Farmscape for February 21, 2018

A scientist with the University of Saskatchewan says crops fertilized with liquid swine manure can outperform crops fertilized with conventional commercial fertilizers.
The University of Saskatchewan has been looking at the long term implications of using livestock manure at various rates with different application methods throughout Saskatchewan's major soil climatic zones, including brown, dark brown, black and gray, to fertilize crops.
Dr. Jeff Schoenau, a professor with the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture Research Chair in Soil Nutrient Management, says manures tend to be quite dilute and the nutrient ratios will vary but they play an important role in terms of crop nutrition and soil health.

Clip-Dr. Jeff Schoenau-University of Saskatchewan:
When we have applied, for example, liquid swine manure in comparison to commercial fertilizer what we have observed is sometimes per unit of nitrogen that we apply as commercial liquid swine manure compared to a commercial fertilizer source like urea we get a better crop response from the liquid swine manure because the manure is not only supplying nitrogen but it also is adding some phosphorus, it's adding potassium, sulfur and micronutrients as well which, depending on the inherent fertility of the soil, can also contribute to crop yield responses.
In fact we find that manures typically serve good as multi element type of fertilizers to supply nutrients for crops.
That's sometimes explains why we see better yield responses from manures compared to commercial fertilizers.
As well the organic matter that we're adding, especially in solid manures, adding a lot of organic matter directly can also have some beneficial effects on the soil for things like water retention, soil structure and so on.

Dr. Schoenau acknowledges the differences in nutrient availability in manures do require a higher level of management compared to commercial fertilizers.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

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