Looking ahead to spring manure: ManureDB, research updates & best practices for MN farmers
Hello and welcome back to University of Minnesota Extension's nutrient management podcast. I'm Jack Wilcox in communications with Extension.
Jack Wilcox:It's February and we are discussing manure as we head into spring. Our panel of three manure nutrient management specialists and researchers will talk about what's new with ManureDB, the online manure database, current as well as upcoming research, and then of course, best practices on sampling and safety measures.
Jack Wilcox:Everyone please go ahead and introduce yourselves.
Melissa Wilson:Hi, everyone. I'm Melissa Wilson. I'm an associate professor at the University of Minnesota.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:Hi, everyone. A pleasure being here. Eduardo Garay. I'm an on farm research manager and outreach specialist working with the manure management team at the University of Minnesota.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Hello, everyone. I'm Nancy Bohl Bormann. I'm a manure and nutrient management researcher at the University of Minnesota.
Jack Wilcox:Nancy, you work extensively with the manure database called ManureDB, which, by the way, can be found at manuredb, like delta bravo .umn.edu. Can you update us on what's new with the toolset?
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Sure. I'd be glad to. One of the big milestones we've achieved recently with ManureDB, which is the manure and organic amendment database for those unfamiliar. It can be found at manuredb.umn.edu, or just search ManureDB in any of your favorite search engines. One of our big accomplishments as of December was that we crossed over 550,000 samples in the database, so we're very excited about that.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:We added a good number of new data collaborators last year along with adding twenty twenty four data. We're just continuing now to have submissions of twenty twenty five data, so hope to add that in here over the next months. Website keeps improving, making more user friendly interfaces and, you know, ways to look at the data or download it if you are interested.
Jack Wilcox:You also publish a newsletter called the ManureDB Progress Update that keeps us in the loop about not only the web tool, but also outreach events like the conferences at which you present. What are some key takeaways from those conferences?
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Sure. Yes. For those interested, we do send out a periodic newsletter. Try to do it a few times a year. And if you are interested, you know, go to the website and there's a contact tab and you can sign up for future ones.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Few items that we did in 2025, we presented out at the Waste to Worth conference about manure nutrient trends. You know, we've been featured in the Manure Manager magazine. We've done different regional comparisons and and talk about dairy manure nutrient compositions at the International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis. A journal article published this year on journal of the ASABE about the design of the database. So if you're really interested in digging the details, that's available.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Talked about poultry mineral observations in MinorDB. Talked about Midwest Dairy Manure at the North Central Soil Fertility Conference in Des Moines in November. Also, had a University of Minnesota research brief just about the project come out in December. Had some good publicity using the data over the past year.
Jack Wilcox:Could you walk us through the actual tool manuredb.umn.edu? For example, what does a farmer see when they visit for the first time?
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Yes. On our main page, we have a data dashboard, and this could be very useful for farmers or agronomists looking to wanna, like, benchmark their manure samples to the collective and a for a certain kind of animal or region or state, for example. We like to show the median, which is, like, the middle amount of sample along, like, the twenty fifth and seventy fifth percentile. So that shows the middle 50% of samples. In many cases, you could see it's a wide range, but you could kind of see where you fall in that.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:And if that makes sense to you for what it is, we really I mean, this should also highlight how important taking your own mineral sample off for your your own operation and, you know, having the the most precise nutrient management plan for your situation. But it does definitely give you can compare to other scenarios that you might be interested in.
Melissa Wilson:Sometimes we get questions about what expected nutrient concentrations you might find in different kinds of manure. Maybe people have asked Nancy what kind of sulfur levels can we expect in manure or that sort of thing. But we also see this as being able, as she mentioned, a benchmark. So say you look up swine manure or tricholita or whatever in your area and it turns out you have way more nitrogens than might be typical, then you might wanna consider backing off on the nitrogen levels in your feed or something like that. So it's just things like that that agronomists and, folks who are working with nutrition, animal nutrition, can look at and kind of see where they are.
Melissa Wilson:One of the things, though, that we've learned is that when people are taking their own samples, and as Nancy said, it's super important to take your own samples, filling out those sheets that you submit with the sample, saying exactly what type of manure it is, how it was stored, that sort of thing is really important. Like, right now, our data says, like, this is poultry litter. We don't know if it's from turkeys necessarily. That is one of the things that people can do to help us improve the database is just filling out those lab forms because that is going to help us be able to identify these samples a little bit better and narrow down so that people can actually look at and compare apples to apples.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Yes. There's a wide variety of details available on the samples, but we're, you know, at the mercy of what we have from our data collaborators.
Jack Wilcox:The dashboard is easy to use and it returns like a graphic or a visual representation, but you can download data for yourself too if you would like. There are other tabs though with additional resources. Tell us what else is there.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:We have the data explorer. It's a nice easy way to see it for more detailed samples, like Melissa said. Some we have only labeled poultry, but we also do have quite a few labeled chicken broilers or turkeys, for example. So you could see for a certain region or state, what do we have for those more details available. And we also have different unit units available too.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:If you want percent or pounds per thousand gallons or pounds per ton, you know what, we have that available option too, how you want to view the data.
Jack Wilcox:And you have videos too.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:We just had a recent webinar for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in January. That's a good walking through of the database and some examples that's available on that resources tab.
Jack Wilcox:Let's turn to research projects in Minnesota. Melissa, walk us through the research that farmers and producers might wanna know is going on.
Melissa Wilson:Yeah. We have a couple different research projects going on at any given time. One that we are just wrapping up is the trying to see if the PSNT can predict, which is the pre sidedress nitrate test, if that can predict the nitrogen availability from manure to see if we need any more additional nitrogen in the season. So this one is if you go in and apply a lower nitrogen rate, so maybe you're basing your manure application rate on phosphorus or something, and then you can use a PSNT taken around the v four, v six growth period. So, you know, roughly when corn is knee high or so to see what the nitrate levels look like in the soil.
Melissa Wilson:That's a foot deep of a sample. And can we predict how much nitrogen might be needed or if it's needed at all? Because that's the one thing about manure. It's always the gift that keeps on giving, but it is variable from year to year. Some years, it mineralizes more than we expect, so you might not need additional nitrogen.
Melissa Wilson:And some years, that nitrogen doesn't mineralize as fast as we thought, so you might have more in store than you were originally thinking. Or you might have lost some, so you might need additional nitrogen. So that's kind of one of the studies that we're just wrapping up and hoping to have some more final results. Another study that we started last year and we'll be continuing this year is our manure timing study. And as far as I know, this is the first time that all these different timings have been directly compared, at least in Minnesota.
Melissa Wilson:We're looking at an early fall application of manure, a when the soil temperature is still warm, a late fall application when soil temperatures have cooled to below 50 degrees, a spring application, which is pre plant. And then if it's a liquid manure, we're also doing an in season application right around that side dressing time. So this is the first time I think anyone has done all of these different types of application. And at one site, we're doing dairy manure and beef manure in a continuous corn rotation for silage corn. And then in the second site, we're doing turkey litter and liquid swine manure in a corn system that was following soybeans.
Melissa Wilson:So that's a corn soybean rotation. So we have one year of data, and there is definitely differences in how much nitrogen was available depending on the timing. So that was super interesting to see, but we obviously wanna get another year of results before we start really seeing any trends. So that's a fun project. And then, third one is we're going to be finishing up.
Melissa Wilson:I think this will be our last year coming up looking at mineral application in a sugar beet rotation. So I like to joke that we're turning poop into the sweet stuff in this case. The idea there was, like, sugar beets are an interesting crop because they want a lot of nitrogen upfront, but they do not want a lot of nitrogen later in the growing season because that actually hinders sugar production. It basically keeps driving vegetative production above ground rather than allowing the sugars to kinda form. So with manure, the question is should we put manure on before sugar beets?
Melissa Wilson:Because manure, like I said before, is a gift that keeps on giving and gives nitrogen late in the growing season. So we weren't sure if that would affect sugar content, and so far, we're seeing that it hasn't, which is, been pretty great. So it's looking good. But that's one project we're lasting up this or we're finishing up this last year, and it's been a six year project, so we've actually applied manure twice in that rotation.
Jack Wilcox:I'd bet that after a six year project, you have a lot of data to comb through.
Melissa Wilson:Absolutely. We've looked at yield data between all the different years, but we have soils data, all kinds of stuff that we have to see if we can explain some of the differences we saw between years.
Jack Wilcox:Chloride and manure came up at the recent nutrient management conference in Mankato just a couple of weeks ago. Another researcher, Carl Rosen, who's also been on the podcast, talked about a project that both you and he are working on. Could you summarize that information?
Melissa Wilson:So I'm on that project with him as well. This has been a really interesting project. So typically with manure, people are worried about nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, etcetera. But another big issue in Minnesota is that they're finding rising levels of chloride in our waterways, and there's a lot of sources potentially of chloride, including, you know, water softeners and things like that. But one of the things we don't know about is, like, how much is coming from agriculture.
Melissa Wilson:One of the main fertilizers for potassium, for instance, is potassium chloride. It's potash. But we don't know how much is coming from manure, so the idea was, you know, maybe to test that. So we sent out some of these manure samples to labs and got chloride tested. But what was interesting that Carl found is that the amount of chloride taken up in the plants appears to be more than we thought we applied with the manure.
Melissa Wilson:So it seems like something's off with the testing. Maybe we don't have as good of a method at testing chloride and or, because both are a possibility, that there's actually a lot more chloride attached to organic matter than we thought, so it's not just out in the chloride form. So those are kinda both things that are happening that we're finding out. So kind of kinda cool. You know, all plants need chloride.
Melissa Wilson:It's a micronutrient. But if the plants aren't using it, it is something that can also leach into our groundwater ways. So it's definitely one of those kind of up and coming nutrients that we're thinking about, and maybe we need to think about how we're testing for chloride in manure.
Jack Wilcox:So that's research occurring now. Eduardo, what are some of the upcoming opportunities for farmers to participate in on farm research?
Eduardo Garay Lagos:So just to give you kind of like an overall context, and if you're tuning in for the first time, think that, you know, our main goal with this project is that over the next two years, we want to partner and work with 12 farms across south across Southern Minnesota. Kind of like our main goal and what we're trying to achieve with this project is that kind of like as a higher level mandate is improving best management practices involving manure across the state. Right?
Eduardo Garay Lagos:And, you know, one of the really great things and fascinating things, one of the things that probably excites me the most about working with this project is that, you know, the fact that it's so broad that actually allows us or gives us a lot of breathing room to actually work with anything that has to do with improving manure best management practices. So just to give you a couple of examples, like, you know, like, what we're trying to do is working everything from nitrification inhibitors to cover crops to potentially applying manure then using side dressing rates on top of that.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:So we really are open to anything. So just to prime our audience that, you know, if you have a couple of ideas out there, we know that our farmers are are quite curious. They're always, you know, actually applied researchers out there, right, whenever they work with their land. So bunch of these questions you might have, don't think that they're not valid for our program. Definitely feel free to kind of reach out and pitch in some some of these potential ideas you might have.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:As of now, we actually have, from these 12 farms that I mentioned that we want to work with over the next two years, so that means basically six farms per year. We actually have four farms that we're working with right now for experiments that are spread out across Southeastern And South Central Minnesota. We're working with both liquid dairy and liquid swine manure. Kind of like just to give you a brief overview of these projects, for example, right now we're working, you know, with two of these farms that are actually coupling cover crops with manure applications. These are for corn silage and for corn grain systems as well.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:And, you know, one of the two actually, two farms are also, you know, kind of like testing this emerging technology that we're quite excited about, which is a manure sensing technology from John Deere. And, you know, it's it's actually quite fascinating. This is gaining a lot of traction and, you know, some preliminary results, that we we have actually observed from this study actually tells us that these manure sensing technology might actually do a great job with nitrogen and specifically trying to fine tune the actual, nitrogen that you're applying whenever you're applying when you're out there. So some exciting stuff out there. And just to give you a couple of examples of what we're doing right now, you know, one of the great things of of working with on farm research is that you get a lot of that interaction, with our farmers out there as well.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:And I'm gonna tell you, like, right off the bat, they're great partners. Something that I learned pretty quickly is that, you know, they are you know, and that that's, like, kind of, like, a an obvious statement here. Right? But it's been very, very fascinating to kind of, like, corroborate how great of a land stewards they're out there. And more importantly, right, they they are very cognizant of the fact that they're actually, you know, out there every single day.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:They they actually depend on this land, so they wanna be the best land stewards, you know, as much as possible as they can be. Right? There are people that are really passionate to work with as well. So just to kind of, like, wrap up, you know, as of now, as I mentioned, we have a representation in the South Central, Southeastern region of the state. It would be amazing for anyone that is tuning in, if you're kind of, like, based in the Southwestern part of the state.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:We would love to hear from you as well, continue potentially, you know, getting more of these ideas out there, working together as well to get more of our own farm projects out there. But even if you're not based in the Southwestern part of the state and, as a general statement, you're in the Southern portion of the state, again, we still have six spots to fill in for the second year of these, project, so there's still plenty of room, to work together. So, yeah, quite exciting things going on on the on farm component.
Melissa Wilson:I just wanna add in that right now, we have funding for these 12 sites to help offset some of the things going on. Like, you're if you're applying manure, we can help offset of those costs, that sort of thing. But if this project is successful and we are able to show some of the best management practices that people are using and that it's working, We would love to expand this program to future years and continue seeking funding. So we're hoping that this is just the start of something like good some great partnerships across the state, but we just gotta get started and hopefully start it on a good foot.
Jack Wilcox:If anyone would like to participate in on farm research or if you just have questions, please reach out to the manure team at manure.umn.edu.
Melissa Wilson:Yeah. And just to specify, right now we have funding from Minnesota farmers. Unfortunately, not out of state at this time, but who knows? Maybe we could start a big on farm network in the Upper Midwest or nationally in The US, whatever it might be.
Jack Wilcox:Like I said at the top, we're recording this conversation in February, so we're coming into early spring. Nancy and Melissa, earlier you talked about how important it is for farmers to be detailed in the samples that they collect. What are some other reminders or best practices for safety recommendations? What kind of PPE should you keep handy? What about the actual manure plan? What would you recommend to farmers coming up here?
Melissa Wilson:Yes to all of the above things you mentioned. For sampling coming up, definitely getting your samples collected is great. A lot of people will collect their samples as they're applying manure. Typically, we see a lot of application happening in the fall, but dairies, etcetera, might be applying this spring. So getting some samples collected and sent in is always great.
Melissa Wilson:We recommend if you are sampling your manure to get it done at least every three to four years, particularly if you have a pretty regimented nutrition system and you don't think things are gonna change, then you can probably go out to that every three or four years. If you're doing kinda new feed sources every couple of months, mixing in different things, then in that case, you might wanna consider getting your manure analyzed annually just so you can get a rough estimate of how much it might change and how much different feed sources might affect your nitrogen. For instance, we know, like, sometimes if hay from different areas might be brought into your farm or, like, sometimes you can get a good deal on sunflower seed hauls to feed your cattle, etcetera. So just kinda keeping track of variation in your manure can be a really good source of information for you. Yeah.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Do have an open storage? Yeah. With the precipitation changes.
Melissa Wilson:Oh, yeah. Definitely. That's been changing drastically from year to year. More rain in your manure is gonna dilute it down. So different than if it's a really dry year where a lot of evaporation has actually occurred, and the nutrients might be higher.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:This is also a great time of year. What's a little bit slower to go through your records, you know, get get your records filed together, pull all your things together, your applications, you know, take a look at your soil tests, See if you need to, you know, order soil tests for the coming year. If you just got soils tests taken, you know, a good time to review those and, you know, just sit down and take have a little bit more time and thought, you know, putting into what you want, what happened last year and what you wanna do, you know, in the year to come.
Melissa Wilson:Yeah. That's a great point. We talk about manure management. Thinking about your whole farm manure management is really important, and not only it's like what you did in the past, but also what you're planning to do, come fall because sometimes fall can come hard and fast where you're harvesting and then trying to get manure applied. So thinking about what you're gonna do in the future during these slow times is really important.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Checking your mineral storages as spring approaches and see if you need to if you weren't planning to take any out, or do you think you will to, you know, make it through the growing season? Another, you know, thing to be monitoring as well.
Melissa Wilson:One of the things we like to recommend is having a gas sensor if possible. You do sometimes it depends on the brand. You have to calibrate them regularly, so that might be a good thing to do this time of year is getting those calibrated and making sure they're working. But, like, hydrogen sulfide is a pretty nasty gas, and it's heavier than air typically, so that means, like, from the storage, it will kind of be towards the ground. So you can kind of, like, it's completely clear, so it's not like you can see this, but you could walk into it and suddenly not have enough oxygen in the area where you're breathing.
Melissa Wilson:So having sensors can help. The one thing about hydrogen sulfide too is it knocks out your sense of smell. Like, you'll smell it at first. Hydrogen sulfide smells like rotten eggs, but it knocks out your sense of smell. So you might think, like, oh, it must be blowing away because I don't smell it anymore, and that might not be the case.
Melissa Wilson:So having sensors to help with that.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Taking this time too in the winter to review your emergency plans and education if you have employees about, you know, making sure no one's in the barn, if you have a deep pit, for example, and you're hauling manure. So, again, just a good time to review those best practices and safety things if you have multiple people involved with your farm.
Jack Wilcox:You told us in the past to gather up the emergency phone numbers beforehand in case you need to call somebody, also to write down a physical description of the farm.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:Yeah. It's just, like, so important and to remember ourselves that, you know, a bunch of the work and no. Actually, not a bunch of the work. Most of this work, like, is done in remote areas. Right?
Eduardo Garay Lagos:Like, we need to have, like, like, some sort of response plan ready to go because, like, just as you mentioned, like, even describing where is the farm, like, which field are you working with. Those are things that could save a lot of time and could actually make a huge difference as well whenever you're trying to deal with one of these situations.
Jack Wilcox:Again, can reach out to the manure team, our three panelists here among others at manure.umn.edu. Thank you all for being here.
Nancy Bohl Bormann:Thanks, Jack.
Eduardo Garay Lagos:Thank you for having us.
Melissa Wilson:Thanks. Always enjoy talking about poop.
Jack Wilcox:Do you have a question about something on your farm? Just send us an email here at nutmgmt@umn.edu. Thanks a lot for listening, and we look forward to seeing you next time.
Jack Wilcox:We'd like to thank the Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Council, or AFREC, for supporting the podcast.
