More than Manure

More Than Manure

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.
 
One of the challenges of using livestock or poultry manure for crop fertilizer has been the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus during handling and storage as well as after application, leaving both nutrients unavailable for crops.

A new product from SFP, More Than Manure Nutrient Manager, aims to fix that problem by maximizing the manure’s phosphorus and nitrogen and increasing availability of these valuable nutrients which can lead to yield increases and better overall crop performance.

Jeff Thompson, Iowa Regional Account Manager for SFP, explains.

Thompson: “What it does basically is the phosphorus fertilizer that is in the manure this product will help protect that and keep that phosphorus from getting fixed in the soil once it is applied. In addition to that, it will also help keep the nitrogen fertizlier that is in the manure in the ammonium form which is what the plant wants and prevent it from breaking down and converting to ammonia gas through volatilization or being loss to denitrification or leaching. So it does both things.”

No special equipment is required to apply MTM through pivots, application equipment for variable rate applications or pretreatment in pits or lagoons.

Thompson shares an additional benefit of using this product.

Thompson: “The ammonia smell is actually ammonium nitrogen that has converted that is being lost to volatilization so this prevents that from happening so it does cut back on the amount of ammonia gas smell that comes off the manure.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.