Manure

With the increased cost of commercial fertilizer and the ever-increasing pressure on producers to protect and preserve water quality, University of Wisconsin (UW) – Discovery Farms staff get a lot of questions on how farmers can reduce their losses of manure.

Record keeping and inspections are inextricably linked through the permit and nutrient management plan (NMP). In large part, only records can show an inspector that the operation is following its NMP and permit.

Removing manure from freestall alleys

Making brown the new green is the goal of brothers Matthew and Ben Freund of Colebrook, Connecticut, with their successful new invention, CowPots. The biodegradable plant pots are made from manure solids generated from the Freunds’ methane digester, which was built in 1997.

When it comes to digester technology, lagoon covers, treatment systems and other methods of manure handling, it seems like much of the press lately has been on the ‘big guys’. Now, I am by no means suggesting that larger production facilities are any better in management or production practices. What I am saying is that the media tends to focus on the larger players in agriculture, for good and for bad, depending on the angle they approach.

How many cows does it take to support an anaerobic digester? The answer: a lot. Large farms have implemented anaerobic digestion (AD) systems in recent years, but little interest has been paid to small- and medium-sized farms until now.