# Manure vs chemical fertilizer



## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

Obviously it's going to depend on the composition of the manure to some extent, but how effective is a healthy serving of dairy manure to a field vs. fertilizer?

The University dairy farm just applied manure to one of my fields today as I can't treat it with fertilizer. I don't know what the final cost will be but the farm manager said it would be less than $200, it was just labor costs for spreading on this 7 acre field. I have another field that has to stay chemical free I'd consider treating with manure if it's effective, and I spend about $400/yr on fertilizer for my 5 acre field at my house (no lime, got heavy lime application last year).

I'm first wondering...

--if the cost I'm paying to have the manure spread in the first place is worth it (will I gain that money back in extra tonnage?)

--and if manure is effective, if I shouldn't just go to it for my 5 acre field at my house as well and cut costs.


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

Manure will always be a better option than fertilizer in my opinion. With fertilizer you are buying the exact composition you want however with the manure there are so many micronutrients as well as the organic matter you would be getting. A test of the manure will tell you the components but you will have to determine how much the rest of it is worth to you.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Manure usually stays with you longer than chemical and as Chris mentioned above, the organic matter is a huge plus....especially for those who farm sand.

Regards, Mike


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

well I think I really like the manure now. The farm manager called me tonight, he's a guy around my age, and he's not really interested in the money so they just spread about 40 tons of manure on the field at no charge. They hauled in 6 loads, and each load is 6-8 tons. The farm is only a mile from my house and from his perspective, it's helpful to them to have other local fields nearby they can spread on.

I drove through the field tonight and it's a nice consistent application. The comments above are encouraging, and the farm manager basically said the exact same thing. He said in his opinion manure is better than fertilizer..organic matter, MICROBES, and the nutrients are freely available/ready for use.

So now I would like to have it spread on my 5 acres, the problem I realized is the only field access is through my property. You actually have to drive over my nicely paved asphalt driveway (not compatible with heavy equipment), or a second more narrow driveway between trees, and through a section of yard. So not an option there which is pretty disappointing.

I asked my wife when I got home if I was a legit farmer now since my night was made that I had 40 tons of free manure spread on my field.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Sounds like they need a place to get rid of manure.....be careful and watch your soi tests carefully, could get out of balance with too much. That being said....how far do they deliver?


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

If they need another place I have about 15ac they can spread on....


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

somedevildawg said:


> Sounds like they need a place to get rid of manure.....be careful and watch your soi tests carefully, could get out of balance with too much. That being said....how far do they deliver?


Well my field at just 1 mile is a good distance. I had another field that's 3 miles away I asked if they wanted to spread on and he said he'd prefer to do the liquid manure on that field...they can haul more in a single trip and it's more efficient. So, if Tifton, GA is just down the road from me I'd say give him a call 

This soil has got to be pretty depleted, it hasn't had any nutrients added to it since cows came off it in spring 2016, which was the same year I started taking hay off, 3 cuttings a year. Cows had be run on it for several years before that.


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## vhaby (Dec 30, 2009)

Hayjosh said:


> "I drove through the field tonight and it's a nice consistent application. The comments above are encouraging, and the farm manager basically said the exact same thing. He said in his opinion manure is better than fertilizer..organic matter, MICROBES, and the nutrients are freely available/ready for use."


No one can argue that free manure on your soil is not a great thing. The added organic matter adds water holding capacity and plant nutrients, *but * not all the nutrients are freely available and the microbes in manure are not the microbes that are needed to mineralize (break down) the organic matter and liberate the tied up nutrients for plant use. Granted, the soil microbe population will rapidly increase following manure application and mineralization will rapidly increase because of this buildup.

Additionally, much of the nitrogen in the manure will volatilize as ammonia if the manure is not disked into the soil immediately following application. Also, rainfall sufficient to cause runoff will cause loss of much of the nutrient supply if the manure is not disked into the soil.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

What kind of application of manure is it bedding pack or liquid


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## swmnhay (Jun 13, 2008)

One thing you do have to watch for is compaction.Dont allow spreading on wet fields,spreaders are heavy.Especialy if you have alfalfa,crowns can be damaged causing them to die.

Here fall is preferred time to spread,typically dry and frost in winter heals compaction.

I do get ALOT of manure,both liquid and bedding pack but mainly haul it on ground going into corn.1.2M gal and 6000 ton.

Hands down way better fertilizer then commercial.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I've been considering using this organic manure company Humalfa for their mix. The reason over regular manure is that I'm afraid of weed seeds. Given the lousy hay that is fed most of the time to cows around here. But this company heats up their mix so the weed seeds are cooked. Some day maybe next year I'll try it.


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## Bgriffin856 (Nov 13, 2013)

It makes a big difference. Case in point this field was pretty well depleted when we purchased this property spread urea on the existing hay it helped then put into corn for two years then seeded it down adding fertlizer with each crop. Fertilized the spring after seeding then took the first crop kinda late as field is wet. To the left was spread on the end of september didn't have time to haul it that far while chopping corn came back middle of October to start again









Only problem is I wish I had more but then again some times chemical fertilizer is much easier and less time consuming


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

endrow said:


> What kind of application of manure is it bedding pack or liquid


It was bedding pack.

I got the ok from the landowner of a different field to spray slurry on that field.


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

Bgriffin856 said:


> It makes a big difference. Case in point this field was pretty well depleted when we purchased this property spread urea on the existing hay it helped then put into corn for two years then seeded it down adding fertlizer with each crop. Fertilized the spring after seeding then took the first crop kinda late as field is wet. To the left was spread on the end of september didn't have time to haul it that far while chopping corn came back middle of October to start again
> 
> 
> 
> ...


When I used to spread my horse manure from the winter you could tell exactly where I had spread it during the summer. The grass was much greener and taller there. Of course then I learned a valuable lesson as I started to see my field get WEEDS. Now I try to compost it for a year or two, but with all the more there is, it's really not even worth the effort.


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