# Cost Analysis; Poultry Litter Vs. Rock Fertilizer.



## Vol

Progressive Forage Grower.

Regards, Mike

https://www.progressiveforage.com/forage-production/management/cost-analysis-rock-fertilizer-vs-poultry-litter


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## haybaler101

A little under valued @ $15 per ton and $8/ton to spread turkey manure. Every test I have ever run has been at least 35-35-35, usually more like 50-35-35. Of course, I have plenty, so all my ground going to corn gets 4 ton per acre. And corn yields are phenomenal!


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## Vol

That would be $46 for two ton spread per acre......a great value when compared to $92 rock fertilizer in the article. I sure wish I could get that here. It would not take too many years to build luxury P & K in the soil bank. Do you compost any Joe or send it out as soon as it is removed?

Regards, Mike


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## haybaler101

Vol said:


> That would be $46 for two ton spread per acre......a great value when compared to $92 rock fertilizer in the article. I sure wish I could get that here. It would not take too many years to build luxury P & K in the soil bank. Do you compost any Joe or send it out as soon as it is removed?
> 
> Regards, Mike


Just depends. What I had spread last month was composted 3 and 6 months. Selling birds tonight and tomorrow and plan was to go straight to the field this week with manure but have heavy rain coming in as we speak so it looks like it will be stacked and composted.


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## Lewis Ranch

Here chicken litter is running $35-$38 a ton delivered. I’m not sure on the cost to spread as a good friend owns a litter spreader.


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## somedevildawg

Lewis Ranch said:


> Here chicken litter is running $35-$38 a ton delivered. I'm not sure on the cost to spread as a good friend owns a litter spreader.


Do they test it? And can you believe them to give you accurate results? I would like to try it for the OM that it provides, just not sure the neighbors will tolerate it......


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## Lewis Ranch

They will show you test but who knows if it's accurate. Don't worry about the neighbors it's more than worth the fuss.


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## FarmerCline

I would love to use litter not only for the NPK but also the organic matter that you don't get with granular fertilizer. Unfortunately my land owners won't allow it because of the smell....yet another disadvantage to farming in a populated area.


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## slowzuki

Yup same problem here, owners hate it. It’s free for the taking but trucking is about 300$ for a triaxle load. May try composting some of it under tarps sometime.


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## paoutdoorsman

I put 3 ton/acre on all my ground that was going to wheat. You can help your neighbors with the smell if you spread it before a rain or work it in soon after. I'm having several more tri-axle loads next week, and will spread it on my grass hay acres. For me, it pencils out.


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## PaMike

I dont think the dry stuff smells THAT BAD. You should smell the wet soupy stuff out of caged layer houses....

I give $5/ton and $2/ton to rent the spreader. Usually run it all day to haul maybe 50-60 tons from a neighbor. I use an 8 ton lime spin spreader and it works slick as can be.


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## somedevildawg

Lewis Ranch said:


> They will show you test but who knows if it's accurate. Don't worry about the neighbors it's more than worth the fuss.


I have to worry about them......< a mile from the city limit sign and houses all around.


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## slowzuki

Rural but next to a campground here.



somedevildawg said:


> I have to worry about them......< a mile from the city limit sign and houses all around.


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## haybaler101

I spread one of my farms that borders a town of 500 people. Just make sure I have a couple days of south wind and chase the spreader with the turbo till.


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## endrow

I always worried if you use chicken manure for a couple years you may build up some residual N. Then when you plant wheat or barley for grain you would have that all laying flat.


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## PaMike

somedevildawg said:


> I have to worry about them......< a mile from the city limit sign and houses all around.


Wow, you guys must get bullied. We are in an strong ag area, but still have 10,000 city idiots around us. Every field I farm has housing development on at least one side. We just spread it, and that's how it is. If you don't like the smell there isn't much we can do about it...



endrow said:


> I always worried if you use chicken manure for a couple years you may build up some residual N. Then when you plant wheat or barley for grain you would have that all laying flat.


Can you expand on this thought? Are you saying because of the N that's not available the first year? I wouldn't have guessed you would have a problem with too much N in following years unless you were putting tons and tons to the acre...


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## slowzuki

Everything I've read is you'll end up short on nitrogen if you use chicken litter at the rate to meet your phosphorus. If you apply enough to meet all the nitrogen needs you will have too much phosphorus and risk runoff.



endrow said:


> I always worried if you use chicken manure for a couple years you may build up some residual N. Then when you plant wheat or barley for grain you would have that all laying flat.


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## slowzuki

Edit and even worse if you compost it, you can loose something like 1/2 the nitrogen value if there isn’t enough carbon mixed into it during the compost process.


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## somedevildawg

for all of those reasons ^^^^ I think I'll continue using commercially available NPK either in rock or liquid form, although I would like to do 1 application a year of litter. The community would be a bit pissed, but ifn ya picked a good day with favorable winds, you could target your least favorite neighbor b)


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## glasswrongsize

Local BTO uses chikn litter as well as egg shells...dropped a few semi loads off at the edge of a field for a couple of weeks. Smell was enough to knock a buzzard offn a gut wagon for the first day then crusted over and wasn't bad at all.

Then came the day of spreading...made the first smell seem like a rose garden. That was awful loud in the nasal region!!!! He tilled it in right after spreading and smell was GONE. All-in-all, it wasn't bad as I anticipated.

If I had access to a mess of it, I wouldn't be afraid to spread it near my house...'course, I also raise hogs on the ground 

Mark

PS I sure do understand not wanting to tee off the neighborhood folks...as much as I think a feller oughtta be able to do with his land as he wishes, I also believe that he should be considerate of his neighbors. Smells, noises, drifting, etc... are all a part of farming and should be understood by the neighbors and also need to be contained (within reason) by the farmer. Everyone has their own balancing act to do. My neighbors (closest one being 3/4 miles away) tend to get some eggs, home butchered meat, and baked goodies from time to time...ifn a critter gets out, I get a call from them before they call the law on me


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## Lewis Ranch

somedevildawg said:


> for all of those reasons ^^^^ I think I'll continue using commercially available NPK either in rock or liquid form, although I would like to do 1 application a year of litter. The community would be a bit pissed, but ifn ya picked a good day with favorable winds, you could target your least favorite neighbor b)


Spread before a rain and you won't have any problems. A little stink never hurt anyone


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## somedevildawg

Lewis Ranch said:


> Spread before a rain and you won't have any problems. A little stink never hurt anyone


Yea, and I'll rely on who to tell me that.....all the real meteorologists have taken a vacation this year  best bet might be the day it's a 10% chance. 
I may try some on a 50 acre field that has a mobile home park very close by  is that descriminitory on my part? Dont think I'll get away with it with the field next to the orthopedic surgeon and the anesthesiologist.....hell, I'm purty sure they may believe their own don't stink


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## endrow

PaMike said:


> Wow, you guys must get bullied. We are in an strong ag area, but still have 10,000 city idiots around us. Every field I farm has housing development on at least one side. We just spread it, and that's how it is. If you don't like the smell there isn't much we can do about it...
> 
> Can you expand on this thought? Are you saying because of the N that's not available the first year? I wouldn't have guessed you would have a problem with too much N in following years unless you were putting tons and tons to the acre...


 yes that was my thinking if only 65 to 75% is available for this year's crop does some of that carry over or does it just all Leach away over the winter


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## FarmerCline

For me I don't worry so much about what the neighbors have to say......not their property so if they don't like it that's just too bad.....not like its a permanent smell anyway as if I was building a chicken house next to them. But I do have to abide by the land owners wishes if I want to continue farming. It was layed down to me by all of the land owners that if I were to have chicken litter spread that I would no longer be on their property. I have one absentee land owner that would not care but that field is in the city limits so I would be in a heap of trouble if I had it spread there......already had the police called on me for running a tractor at night and supposedly "disturbing the peace".


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## reede

It takes 4 years for all the N in poultry litter to break down to plant availability. Don't remember the percentages per year, but the largest contribution was in year 2. So, if you apply for 4 years in a row, in year 4 and thereafter you would be getting the full contribution. That coming from my county extension agent, who is the CAMM specialist for the state.

I really use litter more for the P, K, and micros, and figure that the N is a nice source of background where I don't have to add quite as much along.

Here, most of the broiler houses have started only cleaning houses maybe once a year, doing a windrow technique in between, and it seems to be more concentrated now on the P and K side of things. Still to early to tell definitively, but my K levels really shot up in the one field I happened to test last year shortly after application.


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## swmnhay

Lewis Ranch said:


> Spread before a rain and you won't have any problems. A little stink never hurt anyone


drove by a field all fall that was spread with chicken layer shit.After a light rain it smelled worse.That chicken layer shit makes hog shit smell good!odd they let it lay without working it in right away.I would think they lost a lot of the N.They worked it in a couple weeks after spreading it on bean stubble that will be corn next yr.


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## mlappin

Here you have to worry about excessive calcium levels building up. Most guys spread every other year. If we were to do it again, we'd have to have our own spreader, specifically showed the operator where not to drive with a full load, so of course they did.


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## skyrydr2

We mix it with sawdust from a local sawmill and let it compost for a year before spreading. No smell and it grows anything thay it is near! I use it exclusively even in my home garden.. a foot thick. My garden soil is like greenhouse mix. Only thing you can't plant in it is taters they get all scabby and the skins are tough as shoe leather.
We never use it straight up on hay fields because it makes the hay stink! Nothing will eat the bales.. so we mix it and compost it first.


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