For more information contact: Ted Funk, [email protected], 217-369-7716

For livestock producers, fall harvest time means brushing up the manure application plan for action.  Here are some items to consider as you get ready to empty manure storages and spread nutrients for next year’s crop.

Plan manure application rate for each field.  It’s important that farms apply the right amount of nutrients on cropland, to reduce excess nutrient loss to surface water.  Download the free Illinois Manure Calculator for your smart phone from the Apple or Android store; type in your manure storages and manure tests, fields and yields.  With the mobile phone app, you can perform a quick rate calculation from the tractor seat and save it to your phone.  (For more information, request the Illinois Manure Calculator User’s Guide from the author at the email address listed above.)

Safety first.  Review your farm’s emergency response plan before you make applications.  Know the process, have phone numbers and a pocket guide for response easily accessible to everyone involved with manure pumping and spreading.  

Beef slotted-floor liquid manure pit systems have safety concerns that have become more prominent in the last couple of years, with some fatal accidents of farmers making the news in the Corn Belt states.  There may be multiple factors involved in the rash of accidents: Animal diets containing more sulfur (distillers grains) and thus more toxic gas produced; the construction of more and larger slotted-floor finishing buildings in the region; and a new generation of operators unfamiliar with liquid manure safety procedures.  Producers with liquid manure systems should review the next bulleted items, and train employees and family members about safe manure handling.

• Keep children away while agitating and emptying manure storages!
  
• Use care during agitation of liquid manure in underfloor pits, keeping workers out of buildings and watching for signs of animal distress. 
  
• Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is the most toxic manure gas produced from beef manure, and is often the responsible factor in fatal manure-pumping accidents. H₂S is heavier than air, and at low concentrations smells like rotten eggs.  At only 100 parts per million, it is immediately dangerous to your health. During manure agitation, the H₂S concentration in or near the manure storage can easily exceed 1,000 parts per million, a concentration that can kill people and animals quickly.
  
• Take animals out of the building while emptying the manure pit, if possible; otherwise, make sure all curtains are open in naturally ventilated buildings, all ventilation fans are on, and observe the animals carefully from outside the building during operations. 
  
• Put caution tags on entry doors during agitation and pumping.  
  
• Pit gases present more hazard on days with calm or little wind. Windy days are better for dispersing gases.
  
• If there is foam on the manure surface, be aware of methane explosion hazards as the foam is broken up during agitation. 
  
• When agitating manure in an underfloor pit, start slowly, observe conditions, and avoid "rooster tails" of liquid manure above the surface when you first start to agitate.  If animals must be left in the building during manure pumpout, be prepared to shut off the agitator immediately upon seeing any signs of manure-gas distress in the animals.

Consider getting a hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) single gas monitor for anyone who must be near the building during pumping (such as a person operating pumpout equipment). The monitor is worn on the collar, thus measuring gas concentration near the person’s breathing space. Single gas monitors are available at safety supply houses; monitors that are calibrated for two years cost about $100 each. Common monitors are set to alarm you starting at 10 ppm H₂S, and they read out concentrations up to 100 ppm.

Get manure sample kits in hand. As an important part of the manure management plan, manure should be sampled every year; so contact your lab to obtain the submittal forms and kits early. Grab good composite samples as you pump, ship the samples promptly, and ask the lab to perform the standard TKN, ammonium-N, P, K, and solids tests. 

Observe biosecurity protocols when pumping and transporting manure. Equipment can carry pathogens, so exercise caution and clean the equipment thoroughly when moving from farm to farm.

Keep good records. As soon after harvest as you can, record moisture-adjusted crop yields on the fields where you spread manure, so you can enter those yields in your updated nutrient management plan. Streamline the manure nutrient management plan process so that it gets done. One suggestion is to print out one field map per page, indicate where setbacks exist, and put in the application rates to use for this year. Drivers can sketch where applications start and stop in each field, and keep a tally of loads hauled. In case of a farm inspection, regulators appreciate simple maps with clear indications of such information.

Calibrate your spreader and record the results.  Check calibration as soon as you can during the application. Adjust the rate according to your calibration, and keep track of the total volume or tonnage spread on a complete field, to calculate gallons or tons per acre used.  A volume/area computation is a good backup calibration. It’s important to be able to show that you calibrated the spreader, if an agency inspector asks for your records.

Spread carcass compost.  Consider sending a composite sample of well-cured compost to your lab, since the compost is supposed to be part of your nutrient management plan. Once the compost bins are cleaned out, inspect the bins and repair any leaks in the back of bins where liquid leachate gets away. Get compost carbon source supplies locked in for the winter.

For liquid manure storages, get a depth measurement instrument for manure storage. Consider mapping the solids depth in underslat pits with a laser device. You can put a pocket laser distance meter on a PVC pipe stand and carry it through the building to measure manure surface between the slats. If you can pump the liquid down completely, you can easily measure, map, and record solids buildup with the laser distance meter.  Laser distance meters adequate for this purpose are available for less than $100.

For more information on any of the topics listed above, check out the U of I website www.manurecentral.illinois.edu or contact the author. Please be safe this fall!