This article originally appeared in Partners, CTIC's quarterly online newsletter. Click here to read the complete issue and to subscribe to future issues.

Integrated Manure Management:
Good Neighbors, Good Business

March 2008
(Revised June 2009)
By Steve Werblow


There aren’t many 15,000-head hog operations that open their doors to neighbors for an annual open house. But Meadowlane Farm of Frankfort, Ind., has built a national reputation for its manure management and conservation ethic. Now it’s taken its manure management on the road, custom-applying manure for neighbors through a homemade injector attached to a hose nearly two miles long.

Manure management starts with feed and water and ends after the nutrients are added to the soil, says Mike Beard, who owns Meadowlane Farm with his son Dave, son-in-law Chris, and two stepbrothers. Together they raise 15,000 pigs per cycle from weaning (at about 10 to 13 pounds) to finish (at 270 pounds). The family also farms about 1,700 acres of corn and soybeans, with forest, wetland and waterways preserved and buffered around the operation.

Less in, less Out

Beard is a big fan of the fertilizer value of manure, but he’s also dedicated to minimizing its nutrient content on a pound-for-pound basis. That effort starts at the feed trough, where careful ration formulation minimizes the amount of excess nutrients the pigs consume.

Obviously, a 200-pound hog requires a different diet than a 13-pound piglet. To keep in close step with his animals’ nutritional needs, Beard and his family feed about a dozen different rations, each designed to give the pigs the sustenance they need – but not more. “Compare that style of feeding to what grandpa did,” says Beard. “He had three rations. The pig had everything he needed – and what he didn’t need.”

Managing the amount of nitrogen-rich protein that pigs consume can reduce the amount of N they excrete. Similarly, adding the amino acid phytase to the ration helps pigs utilize the most common form of phosphorus in their feed. That boosts the value of their ration and reduces the amount of P that has to be managed later in manure.

Well-balanced rations can create well-balanced manure, says Beard. “You can get to the place where nitrogen might not be your limiting factor,” he notes. “You’re much more into balance of a typical corn/soybean rotation when you reduce the nitrogen.”

Synthetic amino acids balance the ration more precisely than metering bulk feed ingredients in or out of the mix, Beard explains, adding that the benefits extend to the neighbors, too. “When you use synthetic amino acids in order to help balance the ration rather than overfeed natural products like soybean meal, when you’re more specific in your dietary tailoring, you reduce the excess nutrients that are odor-causing,” he notes.

Meadowlane also invested in new technology that reduces the biggest component of fertilizer – water – by as much as 50 percent. Pigs quickly learn how to keep water flowing in a steady, wasteful stream with standard nipples that are mounted on walls or swinging from ceilings. New cup waterer technology mounts the nipple over a cup that accommodates the pig’s nose. After a few moments of water flow, the cup fills and the pig has to let go of the nipple to take a breath. No more free-flowing water. It sounds simple, but cutting water waste in half has a far-reaching impact.

“There’s less to pump, less to haul, less to handle, less to smell, and a more concentrated product when you’re putting it on fields, so it’s a better fertilizer,” says Beard.

But just because Beard tries to cut down the volume and nutrient content of his pigs’ manure doesn’t mean he doesn’t value the product. Last year, he figures he utilized 6 million gallons of manure on his cropland, replacing 200 tons – or $80,000 worth – of commercial fertilizer.

Keep It Flowing

Meadowlane Farms can apply manure annually on its continuous corn ground, which accounts for 65 percent of its acreage, notes Beard. Well-balanced manure, applied to match agronomic need, delivers all the needed nutrients on his corn-after-corn ground anywhere soil P is in the Low or Medium range.

“As long as we’re taking big yields off, the corn can take a lot of nutrients out,” he says. Last year’s average corn yields on the farm hit 198 bushels, drawing out plenty of N, P and K. On rotated corn/soybean acres, manure is applied before corn.

In addition to fueling impressive yields, the manure regimen has built up soil organic matter and allowed Beard to fix his fields’ phosphorus levels firmly in the Medium range. He takes soil tests every four years in rotated ground and every other year in continuous corn ground. Combining the soil test data with nutrient profiles of his manure and target crop yields, he can calculate the appropriate application rate.

Long line, big opportunity

Beard, his son Dave and his son-in-law Chris have also built a thriving manure custom application business – last year, they applied more than 25 million gallons of manure. They’ve designed and built application equipment to deliver manure to the soil as directly and odor-free as possible, with minimal disturbance of surface crop residues. When Dave and Chris get going, they can cover 6 to 11 acres an hour, delivering as much as 7,500 gallons of manure per acre at up to 3.5 mph.

On a 22-foot toolbar, they mounted heavy Genesis Tillage aeration tines at a 7-degree offset in front of huge nozzles to create what Dave Beard calls a “poke, lift, squirt” surface-application system. On another toolbar, the family mounted 11 straight coulters on 22-inch centers, each followed by a 12-inch Dietrich sweep with an injector. The result: quick, accurate placement of manure 4 to 6 inches below the soil surface. The applicator also chops up rugged corn residue and exposes it to manure, speeding degradation.

Beard and Pearson pull their injector with a 240-hp Agco AT240. Pearson says the applicators run smoothly, even with less horsepower, but the extra muscle is required to pull the 1.75-mile-long hose that feeds manure from the lagoon directly to the applicator.

In addition to the run of 5-inch soft hose that connects the source to the destination, the team can string out as much as a mile of hose in a field. That allows them to cover a 320-acre parcel without changing the position of the 1,500-gpm pump. Recognizing the stewardship benefits of pumping manure rather than hauling it over the roads, the county allowed Meadowlane to run culverts under some of the roads around their farm so they could snake the hose to outlying fields.

It takes about two hours to set up the pump and hose for an application. But even with the lengthy set-up, pumping is far more efficient than loading and running 4,800-gallon honey wagons, which would run out in less than two minutes at the rates Meadowlane applies. The tractor-mounted GPS and flow meter also allow the Meadowlane team to deliver GPS-referenced as-applied records, an increasingly vital component of a good stewardship program.

With their pumping system, the Beards and Pearson have also helped clean several manure spills. The first trial of the system saw them pumping 750,000 gallons of manure from a spill site that threatened a local waterway, diverting it to safe land application. “Since then, I’ve been involved in three or four more spills where manure had the potential to get into waters of the state,” says Mike Beard.

Protecting Water

Beard has built a reputation as a guardian of local streams. Buffer strips protect waterways and water courses from runoff, and he is careful to avoid bringing manure into environmentally sensitive areas.

“I don’t like to apply manure to a field that’s close to a water body, or close to neighbors – where there’s a significant amount of development,” he says, preferring commercial fertilizer for those sensitive areas. “It’s all about being aware of the environment and where you should and shouldn’t apply. It’s not worth killing any fish or polluting any water just to save a buck. It’s all about common sense and trying to do the right thing.”

The Meadowlane Farm conservation ethic extends well beyond the manure pit or the river’s edge. Energy-efficient hog barns maintain healthy ventilation with less power consumption. Conservation farming has cut tillage by 75 percent. And a stand of old forest in the middle of the farm, as well as a little wetland in the corner of another field, stand as examples of the family’s land conservation ethic.

Conservation is a significant investment, but it pays a decent return, Beard adds. For one thing, landlords appreciate his farming style, so he has access to more productive ground. And the benefits of manure management are felt throughout the operation, and throughout the area.

“If you add some of the intangibles – odor reduction, manure quality, nutrient ratio – those things start to give you some value,” he says.

Download a PowerPoint presentation about Meadowlane Farms (Note: PowerPoint is 3.91 MB).

Download the free PowerPoint Viewer from Microsoft (25.7 MB).

Success Stories


October 2009
EPA's New CAFO Rule Changes
"Duty to Apply" for NPDES Permit

Success Stories Archive


April 2009
Web Site is a Treasure Trove of Livestock Waste Management Information


December 2008
Turning Manure into Energy

June 2008
Wastewater Treatment Plants Dewater Dairy Manure

March 2008
Integrated Manure Management: Good Neighbors, Good Business

October 2007
Manure: What's It Worth?

April 2007
Anaerobic Digesters: A Community Approach

February 2007
Planning Now Can Avoid Permit Later

 

 

 

 

Hog Manure

Meadowlane Farms' home-built manure injector delivers liquid manure to the root zone, which minimizes nutrient losses to the atmosphere and local waterways and dramatically reduces odor-all at 6 to 11 acres per hour.

Photo courtesy of Steve Werblow

Protecting Nitrogen - and Investment

Last fall, Meadowlane Farms added N-Serve nitrogen stabilizer to its fall application program. With a 130-gallon tank mounted on the tractor and an injection hose in front of the manifold of the family’s applicators, Dave Beard of Meadowlane says investing in N-Serve pays dividends to the farm and the environment.

According to Dow AgroSciences, which manufactures N-Serve, converting nitrogen to its stabilized form at application reduces leaching by 16 percent and greenhouse gas emissions by 51 percent – two major avenues for nitrogen loss.

“It’s a cost-effective way to protect the environment and reduce the amount of leaching of nitrogen into tile waters,” Beard says. Even at $8 per acre, N-Serve pays, he says. “Instead of putting an extra 10 percent manure on to account for denitrification, we can use that 10 percent for more acres.”

 

 

Award-Winning Conservation

In addition to garnering attention from state and national officials, Meadowlane Farms earned the 2006 River Friendly Farmer Award from the Indiana Association of Conservation Districts and the 2007 Pork Industry Environmental Steward Award from the National Pork Board.

 

 

Hog Manure

Mike Beard's commitment to conservation is on display to neighbors who drive by a restored wetland in the corner of a grain field.

Photo courtesy of Steve Werblow

Woodlands and Wetlands

In addition to 1,300 acres of crops and 15,000 hogs, Meadowlane Farms is home to a protected woodland and a preserved wetland. The previous owner of one parcel had bequeathed about 10 acres of woodland to the state of Indiana. Meadowlane owner Mike Beard upped the ante by putting a 30-to-45-foot buffer around the wooded ground and securing a conservation easement for the buffer.

“My farmer friends would ask me, ‘why would you give another X amount of acres to the state?’” Beard says. “But that’s not productive land, so we might as well find another use for it.”

Trees compete for light, water and nutrients, so crops beside the woods generally fare poorly, he explains. And the terms of his easement allow him to mow once per summer to manage weeds – including tree saplings – which keeps his crops clean. The buffer also provides a lane for Beard to use for his skid loader-mounted trimmer, which he uses to cut branches that encroach on his farmland and threaten equipment.

In the corner of another parcel, Beard manages a small wetland that used to be a struggle to farm. “Rather than treat it like a wet hole, we decided to encourage it or at least not destroy it,” he says. “We started farming around it, and maybe threw some [native] seed at it. Even in this droughty summer, it was wet.”

Preservation projects, even small ones, have reduced hassles and improved habitat – and stand as examples of Meadowlane Farms’ conservation ethic.