Manure may not be a pretty subject, but it is an important one, said Garland Laliberte, chair of the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative.
On that note, Laliberte last week gave an update on projects the not-for-profit corporation has helped fund during the past two years.
He said the manure management initiative has supported 18 projects, and 10 of those will be completed in the next few weeks.
The goal is to give hog producers new tools for managing manure and controlling odors.
“There needs to be not just a single solution but a battery of solutions,” Laliberte said, noting the group will soon surpass its goal of raising $1 million for manure management initiatives.
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Some of the people working on those solutions were in Brandon last week to talk about their efforts.
Dianne Malley of PDK Projects Inc., tested the use of near-infrared technology to measure nutrient content in manure.
The study showed that near-infrared spectroscopy – the same method used to analyze protein in Canadian wheat – has potential to quickly gauge nutrient and salt levels in manure.
Accurate information
That kind of information could help farmers read the nutrient levels of their manure storage as accurately as they read the labels on commercial fertilizers. Now a portable, on-farm device is needed that would use the technology to give farmers exact nutrient measurements when applying manure to their fields.
Meanwhile, DGH Engineering believes it has a winner with a cover it developed for earthen hog manure lagoons.
The cover, made from reinforced polyethylene, is drawn across a manure storage lagoon and sealed at the sides. A small fan on the edge of the lagoon draws air from under the cover, creating a vacuum that keeps the plastic stuck to the lagoon’s surface.
The cover, said Doug Small of DGH, keeps odor from escaping and holds in nitrogen, one of the nutrients found in hog manure.
“You can stand beside the lagoon on a hot summer day and there’s just no odor,” Small said.
The value of the nitrogen retained by the cover should be enough to compensate for its cost, Small said. The plastic is expected to last five to eight years.
The cover also reduces a potential fly breeding habitat. It keeps snow and rain out of the lagoon, reducing the amount of liquid a farmer hauls when spreading the manure.
“It has the potential to cover anything where you need an impervious cover.”
The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute did work this year with the University of Manitoba to test four different methods of applying manure to forage crops.
Shallow grassland injection, aeration with a surface application and a dribble bar were studied. The study monitored odor and changes in forage yields. The results, which look encouraging, should be out by the end of December, said Don Petkau of PAMI.
