# stockpile manure



## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

Anyone in here stockpile cattle manure out in a field. Have a 90 head holstien barn that I can't haul out of till July due to growing crops. Also dosent help that they are really cracking down around here about spreading on frozen ground. Never had to do this so wondering some things.

Are there rules having to stay away from ditch? Live in northern ohio..

Is it hard to grow crops over the spot where you had a pile?

I was planning on piling on the corner of a standing wheat field. But where I want to pile is either close to a roadside ditch or close to a large ditch.


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## stickney farm (Jan 17, 2011)

cant spread in Vermont from dec 15 to april 1. pretty standard to just stockpile dry manure all winter in fields around here. if stockpiled on hay ground not much grows there but* mo*st pile a row along a tree line. on corn ground its a little lower yield where it was piled. cant help you with ohio rules but here its fine to pile next to a ditch as long as its not seeping into it here.


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## snowball (Feb 7, 2015)

I stock pile when the field are wet and don't want compaction or ruts.. Stickney is right not much grows where the pile was untill next yr.. I also don't know your Ohio laws .. but I would think if you silt fence around the ditch side of the pile you should be OK but DON"T take my word because I don't want you sending me your lawyer bill....and DNR fine


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## panhandle9400 (Jan 17, 2010)

We stockpile in a corner around our 125 ac . circles, they end dump 1500 to 2000 tons at each place until we are ready to spread it . All of the cow poo is dry . We even will stockpile at some of our dryland fields too. We are spreading some right now that has been stockpiled since last fall/winter .we get our cow poo from a 75000 head yard that neighbors us . After paying for it this year , I could of put on alot of commerical fertilizer, 90.00 to 120.00 per acre stockpiled and spread. I wish we had compost handy , No rocks,pipe, or chunks of cement from feedbunks. We get lab test done on most so we know how much of what is in each ton .


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## snowball (Feb 7, 2015)

panhandle9400 said:


> We stockpile in a corner around our 125 ac . circles, they end dump 1500 to 2000 tons at each place until we are ready to spread it . All of the cow poo is dry . We even will stockpile at some of our dryland fields too. We are spreading some right now that has been stockpiled since last fall/winter .we get our cow poo from a 75000 head yard that neighbors us . After paying for it this year , I could of put on alot of commerical fertilizer, 90.00 to 120.00 per acre stockpiled and spread. I wish we had compost handy , No rocks,pipe, or chunks of cement from feedbunks. We get lab test done on most so we know how much of what is in each ton .


Do you have a scale on the turd hurst ? so you have a idea how many ton/ac your spreading ?


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

I don't think in ohio your even allowed to stockpile outside on frozen ground . my biggest problem is I'd rather not spread in the spring due to moist soils easily compacted. And if it's fit to spread it's Prolly fit to plant, drill, spray. There is growing crops from mid April to July wheat harvest. Only time in the fall is after harvest which can go till thanksgiving. After thankgiving it can be sopping wet or the ground start freezes. So my only options are looking like stock piling on wheat field corners. 
I was hoping to run a deep chisel over the spot that has the pile in order to grow a crop in the corner.
Does anyone else think maybe we should get a raise for having to deal with these new manure handling regs! Hahaha! I mean I know cattle prices are good right now but they won't be forever, and we'll be dealing with these regulations forever


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

bbos2 said:


> I don't think in ohio your even allowed to stockpile outside on frozen ground . my biggest problem is I'd rather not spread in the spring due to moist soils easily compacted. And if it's fit to spread it's Prolly fit to plant, drill, spray. There is growing crops from mid April to July wheat harvest. Only time in the fall is after harvest which can go till thanksgiving. After thankgiving it can be sopping wet or the ground start freezes. So my only options are looking like stock piling on wheat field corners.
> I was hoping to run a deep chisel over the spot that has the pile in order to grow a crop in the corner.
> Does anyone else think maybe we should get a raise for having to deal with these new manure handling regs! Hahaha! I mean I know cattle prices are good right now but they won't be forever, and we'll be dealing with these regulations forever


Is this facility inspected on a regular basis? Do you have a NMP written for the operation? A NMP would explain how to handle this.


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## panhandle9400 (Jan 17, 2010)

snowball said:


> Do you have a scale on the turd hurst ? so you have a idea how many ton/ac your spreading ?


These spreader trucks hold 12 to 14 ton of dry, equipped with gps so they know how much a acre is when spreading . Then they can adjust accordingly to get right amount, unless the ******* dont know what he is doing .


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## snowball (Feb 7, 2015)

panhandle9400 said:


> These spreader trucks hold 12 to 14 ton of dry, equipped with gps so they know how much a acre is when spreading . Then they can adjust accordingly to get right amount, unless the ******* dont know what he is doing .


Carlos must of made his way to your part of the world when we shit canned him from our manure hauling business when I was in IA....he ran the pump tractor and would over fill the tanks ATLEAST once a day... maybe you should buy him a Mexican GPS unit.. (A burro and a compass )


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

I would setback from any water source that's kinda common sense. I absolutely hate stockpiling manure mainly cause if your stacking on the ground, no matter how dry and hard of a spot your stacking on it turns into mud underneath the pile. Second you have to handle it twice. But it has it's benefits as to spreading when its optimum. Fall seems to be the best time. Usually August-October seems to be best

Just definitely try to stack on a good hard dry spot


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

Bonfire said:


> Is this facility inspected on a regular basis? Do you have a NMP written for the operation? A NMP would explain how to handle this.


No not inspected by the state, just regularly inspected by any passer-byer with a cell phone.


Bgriffin856 said:


> I would setback from any water source that's kinda common sense.


I do always leave buffer, and we have right aways 30' along every ditch on All our farms. But I have heard having to be at least 300' away from a water sorce to stockpile manure. Heck that d be in the middle of the field.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

When dad was milking we stockpiled in 3 locations, 2 in the pasture one in a field. The one in the pasture had been used so long it actually became a pit. The one in the field was corn stubble, cleaned up every spring plowed and planted. Corn always grew good there. Just had to remember to never pull a soil sample from that spot.


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

What part of northern Ohio are you in? They are starting to get real picky in the Western Lake Erie water shed. They are offering quite a bit of EQUIP money for manure storage buildings and covered cattle lots.

When they say "water source" they are usually talking about a well, or a river that water is pulled out of for drinking. A "public" water supply system is actually 1000', a private well not under the owners control is 300' and 100' for under the owners control. These are from the NRCS Waste Storage Facility manual (code 313) This manual is for storage facilities though so I don't know how it pertains to temporary field storage.

Following is a link to the manure stockpile sheet.

http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/references/public/OH/oh634_Manure_Stockpiling_Job_Sheet_09-06-10.pdf

I would maybe just call your local NRCS office and ask them what they would like.. They are going to be the ones who would get called to inspect if someone complaints anyways. They may send you to a state level engineer which would be even better to get the right answers.


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

Common sense goes a long way.After a heavy rain or the pile thaws in spring where is it going to run?In today's world a lot of people are watching us and looking for something to complain about.Then after a oops of run off to a ditch,etc they pass a law and we ALL have more rules to follow.

I've heard some are pushing for manure stockpiles to be stored under roof.The trend here is more pit barns for cattle.Makes EPA,DNR,etc happy.


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## bbos2 (Mar 20, 2015)

Fowllife said:


> What part of northern Ohio are you in? They are starting to get real picky in the Western Lake Erie water shed. They are offering quite a bit of EQUIP money for manure storage buildings and covered cattle lots.
> 
> When they say "water source" they are usually talking about a well, or a river that water is pulled out of for drinking. A "public" water supply system is actually 1000', a private well not under the owners control is 300' and 100' for under the owners control. These are from the NRCS Waste Storage Facility manual (code 313) This manual is for storage facilities though so I don't know how it pertains to temporary field storage.
> 
> ...


I live in northwest Ohio and the lake Erie water shed is what I'm dealing with. I'm not spreading next to any direct water sorce. I've never had a problem here with any run off or complaints and I don't want to ever have any. Just seems like they're making it extra difficult. 
The lake Erie water shed was created by many different factors but it seems like the farmers are taking the brunt of it. Just wondering how others did it out there. Great link btw. Thanks


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## Fowllife (Sep 10, 2010)

I don't know if any of this will be helpful for you, but here is a link to all the design manuals and workbooks for Ohio

http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/toc.aspx?CatID=11673

And for anyone else, us the following link. Select your state, then county, then on the far left side under the FOGT folder select Section IV. Under table of content it should pull up all of your local regulations.

http://efotg.sc.egov.usda.gov/

One of the state engineers walked me through this on a recent job I was working on, it's the best way to find the most current regs.


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## snowball (Feb 7, 2015)

bbos2 said:


> No not inspected by the state, just regularly inspected by any passer-byer with a cell phone.
> I do always leave buffer, and we have right aways 30' along every ditch on All our farms. But I have heard having to be at least 300' away from a water sorce to stockpile manure. Heck that d be in the middle of the field.


Again I'am just going by Ia. laws, and NOT your ST laws or water shed laws either... the 300' is for a open water source lakes ponds creeks rivers etc. what I found unusual is it was only 60' from a well or a drop inlet in a terrace WTF is up with that...? The laws changed alot in 08 with pH. levels and the cover on the ground you spread on.. grass , corn stalks bean ground straw stubble and the soil class and slope.... if you also had over so many hd. of livestock you were required to have a MMP.. just as bonfire ask you about and then you had to have a certain number of ac. per hd of livestock. that was Ia.'s answer to the mega hog factories that the libs, and PTEA are after I'am surprised you are not required to have a plan in place since you are in a water shed like lake Eire.


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## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

bbos2 said:


> I live in northwest Ohio and the lake Erie water shed is what I'm dealing with. I'm not spreading next to any direct water sorce. I've never had a problem here with any run off or complaints and I don't want to ever have any. Just seems like they're making it extra difficult.
> The lake Erie water shed was created by many different factors but it seems like the farmers are taking the brunt of it. Just wondering how others did it out there. Great link btw. Thanks


I might would take this opportunity to have a NMP written for your farm. You say you don't want to have any complaints? Maybe take this opportunity to show your "effort" that you want to do the right thing. Get ahead of the curve. If something does happen (bad weather, equipment failure) in the future, you've got the NMP to fall back on.


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

Here they call them an EFP, if completed with soil types/wells/water bodies/slope/crops etc and it points to manure run off as a risk they can help with loans / grants for manure storage facilities.

Several folks put in lagoons, others put in pads and covers to reduce run off. I like the dry storage I think, not much you can do in Feb if your lagoon fills up.


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