Manure

Not wanting to depend on others to help dispose of the farm’s manure, the Ohio Heifer Center in South Charleston, Ohio, decided to set up a facility to recycle the manure for use directly on-farm. In doing so, it has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in bedding and is working to market a novel byproduct.

One of the greatest expenses associated with raw manure is transportation, due to the huge amount of manure (volume and weight) and distances between dairy sites and application lands.

A team of Iowa State University (ISU) researchers recently reviewed 265 academic papers published through the end of 2014 and found that a surprising amount of odor and gas emission mitigation practices for livestock and poultry production never make it to field trials.

It’s estimated that cows, along with the process of milking, produce 20 gallons of manure and 10 gallons of water per cow per day. Add this up and consider the need for six months of storage plus extra storage for a 25-year, 24-hour storm event. When you multiply this across the herd, it’s easy to see where the need for larger lagoons comes in.

The first consideration about manure is to change the mindset of manure being a waste product to being a resource. With that assumption, there are multiple variables that influence manure transportation and application considerations.

Labor is an important discussion point when looking at any aspect of your operation. Labor is even more significant when it comes to the manure management system you select.