Potato growers are divided about using hog manure as fertilizer, even though research suggests it could be a good option.
“I think there is more interest by government and hog people than by potato people,” said Garry Sloik, a potato grower at Portage la Prairie, Man.
“I don’t intend to be putting any on my fields.”
Manitoba farmers raised 4.75 million hogs in 1999, which produced 14 million kilograms of manure a day.
Subsequent hog expansion in Manitoba has increased both those numbers.
The hog industry promotes manure as an affordable source of fertilizer, especially nitrogen.
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But Sloik said several things need to be considered when looking at that option, including consumer perception about eating potatoes fertilized with hog manure.
He also wonders if liquid manure can be applied in ways that deliver consistent levels of nutrients to the field.
“To me, it’s a way for someone else to get rid of their problem,” he said of the efforts to get hog manure more readily accepted as a fertilizer source.
But not all potato growers share that view, and research is gradually finding answers to the questions growers have about fertilizing with liquid hog manure.
A study at Agriculture Canada’s Brandon Research Centre has found that a potato crop relying on hog manure for its nitrogen requirement can yield as much as a crop that receives commercial fertilizer.
The research also found no evidence that hog manure increases the incidence of tuber diseases or that soil treated with hog manure harbours pathogens harmful to human health.
Other studies are also being done in Manitoba to study such things as the risk of nutrient buildup in the soil.
Kroeker Farms Ltd. of Winkler, Man., raises potatoes and hogs. General manager Wayne Rempel said the farm has applied hog manure on a small percentage of cropland for the past 20 years. He would like to increase that amount.
Rempel could not put an exact value on the nutrients that hog manure supplies to the soil, but he estimates it is worth between $30 and $40 an acre.
Technological advancements make it easier to apply hog manure at rates that match the needs of a field, he added.
Rempel would like to see more research done on how hog manure benefits soil quality. He sees hog manure as a way to add more tilth to soil, making it less prone to erosion.
But he can understand why not all potato growers are interested in fertilizing with hog manure. Saving $30 an acre in fertilizer costs would be significant to a grain producer. For a potato grower, $30 is a small part of the $1,500 per acre that can be spent on input costs in a year.
Proximity to a hog operation also affects the economics of using manure, since transportation costs have to be taken into account.
