Keeping track of nutrient levels in dairy pastures has become an important part of farm management plans. The current recommendation is to fertilize pastures at a level to replace, in equal measure, the nutrients removed through grazing or cutting each year. The Confined Animal Feeding Operations Program (CAFO) run by...
This publication describes how to calibrate waste-handling equipment and calculate nutrient application rates. It covers calibration of typical equipment found on dairies, such as stationary guns, traveling guns, liquid wagons, and solids spreaders. It uses nitrogen in the calibration examples, but the same techniques can be used with phosphorus.
Whether your goal is to manage manure application to balance for nitrogen or for phosphorus, knowing how much nutrient you are applying is a crucial step toward ideal manure management. Determining the relationship between volume of waste and the amount of nutrients applied is essential.
The overall objective of manure management should be to take as many excretable manure nutrients to the soil and have them used by plants for optimal crop yield. This reduces the need to purchase feed and inorganic fertilizer.