Manure Management: back to the basics
After a wet harvest making decisions for manure management, storage and application can be very challenging. You may have limited opportunities to apply during the growing season and if harvest is wet, you may have to store manure for longer than anticipated. And winter application isn't recommended since, "the risks of runoff and pollution are too high, and vast quantities of added nitrogen - up to half- could be lost." So that makes planning ahead and timing essential to all manure management.
Planning well in advance, identifying application opportunities during the year is an important step in reducing runoff issues. It's also important to have a contingency plan in place for storage and spills.
"In the core of winter, some farmers spread because they didn’t have enough storage, says Kelly, and some spread because they wished to avoid compounding compaction issues. Solutions to the problem include expanding storage capacity, says Kelly, roofing those storages, diversifying rotations to increase application opportunities in-season and looking into specialized manure equipment that allows application into living crops."
Read the full article on support tools and timing at manuremanager.com