Keep Best Management Practices in Mind for Fall & Winter Manure Applications

Cooler temperatures, falling leaves and pumpkin spice flavor means only one thing: winter weather is right around the corner.  With winter coming quickly behind the fall season, the thought is heavy on getting manure on the ground and out of the barn preparing for winter storage.

Ashland Soil & Water Conservation District (Ashland SWCD) is here to help! Our equipment program has continued to be updated and now has a manure spreader that is available for landowners to rent. Our manure spreader is ground driven and small enough to be pulled with a four-wheeler or side by side. The spreader is on a trailer for easy transport to and from rental locations. Rental for the spreader is $10 per day for landowners that live within the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District (MWCD) for those outside of the MWCD boundary it is $50 per day.

Best Management Practices (BMP) are easy to follow and are beneficial for the landowner, applicator and the environment as well. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) developed what SWCD refers to as “Nutrient Management Code 590” this is a reference guide for the right rate, right source, right placement and right timing of manure being applied to farm ground.

Manure is very beneficial, to the farming community as well as consumers. Manure can provide vital nutrients to farm fields without paying for other commercial fertilizers and it is a recycled product not just a “waste product”. When manure is applied to farm fields, we want the nutrients to stay in place on the fields and eliminate run off. For this to happen applications need to be when the ground is not frozen and there is no snow on the ground.

Frozen ground won’t allow the nutrients to penetrate the soil. You may think that nutrients will be in place to soak in as the soil thaws, but that thaw is often accompanied by melting snow and spring rains that wash that manure as well as its nutrients off the field.

Not only is that loss of nutrients bad for the farmers when they are counting on those nutrients to help with the next growing season, but they are also very harmful to the environment and health of our waterways. Manure in the waterways is one of the most common impairments in Ashland County, and it can result in unhealthy waters and even fish kills.

Another great way to minimize a risk is to keep buffer areas between ponds, roads, waterways etc. Fields with winter growing crops like hay fields and fields with cover crops are recommended to spread on, especially if you need to take an emergency application during the winter.

Ashland SWCD offers manure and soil test! If you are interested, please reach out to us at 419-281-7645 and ask for Lynnsey Winchell or Katie Eikleberry.