Smells Like Sustainability

As I review yield maps this time of year, there is one input that consistently correlates with high yields in corn and beans. It is organic, naturally produced, locally grown, and 100% renewable. In the past, it had a reputation as a water polluting, air fouling, mess creating, waste product. Although we haven't resolved the odor issue, tremendous progress has been made towards making manure a safe and cost-effective crop nutrient. Today, there is wide agreement that the benefits outweigh the costs.

Our experience with large scale manure utilization began in 2009. This was two years after we built our first hog finishing sites. It took a year and a half for the pits to reach capacity and create enough volume to cover multiple tracts of land completely.

After hiring the work done the first few years, we realized the business was driven by low cost operators who were not incentivized to do quality work. In general, owners of the manure were entities that did not produce crops. To them, manure was an expense to be minimized. Careless handling methods employed at the time led to spills, over application, and legitimate backlash. As handling and application methods have improved, manure has become a valued commodity. Coupled with strict rules and oversight, incidences of spills and over application are rare.   

We used tanks at first to apply manure then switched to drag hose. Tanks have their place. They are better suited for smaller volume sites and field sizes. Set up time is minimal and changing fields is simply a matter of rerouting to the next location. Drag hose application uses less fuel, minimizes road usage, and saves time on high volume jobs. Because it can take a day to set up, the amount of manure needs to be above a minimum threshold to justify set up. Most of our sites store up to 1.8M gallons, with large fields nearby. 

One of the unique characteristics of manure is how the lowest CSR farms (Corn Suitability Rating) have the biggest response. We have a bottom 10% CSR farm with a top 25% yield history. As just a couple doses of manure can have a lasting impact, we are finding ways to transport manure further, expanding the benefit to more acres.

Another unexpected development is the recent alliance between environmental interests and commercial livestock operations.  As our understanding of climate altering activities has grown, incentives to reduce carbon usage in crop production are being implemented. Manure as a fertilizer source lowers the carbon score of our crop production more than all other tillage practice changes combined. In the near future, crops produced with less carbon will bring a premium.   

So, the next time you drive by one of our fields during or shortly after we have applied manure, and are tempted to take offense to the smell, try to remember we are doing the planet a favor, repurposing one of nature's most underappreciated resources.

Jim

Brad applies manure on the Flat