STRATHMORE, Alta. – The Warrack family prefers to go quietly about business at its 16,000-head feedlot.
Yet when they were approached by government manure management specialists who wanted to poke in their cattle manure piles, they agreed.
The work is part of a provincial government campaign to make sure manure is handled properly in a time when practices on intensive livestock operations are facing serious public scrutiny.
Built 12 years ago, Bruce Feedyards was established by the Warracks before municipalities demanded high level engineering studies and building permits with strict environmental caveats.
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So far, the studies show they are doing things right, said Jeff Warrack, a partner in the business.
The feedlot tests soil regularly and water wells show no sign of contamination.
“We live out here too,” Warrack said.
But they will fine tune their practices in the future.
“We’ll pay a little more attention to the nutrients that are on the soil. We’ll do a little more soil sampling and more monitoring.”
Scientists from Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre and Alberta Agriculture approached the Strathmore facility because it was considered a typical feedlot. Manure is hauled out twice a year and spread on the feedyard’s 11 sections of crop land in the spring and fall.
“We get in a big hurry at the end of February when there’s a chinook. We’re going to try and leave it as late into the spring as we dare until the end of April or first of May,” Warrack said during a tour of the facility.
Spreading later in the season should provide manure that carries less water and dirt.
During the rest of the year, manure is piled into hills in the centre of pens that provide mounds for the cattle to lie on. The feedlot generally uses straw bedding and occasionally wood chips.
Analysis, conclusions
Researchers gathered samples and tested them in October.
They calculated that 11,500 animals would produce 27,600 tonnes of manure per year or 2.4 tonnes per day. On average, one animal can produce 6.75 kilograms of waste including urine and feces per day.
The Warrack manure collected in October was drier than average and there was less nitrogen than expected.
The provincial manure handling code of practice says for the amount of manure produced at this farm, it should provide 7.6 kg of nitrogen per tonne but in reality, only yielded 5.5 to 6.75 kg.
Jessica Davis, of Colorado State University, is a manure management specialist. During a seminar she explained numbers gathered at Bruce Feedyards were compared to averages. When trying to figure out how much to spread on a piece of land, producers must remember manure is a variable product.
“Averages don’t necessarily mean a whole lot for us,” she said.
While there was lower than average nitrogen, there were higher than average levels of potassium, sulfur and phosphorus.
For the Warrack operation, there could be some savings in their chemical fertilizer bill. Previous soil tests already showed nitrogen deficiency but they could reduce phosphorus if they apply the appropriate amount of manure.
