Manure Nutrient Recycling and Environmental Assurance

Manure Nutrient Recycling and Environmental Assurance

Summary

Increased efforts in manure management in Michigan are creating a new private consulting industry to work with producers on comprehensive nutrient management plans. This is vital to large operators to come into compliance with the new permit system, necessary to any size producer seeking NRCS EQIP cost share funds, and also valuable to any producer in the state who voluntarily seeks recognition through the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program.

A strong educational emphasis by MSU Extension and the MAEAP partners is resulting in on-farm changes that include record keeping, manure and soil testing, spreading plans, calibration, setbacks and buffers, collection of silage leachate, and much greater attention to field applications of manure. This leading to greater protection of our water resources and improved success in developing CNMPs.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The Manure AOE has utilized these SARE funds in several different avenues.

No. 1: Funding mini-grants to agents to implement projects locally. This has taken the form of field tours, on-farm plot demonstrations, and/or classroom meetings.

No. 2: Curriculum development, specifically educational materials for agents to use with producers.

No. 3: In-service training sessions where agents can learn to use the materials mentioned above.

No. 4: The ability of agents to attend national meetings for professional development and future contacts and resources.

Accomplishments/Milestones

A brief background on the big picture of manure management in Michigan would be helpful in understanding the Extension efforts of this SARE project.

In 1998, the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) was formed based on the recommendation of the Michigan Agricultural Pollution Prevention Strategy. The goal is to provide a program to agricultural producers that is proactive, voluntary and education-based, ultimately leading to an on-site visit that will certify them “environmentally assured” by the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Developing a CNMP for manure management is a large educational component of this program. MAEAP began piloting their three-phase program to producers in January 2001. In December 2002, a new Permit system was signed into the state. This mostly impacts 1,000 animal unit farms or larger, but all livestock producers are closely watching what is being asked of these producers as they feel it won’t be long before the same requirements trickle down to smaller producers. A strong educational program from MSUE will be necessary to encourage producers to pursue a voluntary program. Through these efforts, many behavioral changes by producers and physical changes on the farmsteads related to manure management and environmental protection will occur.

For MSU to be successful in supporting the MAEAP and the new permit, Extension agents must increase training efforts to create a state infrastructure that supports producers to pursue this voluntary program. Due to the systems approach necessary for nutrient recycling and because each farm is unique, the participatory method of NRCS, Extension and producers working together, on-farm will be the preferred method of training. There is a very teachable moment to reach producers on manure management issues.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Information products from this report are available from the NCR-SARE office. Please call 402.472.7081 for copies.

Training for Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP) Providers:

A major goal of MAEAP is to create a new consulting business that provides CNMP development services. MSU Extension leads this educational effort. This is a large effort with several facets. Although the process can never be fast enough, it is moving forward faster now with assistance from the SARE funds. Below are the steps toward developing a new private consulting CNMP structure in Michigan:

1. 3-day CNMP plan provider course. Offered in September 2002, January 2003 and November 2003. 176 attended, including NRCS employees and engineering and agronomy consulting business persons. NRCS is seeing these Extension sponsored events replacing some of their in-house training for County and District staff. The class is sponsored by MSUE but approved by NRCS and MAEAP. There are 6 MSUE persons involved in the planning and teaching of this program: Lyndon Kelley, Marilyn Thelen, Dann Bolinger, Dr. Bickert, Dr. Rozeboom and Natalie Rector. The presentations have been well organized to avoid overlap, yet cover all necessary material. In-class work assignments are utilized to help the participants learn how to use the information. A very thorough notebook of materials is organized with relevant materials and the participants are encouraged to find the material for later reference. 80% of the PowerPoint handouts are included in the notebook prior to the training, so that the training is not disrupted by constantly handing out materials. Ratings from this class tend to run in the 93% range, indicating the overall class ranked a 4 or 5 out of a one to five scale, with 5 being excellent.

2. A sample swine CNMP had been handed out in a previous class, but this fall was the first time we distributed a sample dairy CNMP as well. This has been a long time in the making and several NRCS state staff reviewed the plan before it was distributed. This has been a huge effort and a very high priority. Having a sample to go from will reduce frustration, improve accuracy and speed up the process. We are already seeing CNMPs being turned in that are more complete, better organized and with better data in them due to following the sample CNMPs.

3. Computer software to improve both the accuracy and efficiency of CNMP development has been a high priority but one long in the making. The Michigan DEQ granted $10,000 to a project specific to contracting with a computer programmer to develop output data from the existing Purdue Manure Management Planner (MMP) software. The output creates pertinent data for the CNMP, aides the provider in generating comparison values. It is output into a Microsoft Word template, which is then easily edited and added to by the plan provider. This has been over a year in the making as it took a committee to decide just what data is important, how it should be calculated etc. It has also required continuous review to be sure the new template is calculating properly and across various situations. This is currently 80% completed. Once released for use, there will be at least three training dates for potential users. As with any computer program, if the data is not input properly, the output is scrambled.

4 After the template is completed, the sample swine and dairy plans will then be re-done to show the new format and potential of the software.

All of these items have been very high priority projects and were needed yesterday, so the addition of more assistance to achieve them, both sooner and with more ability to edit and proof, has been invaluable.

The above class has had some interesting and beneficial spin offs, such as:
Both Dann Bolinger, MSU Extension Dairy Agent and Natalie Rector have been guest speakers at the nationally recognized CNMP training in Tennessee. It is excellent to be able to visit with other states about CNMPs. Dr. Robert Burns, University of Tennessee, has spoken at the Michigan class. Rector has also attended the CNMP class in Indiana. A grant was written by Dr. Robert Burns and accepted for funding through CSREES 406 funds (Oct. 2003). Total grant is $290,115, of which $61,217 will be coming to MSUE over a three year time period. The grant is administered through the University of Tennessee, and includes Purdue, Michigan State and Idaho, both Extension and NRCS will participate. The grant is for development of a National CNMP training curriculum. Reciprocity of these classes, across state lines, is beginning to occur.

Another spin-off has been the involvement of Dr. Dale Rozeboom in teaching at the CNMP class. He then took over the semester class offered to students at MSU, teaching them the components of CNMP development. Many of the same presentation and presenters from the 3-day class assist in this class. His last class (Fall 2003) had 18 students, probably 6 of whom worked on CNMPs for their home farms, and I would anticipate seeing these CNMPs sometime in the future becoming official plans.

Rector also serves on a NRCS committee, to review the first CNMP of a plan provider, making an on-farm visit, critiquing the CNMP and assisting the provider to make improvements. This can easily take 2-5 days of time per plan provider. This is why the sample CNMP and template have been such a high priority, as we feel this will reduce the one-on-one time necessary to assist prospective plan providers. When the CNMP is completed, the provider is approved for certification and the plan is approved for the producer. After this, the producer will seek MAEAP Verification if they are a CAFO, or smaller farms may seek verification voluntarily. We have been stuck on having only 5 plan providers in the state for over a year, but due to a major push to improve the process, we more than doubled the number in late 2003 and should triple the number by spring 2004.

Follow-up trainings to CNMP providers have occurred and will re-occur this spring. They include one day trainings on specific topics such as the Purdue MMP software, engineering principles needed for CNMPs, RUSLE for erosion calculations and Michigan’s Manure application Risk Index (MARI) better known as the winter spreading risk indicator.

Manure Tour 2003:
Summer on-farm tours have become well received in the state and a valuable tool to reach producers about manure management. A Mid-Michigan Manure Management Field Day was held June 26, 2003 at Green Meadow Farms, Elsie, Michigan. Green Meadows is a well known farm in the state, looking at many new technologies to deal with manure. The program was a representation of a MSUE led partnership with the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP), North Central Region SARE funds, and local industry through a planning committee and financial support. The one-day event's theme was "Issues of Today & Technology of Tomorrow." The "issues of today" addressed were associated with field application of manure, including the proper crediting of manure nutrients in a cropping system, appreciating the dollar value of manure nutrients, and avoiding discharges to surface water from field applied manure. The technologies experienced by participants at Green Meadow Farms included using a system approach to managing and handling manure, utilizing constructed wetlands for treatment of nutrient laden wastewater, and the chemical treatment of manure to remove nutrients from the liquid stream. MSU research was highlighted through the technology portion while touring the associated facilities on the farm. Participants also were able to visit with more than 20 manure related service providers who were also sponsors of the event.

More than 320 farmers, agribusiness persons, and agency personnel participated in Manure Tour 2003. A post-event evaluation revealed the following:
61% feel more comfortable about crediting manure nutrients as fertilizer in a cropping system
67% have a greater appreciation for the dollar value of manure
78% have a greater understanding of the risk to surface water from field applied manure
52% are more likely than not to implement practices to reduce risk associated with winter application of manure.
56% are more likely than not to improve or implement practices to reduce risk associated with applying manure on tile drain fields.
79% are more likely than not to consider the impact of manure management when making decisions in other areas of manure management
74% are more likely to consider non-traditional new and innovative manure management technologies in future decisions.
Farmers in attendance represented more than 26,000 dairy cows and 55,000 hogs (nearly 9% of all dairy cows and 6% of all hogs in the state of Michigan).

Manure Composting Feasibility Study for Producing and Marketing Compost to the Horticulture Industry of Western Michigan

A steering committee has begun work on looking at what end markets are options for manure compost, what these markets would like and what producers are interested in serving this market. This beginning group is composed of seven farmers, two landscape professionals, one agribusiness, one compost consultant and one marketing consultant to develop the compost market assessment survey tool. To help the group along, multiple survey instruments from a similar survey conducted in California and the committee provided feedback on what the surveys should look like. Based on their comments, three surveys were developed (agriculture, greenhouse/nursery and landscape), sent out again for review and are being modified now based on review comments. The next two steps are to send each survey to three small groups representing each industry and solicit feedback from them and then submit the final survey instruments to MSU for approval. Once that is done the surveys will be sent to a statistically pre-determined group of growers/producers. The goal is to find out what the end user prefers as far as willingness to pay, volume they can utilize, specifications of the product, bagged or bulk, etc. This project is located in an area of the state that has more livestock than land base and is seeking a mutually beneficial solution to the situation for nutrient management. It is being coordinated by Charles Gould, MSU Manure Agent.

Assisting Livestock Producers to Complete Manure Management System Plans in Small Group Sessions:

Livestock and poultry producers are under increasing pressure from the general public, elected officials, regulatory agencies and environmental groups to do a better job of managing manure. Producers asked Extension for help to diffuse this pressure. Extension's response was a series of small-group workshops held across West Michigan that provided one-on-one assistance to producers in developing farm-specific Manure Management Systems Plans. The resulting plans met Michigan Right-To-Farm guidelines, thus helping producers gain protection from nuisance lawsuits. These plans also helped producers determine if they had enough land base to apply all the nutrients they generate on the farm and explore their options if they were out of balance.
Thus far 64 plans have been written in Allegan, Ottawa, Muskegon, Newaygo and Kalamazoo Counties. This number includes plans written for producers who did not attend the workshops, but requested plans anyway. If Kent, Montcalm and Ionia are factored in, that number approaches 100. This encompasses work coordinated and conducted by Extension Agents: Charles Gould, Ira Krupp, Bill Robb, Paul Wylie, Fred Springborn and occasionally, a few other agents helped out. Private consultants, NRCS and Soil Conservation District employees also helped at many of the sessions. The following are impacts of this program.

As a result of the workshops:
Two Ottawa County dairy farmers have agreed to be cooperators in phosphorus plots this spring because they did not believe our recommendation that they could reduce/eliminate P application on corn and still maintain yields.
Some of the producers attending these workshops were not "traditional" Extension clientele. Relationships of trust were developed where invitations were extended to agents for follow-up farm visits.
A closer working relationship has developed between Extension, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Conservation District.
The list of farmers completing Manure Management System Plans (MMSPs required for Right to Farm Nuisance Protection and considered the precursor to CNMPs) was given to the MAEAP Environmental Specialist for Ottawa and Muskegon Counties. He has visited them and will be working with NRCS to develop conservation plans for some of them.
Producers have indicated an interest in pursuing a CNMP after completing a MMSP. Currently two Ottawa County producers are in various stages of CNMP completion.
At least 7 farmers have purchased MSUNM, a computerized record keeping program for manure. Three area horticultural nurseries, that use turkey manure as a fertilizer and a soil amendment, have developed Nutrient Management Plans.

We can now look back and see the impact of several of the mini-grants that were funded to agents for previous projects. Here are a few examples:

A family dairy operation located in Ottawa County milks 450 head and raises corn silage, grain corn and alfalfa hay over 1,223 acres. Working with Charles Gould, Ottawa County Extension Nutrient Management Agent, they recently completed a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan. As a result of following the CNMP recommendations, the farm reduced the amount of commercial fertilizer purchased for the 2001 growing season by $20,000. No phosphorus was purchased for any of the ground and only the recommended amounts of nitrogen and potash were applied. They also implemented a record keeping system. In January, NRCS will begin developing a conservation plan for the farm. Finally, the producers are currently working on receiving the "environmentally assured" designation from the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program. When asked about the impact on yield by following the recommendations in the plan, the farmer replied that yields were maintained, for the most part, on all fields. Where yields were down, the farmer attributed it to weather-related reasons, not because there were insufficient nutrients to make a crop.

Extension Agent Rich Hodupp looks back on the producers he has worked with and can now see the following changes that will greatly improve surface water quality:
Buffer strips have been installed around a feed lot to deter runoff.
A direct discharge of beef feed lot runoff to the county drain has been corrected.
A catch basin for silage leachate has been installed to reduce this potential threat to surface waters.
A producer has gone from ignoring dead animals to burying them according to the Bodies of Dead Animals act in the State of Michigan.
A manure storage structure has replaced the practice of pushing manure out of the barn and into an old depression area.

Extension Agent Tom Rorabaugh demonstrated the improvements possible with fencing livestock out of the creek and installing a controlled crossing and watering area. Since that demonstration, one Amish producer has installed a similar system, another person is planning to do the same, and two others have fenced livestock out of creeks.

Curriculum Development:

PowerPoint presentations have been developed, reviewed by several people, including some reviewed by NRCS, and speaker notes developed. These have been made available for agent use around the state and also at some of the MAEAP Phase I programs. Presentations have addressed the priority issues of:
Outdoor open animal lots
On farm record keeping
Assessing land base for P balance
Capturing manure nutrients in the root zone: Surface spreading of manure, including winter spreading and spreading on tile drained fields
Value of manure
Manure utilization on fruit and vegetable crops: Accounting for the nutrients
Whole farm, ration balance to estimate P in manure
Assessing a farm for direct discharges

The Dairy Team at MSU focused their annual regional meetings on manure (January-February 2004), including the topics of capturing manure nutrients in the root zone, phosphorus rations for dairy that reduce the excreted P in manure and milking center waste water management.

Educational news articles have been well received and printed in Michigan. A lot of this is due to the MAEAP partners, such as Michigan Milk Producers, Michigan Pork Producers and Farm Bureau having excellent publications and a strong commitment to extend the information on manure to their producers. Articles that have been well published include the subjects of: silage leachate, outdoor lots, pre-sidedress nitrate soil testing, a springtime checklist for producers, myths about manure (encouraging the nutrients to be considered fertilizer) and the new permit system.

One page fliers and handouts have been developed on: calibration, silage management to decrease leachate, record keeping sheets in English and Spanish, capturing land-applied manure in the root zone, and outdoor lot management to decrease runoff. Most of these can be found at www.maeap.org.

The PI of this grant has used the PowerPoints and/or handouts at these meetings:
4 regional MSUE/Michigan pork producer meetings in the state, March 2002 reaching 200, distributed manure sampling bottles and record keeping books to 100.
March 2003, Agriculture Conference on the Environment (ACE), breakout session reaching 120 at a conference that drew 600 participants.
Late summer field tours 2002: tours in Marion, St. Johns, Litchfield and Bad Axe highlighting manure calibration, manure testing, field nutrient rates etc., reaching 550.
Feb 2003, Branch County Farmers day and Ag Action Day in Kalamazoo, 33 total

May 2003, we were invited to serve on a National NRC evaluation panel to review three manure management soft wares. There were 17 people from the U.S. who served on this committee, convening in Washington, DC, with only about 2 Extension people invited. This has also been beneficial in working on the template CNMP version generated from the Purdue MMP.

Manure Tour 2003: over 350 attended this tour held at Green Meadows Farm, Elsie Michigan (highlighted in detail above)
May 2003, World Pork Expo’s Pork Academy on “Getting ready for a CNMP” to 35.
July 2003, MSU Ag Expo, field demonstration on manure calibration, 98 people.
Oct. 2003, MDA and DEQ in service for regional field people, 65.
October 2003, Taught at the National CNMP training In Knoxville, TN in November. 80 people present from 27 states plus Puerto Rico and Korea.
December, 2003, Great Lakes Fruit and Vegetable Expo 25 people
January/Feb. 2004, Dairy Road Show, 5 regional workshops around the state, 200 people.

Agent in-service training:
November 2003, a manure Nutrient Management Inservice was held for Extension agents and specialists. The day was most notable for the diversity of agents who attended. Even fruit and vegetable agents are now interested in the issue of manure management as their producers are looking to use more manure and or diversify their operations with custom finishing livestock facilities. Many of the above PowerPoint presentations were presented at this training, for agents to not only learn from, but re-use at local meeting opportunities. Topics included: land base concern for phosphorus management, decreasing phosphorus in animal diets, whole farm nutrient balance on farms, farmstead risk assessments for discharges to surface water and corrective actions, record keeping, calibration and field applications of manure to decrease runoff and discharge through tile lines and after winter spreading. 40 people.
The Farm Management Agent In-service included a segment on land base needs of a farm considering expanding to bring in a son and family. 23 attended.