 00:01:04:00 - 00:01:09:06 Todd Gleason Are there best management practice guidelines for livestock in confinement? 00:01:09:08 - 00:01:21:28 Jay Solomon If we look at it from a confinement standpoint, there are some definite things we can think about. One of the places we start with is really need to think about and manage and utilize that manure as a fertilizer. 00:01:22:01 - 00:01:40:05 Jay Solomon If we start from there, it does make it a lot easier to think about what are the other things we need to do? And one of the first things is make sure we're containing anything that is been, whether it be the actual manure or water running off of or running across, a manure, covered areas. Those kinds of things. 00:01:40:05 - 00:01:58:23 Jay Solomon So we do the containment of it. We also look at doing keeping clear the what we call clean water clean. But you keep the clean water clean, dirty water contained. So if we've got any place where we can divert water off of it, off of, an area, definitely try to do those kind of things. Then the next thing is treating it as a fertilizer. 00:01:58:23 - 00:02:32:11 Jay Solomon Once we have it in, in a containment, applying an agronomic rates, you know, based on U of I ag, agronomy recommendations in which those recommendations now are looking at applying it with, what is what is referred to as... maximum return to nitrogen. You'll hear the term m-r-t-n where you calculate what's what's that worth. And and applying that at a, at a rate that is most economical and most effective for the, the crop production as well. 00:02:32:14 - 00:02:55:18 Jay Solomon The one caveat in there is a lot of this manure we actually need to look at what’s the phosphorus buildup on it. So there are some phosphorus numbers we need to be aware of from, a soil standpoint. Which kind of brings up the other point. One of the things we want to work with is we need to make sure we get a good sample of the manure so we know what, what we're actually applying. 00:02:55:20 - 00:03:17:07 Jay Solomon But we also need to have a good idea of what our soil test is. Need a soil test on a regular basis. We also need to know what our production is out there. So we're matching what's in... what we need to bring the soil up to meet that actual production yield that we've got out there and what we've pulled out of it, and replace that on a yearly basis. 00:03:17:10 - 00:04:05:24 Jay Solomon From that standpoint, we move forward to, to, you know, what are the other things we can think about is things like, injecting it or incorporating the manure immediately after it's been applied. And that reduces our losses to ammonia, along with, just reducing the potential for it to be washed off in a rain event or volatilized, lost one way or the other, which the nutrient movement is, is offsite would be either rainfall, moving the nutrients off in the, in the water or volatilization of the, of the ammonia off of it, which in both cases where it isn't losing nitrogen and possibly phosphorus in the rainfall event, you know, 00:04:06:00 - 00:04:27:03 Jay Solomon need to collect those samples of we the recommendation out there is to collect those samples on a yearly basis. If you can collect them beforehand and get the sample, test back, data back, that's a good way to do it. But the other way we, we talk about in, in a lot of the trainings is collect it yearly. 00:04:27:06 - 00:04:59:17 Jay Solomon Keep a record of where you're going. Keep a track of how how it may be changing over time. And you look at what was last year's numbers, how did that compare to the years before and use those to plan out your manure application for this year. And then you just any commercial fertilizer that you put on top, or any side dressing into the next year, based on what maybe changes you had, when you get your soil samples or your manure sample back this year. 00:04:59:20 - 00:05:24:09 Jay Solomon Then there are the other pieces of it, like in the application area. Observe those setbacks. Stay at least 200ft away from water sources. 150ft back from wells, 200ft back from open water sources. And try not to apply or minimize the applications on to snow covered and frozen areas. Those are a lot of the things that we talk about. 00:05:24:11 - 00:05:41:15 Jay Solomon We go through those kinds of things, as part of the certified livestock manager training that we talked to producers about. But it's also something we've talked to, even the smaller producers who don't necessarily have to go through that training. They need to be thinking about those same, same best management practices. 00:05:41:18 - 00:05:43:15 Todd Gleason Just a little additional information. 00:05:43:15 - 00:06:18:28 Todd Gleason You mentioned the MRTN or the maximum return to nitrogen. And that is the maximum, not the maximum amount of nitrogen that should be applied, but the maximum amount of nitrogen for optimal yield that you might get or optimum amount of nitrogen for the maximum yield. And you can find that rate on the nitrogen rate calculator, for Illinois and all for instance, of the 12 Midwestern states, and you just search Google for nitrogen rate calculator, you'll find it actually on the Iowa State University website. 00:06:18:29 - 00:06:28:18 Todd Gleason Now back to manure. Does it offer manure that is, any benefits to water quality or soil health as opposed to synthetic fertilizers? 00:06:28:18 - 00:06:43:22 Jay Solomon There are a lot of research and a lot of idea, a lot of of belief that, yes, there is. The thing that we are starting to really look at is what is that? And to be able to put hard numbers to it. 00:06:43:25 - 00:07:06:11 Jay Solomon Not sure right there at it, but we do know that it provides organic matter. A lot of times it's a little bit more, pH balanced and nutrient balanced and it's sometimes and it's known that some of the nutrients are a little bit more available in manure than they are immediately available to the crop than what they are 00:07:06:11 - 00:07:30:25 Jay Solomon in some of your commercial fertilizers, and also as we apply them in the fall, they are, because of the way they're mixed, they're already somewhat a little more stable. Not being as, as, prone to being leached or lost through the, the winter time with rainfall events and leach downward quite as bad. But that's kind of a small piece. 00:07:30:27 - 00:07:51:27 Jay Solomon The other pieces they do with that organic matter and other things they can kind of contribute to, the soil structure and, and water holding capacity just because they, they, it is that organic matter you're applying. So there is some benefit to it. I mean, it is kind of the original, manure is the original, one of the original organic fertilizers. 00:07:52:04 - 00:08:00:29 Todd Gleason Jay Solomon is with the University of Illinois Extension. You've been listening to the Nutrient Loss Reduction podcast, I'm U of I Extensions Todd Gleason.