David Wessling of Vinton is one of many Iowa farmers looking at manure in a new light after the price of chemical fertilizers increased sixfold in the last decade.
"I'll take all the manure I can get," said Wessling, whose Iowa Land Management Co. manages 70 farms in eastern Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota. "Right now, I figure I can save from $30 to $50 per acre in fertilizer costs by using liquid manure."
Manure doesn't smell any better than it ever did. But its rising value has padded pork producers' revenue and spurred the growth of large hog confinements, agronomists and state officials say.
Spills of manure can foul creeks and kill fish, and large confinements emit hazardous fumes that harm lungs and burn eyes and noses. When properly managed and applied, however, manure becomes a valuable homegrown resource that can replace fertilizers made from fossil fuels and imported minerals, agronomists and others say.
The nutrient-rich stuff looks better on farmers' expense spreadsheets after chemical fertilizer prices reached $1,000 per ton last fall and eased off only slightly since then.
"As recently as 2000, we had to beg farmers to take manure away," said Howard Hill, chief operating officer of Iowa Select Farms in Iowa Falls, whose company finishes about 3 million pigs in confinements in Iowa. "Now, I hear about feuds among farmers about who has first crack at it."
A 1,200-head hog confinement can see the value of the once-worthless manure produced by those hogs increase from $17,500 just two years ago to more than $50,000 this year, according to figures by Iowa State University.
Manure is rich in nitrogen, and no grain needs nitrogen more than corn. Even alternate-year rotation of corn with soybeans requires regular nitrogen applications, either chemical or organic.
Iowa State University Extension engineer Greg Brenneman estimates Iowa lost $1 billion worth of nitrogen last year in runoff from the heavy spring rains and ensuing floods.
The nutrient value of swine manure from one confinement stall can be up to $25 per year, raising the total value of the stall to as much as $60, said John Lawrence, the cattle and beef specialist in Iowa State University Extension.
"If you manage the confinement properly and take care of the environmental issues, the value is there," Lawrence said. "When you compare manure to fertilizer, you have to remember that manure is a homegrown product, while chemical fertilizers come essentially from the natural gas-producing states in the Southwestern U.S. or from overseas. And manure is organic, too."
Full story: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090222/
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