1. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Manure Management for the 21 st Century Rory Maguire Marlin Burcham, Mark Alley Wade Thomason, Chris Teutsch

2. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Why Inject or Incorporate Manure? 1.Reduce odors, becoming more important with urban sprawl 2.Agronomic - Improve N use efficiency by decreasing ammonia volatilization, but economic importance depends on N prices 3.Environmental - Possibly decrease N and P losses in runoff A BMP that is cost effective?

3. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Why not just till after manure application? Benefits of No-Till 1.Reduced time and energy inputs 2.Buildup soil organic matter 3.Improved soil tilth (structure, drainage) 4.Reduced soil erosion

4. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Benefits of No-Till (Better Soils with the No-Till System, Penn State Univ)

5. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Types of Tools Available 1.Shallow incorporation after surface application, large range in soil disturbance 2.Injection of liquid and dry manures using chisels, knifes, coulters 3.Aeration – helps increase infiltration, sometimes includes aspects of incorporation (e.g. AerWay set at an angle)

6. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Manure Placement Placement of manure vs soil disturbance Injection: vertical chisel or disk Injection: horizontal sweep Shallow incorporation, s-tine cultivator Shallow incorporation, concave disks Jokela & Cote, 1994

7. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

13. Dietrich injector with hydraulic wings

14. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

15. Nurse truck In-field Manure storage container

16. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Dragline system (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

17. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Dragline system (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

18. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Dragline system (Idaho) No-till

19. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Side dressing corn with manure (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

20. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Side dressing corn with manure (Mid-Atlantic Ag, PA)

21. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Aerway Aerator

22. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Angle on entry determines the level of disturbance (Basden, 2008)

23. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Virginia Plant Available Nitrogen Surface application (25% ammonia capture) = 5.84 lb PAN/1000 gal Injected manure (95% ammonia capture) = 12 lb PAN/1000 gal Increased Value due to Injection = ~ 6 lb PAN/1000 gal @ 70 ¢/lb, added value = $4.20 / 1000 gal Increased Nitrogen Value 500,000 gal = $2,100

24. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Drawbacks to manure Injection 1.Slower, therefore takes more time 2.Equipment costs more to buy and maintain, can the increased nitrogen use efficiency cover the cost? Retro fit an existing tanker with toolbar, hydraulic shredder, distributor with hoses, 6 x Yetter Avenger Injection units = $17,134Retro fit an existing tanker with toolbar, hydraulic shredder, distributor with hoses, 6 x Yetter Avenger Injection units = $17,134 Use nurse trucksUse nurse trucks

25. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Virginia Research Results Part 1: Ammonia Volatilization

26. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

27. Ammonia volatilization Total ammonia volatilization (mg) Tilled191 Injected49 Surface363

28. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Virginia Research Results Part 2: Strip trials

29. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Manure strip trials 1.3000, 6000, 9000 and 12000 gal/acre surface applied and injected at 3 sites 2.Also in-field inorganic N response trial 3.Measuring yield, quality and corn stalk nitrate 4.Used MILK2000 to covert yield and quality into milk production

30. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Chopper Weigh wagon Harvesting strip trials

31. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Yield at site 1 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

32. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Milk/acre at site 1 Milk (lbs/acre)

33. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Yield at site 2 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

34. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Milk/acre at site 2 Milk (lbs/acre)

35. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Yield at site 3 (@65% moisture) Yield (tons/acre)

36. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Milk/acre at site 3 Milk (lbs/acre)

37. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Increased Carbon Capture?

38. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Conclusions Manure injection either increased yield or milk production Manure injection either increased yield or milk production Sidedress plots generally unresponsive to UAN, so not sure why Sidedress plots generally unresponsive to UAN, so not sure why Possibly more carbon/soil water retention? Possibly more carbon/soil water retention? Corn stalk nitrate tests results coming Corn stalk nitrate tests results coming

39. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Corn stalk nitrate

40. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Acknowledgements Thank you to the farmers who gave us help and access to their fields and manure pits for this research

41. Virginia Tech – Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences Still to Come Questions?