Alberta Agriculture has bundled its manure management resources into a single digital package and made it available to farmers.
Department official Trevor Wallace said the Nutrient Management Suite Interactive CD makes a wealth of resources available in a single place for producers and agrologists.
“We’ve never had all of these tools organized in one place,” he said.
“And for farmers that aren’t on-line with high speed internet, this means they have a lot of larger files and software right at their fingertips without the download.”
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Frank Larney of Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge said as the value of fertilizer has increased, so have the information demands of farmers looking to place a value on the nutrients their livestock produce.
“In the two years between October 2006 and October 2008, the cost of nitrogen fertilizer doubled,” Larney said.
“In phosphorus it tripled. That is a pretty strong incentive to take another look at manure management strategies.”
His research shows that in 2006 the replacement value of manure with synthetic or mined fertilizer from commercial sources in Alberta was $25.70 per tonne. By the fall of 2008 the value had increased to $70.30.
“Those are some compelling reasons to get to know as much as you can about your manure,” he said.
Wallace said the CD provides producers with a comprehensive source of the latest in management information: Agri Facts newsletters, fact sheets, Agtech Innovator documents, federal and provincial publications, Farmstead Beneficial Management Practices and guides for manure sampling, dozens of publications and guides and video presentations.
Software included with the CD includes an economic threshold calculator spreadsheet program, the Manure Management Planner and the province’s latest version of its nutrient management program for cropping, AFFIRM.
The CD also includes information about legislation, storage, application timing and soil testing.
The disk is available from Alberta Agriculture.
For more information, visit www.agric.gov.ab.ca.
