You’ve already paid for the manure, whether that be growing the feed or the animals themselves, why not use that manure to your advantage now. In the most recent Iowa Learning Farms Conservation Webinar Brian Dougherty, Northeast field agricultural engineer with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, presented research findings from field trials of manure management studies.
Dougherty’s research covered nitrate losses, timing application windows, and cover crop management across different years with weather variability in Northeast Iowa. There were different manure applications: side dressing, early fall with cover crops, early fall without cover crops, late fall, and spring. In soybeans and corn trials the early fall manure application with cover crops saw significantly less cumulative N loss through drainage.
The research is intriguing, but I was most drawn into the webinar when Dougherty discussed the economic values of cover crops for water quality, manure application timing, and nitrification inhibitor with manure as well as yield effects with different manure timings and cover crops.
Tune in to Dougherty’s full presentation, Improving Manure Management to Maximize Agronomic and Environmental Outcomes. And for any other webinars you’ve missed in the ILF Conservation Webinar series, all past webinars are archived on the ILF Webinars page for your viewing pleasure.
Iowa Learning Farms 