Manure is a gift and a curse for dairy farmers. It becomes the dark cloud for dairy operations, being the source of time constraints, nutrient runoff and financial strains. Finding methods and approaches that bring consistency and flexibility to applications is often hard to find. That was, until conservation agriculture.

The benefits of sand bedding for dairy cows are many. However, sand is not always the easiest material to incorporate into manure management systems.

As manure applicators, we should know how many gallons or tons we are applying to an acre and should have corresponding documentation. The question is: “How do we determine the rate?”

How much does a footbath solution affect mineral concentrations in the soil once manure is applied? That is the question regional dairy educator Aerica Bjurstrom and her colleagues at the University of Wisconsin have tried answering.  

Protect your bottom line by timing your manure applications closer to crop nutrient demand and keeping the ground covered with a living root year-round.