Waste Not
Mar 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Karen McMahon
High fertilizer prices have created demand for a product that used to be called a “waste.” Livestock manure today commands top prices as a fertilizer, up to $85/acre in some corn and soybean areas. Growers even sell cropland for hog building sites in order to secure the rights to the manure.
“We used to work hard to find a guy to put the manure on the ground,” recalls Michael McNeil, Ag Advisory, Algona, IA. “Now there are waiting lists for manure and some are three years long. It's been quite a dramatic change from not that many years ago.”
There is not a waiting list for all manure and not all manure retails for its full fertilizer value, however. Some hog manure costs only the price of hauling and application, which ranges from $30 to $40/acre. Other hog manure is priced at a flat rate with hauling and application included. McNeil says an average flat rate runs about $50/acre.
Although hog manure is most abundant, poultry manure is even more in demand. “Chicken manure is being sold by the ton with prices in the $23/ton range,” McNeil says. “The manure is dry and therefore treated like commercial fertilizer.” Several co-ops have created fertilizer businesses from the poultry manure by pricing it according to its fertilizer value and adding on the cost of hauling and application.
Because it is dry, poultry manure isn't regulated by the Department of Natural Resources like liquid hog manure is. McNeil says the stricter regulations on liquid manure seem to detract from its high fertilizer value. But he sees this attitude changing. He has two clients who run large crop operations, and they are arranging to have hog buildings put on every farm so they can use the manure. “That says they are starting to put more value on manure,” he says.
The greater demand for poultry manure over hog manure is somewhat misplaced. “I think you get a little better yield response from hog manure than poultry,” McNeil continues. “I'm seeing a 10 to 12 bu./acre increase in soybean yields and 15 to 20 bu./acre increase in corn yields.” To obtain these boosts, McNeil recommends applying hog manure every two years. After a couple of applications, the soil gradually changes from the organic matter in the manure and becomes more fertile.
Demand for hog manure has increased in southern Minnesota. “Ten years ago when you put up a barn and you needed more crop acres, it was challenging to get people to take the manure,” reports Bob Koehler, extension livestock specialist, Lamberton, MN. “But out here, fertilizer prices are up and the stuff is pretty good. Farmers use it so the demand has built up.”
Koehler agrees that manure will improve crop yields. He says some university research plots show a 7- to 10-bu./acre increase from hog manure.
In Minnesota, the market for hog and dairy manure is “chaotic,” Koehler states. Prices range from $0 to $85/acre. “There are all kinds of prices, but they are moving upward and towards the cost of commercial fertilizer per acre,” he says.
Pricing manure
Koehler helps growers and livestock producers determine prices for manure. He says pricing depends on many variables and can be complicated. But basically there are three steps to setting a value for manure.
First, farmers need to determine the crop nutrients that the manure will replace on a per-acre basis, which typically include nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). For corn ground, the fertilizer program is usually 140 lbs. N, 40 lbs. P and 40 lbs. K, all costing about $65/acre. Manure from hog-finishing units injected at 3,000 to 3,500 gal./acre can meet those fertilizer goals depending on nutrient concentration.
Second, growers should consider residual credits left over for the next year “but only if you are really replacing something you would buy,” Koehler says.
The third part of the equation is increased yields. Growers need to add the value of a yield boost, especially if they haven't used manure in the past. Other considerations for some growers might include a cost savings from a reduction in tillage due to the application of the manure, saving the cost of micronutrients that the growers might have purchased but that the manure replaces, and possibly an increase in weed control costs because of the manure.
For more information about determining manure value, visit Koehler's Web site at swroc.coafes.umn.edu/Bob/Koehler_main_pagehtml or call Koehler at 507/752-5065.
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