Regardless of farm size or operation type, manure (or nutrient) management is something every dairy producer must be familiar with. Not giving this area due consideration and planning can have detrimental effects.

With a wide variety of manure management and nutrient recovery technologies available to dairy producers today, it can be difficult to know which one would be the best investment.

Balancing manure and fertilizer applications, crop production and environmental conservation is an ongoing challenge. Having the knowledge and understanding of several foundational principles of nutrient management can aid in making better farming decisions.

“What is my manure worth?” This is a common question I get once a producer understands what I do and my role with Nutrient Advisors. As any good consultant would answer, I say, “It depends.”

Dairy operations looking to add a manure processing or treatment option to the farm need to first understand what is driving this change.

Reading and interpreting a nutrient management plan (NMP) can be intimidating. The plan has a lot of charts, numbers and symbols. Restriction maps include a lot of squiggly lines, different-colored hash marks and a multitude of setback symbols that aren’t immediately obvious.

We live in changing times. Farming like your grandparents, your parents or even like your older siblings did may not be possible anymore. Agriculture still has not completely come to grips with the vast changes environmental concerns will thrust on the industry. We can’t even predict which environmental issue will overwhelm us next. There are so many possibilities: sediment, nutrients, biological oxygen demand (BOD), pathogens, antibiotics, hormones, heavy metals and others. Then there are the air issues: ammonia, PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns), VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and any kind of odor.