Price Tag Put on Manure - Higher One

By Jane Fyksen Crops Editor
Thursday, December 18, 2008 7:47 AM CST

Remember when producers worried about where they were going to go with all their manure? “That was then, and this is now,” says Outagamie County Crops and Soils Agent Kevin Jarek of through-the-roof fertilizer prices and crop margins that have turned manure into black gold. What was once a “waste” is now a precious commodity that needs to be conserved and wisely valued and managed.

Jarek says even growing an average crop of corn on average ground is much more expensive, even if your ground tests in the “optimum” range, meaning you’re not building soil test levels but just fertilizing for crop removal to keep levels even or “optimum.”

“Just like soil,” you can’t take a look at manure and assign values to the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium it contains, says Jarek, encouraging producers to test their manure. “Book values” are a “place to start” though.

When handling solid dairy manure, a grower can expect the following to be available in the first year: Four pounds of N if the manure is incorporated within three days (three if the manure is surface applied), three units of phosphate and seven of potash. For liquid manure, it’s more like 10 units of N if incorporated, seven if surface applied, five of phosphate and 16 of potash.

“The problem that we run into” when putting a value on manure is “we know that not all of the nutrients are going to be available the first year for the crop to use,” says Jarek. When growers run into conditions like this past spring (i.e. cold and wet), microbes that need a soil temperature of 50 degrees to “really get going well” don’t convert organic matter to usable N as quickly, he explains. Growers who have their manure tested will get total nutrients in pounds per ton and an estimated amount of how much will be available in the first year after application. That’s an estimate, albeit one “based on the best information available from UW-Extension research and studies conducted over a long period of time.”

Using current prices, Jarek figures the first-year available components of solid dairy manure adding up to $11.67 a ton (3 units of N at $1 a pound; 3 units of P at $1.14; and 7 units of K at 75 cents). Substitute $4 for the N if you incorporate the manure within three days. Liquid manure (using the same per-unit prices and “book values” above) is worth $24.70 per 1,000 gallons, or $3 more if you incorporate. Again, while these values will “get you in the ballpark,” Jarek stresses there’s “no substitute for a manure test,” to know exactly what you have for N, P and K plus an estimate for sulfur.

Both the UW Soil and Forage Labs at Marshfield and Madison test manure, as do commercial labs such as AgSource in Bonduel, where Jarek says the turnaround time is two days and the cost is $23. A basic test includes moisture/dry matter, N (injected and surface applied), P, K and S and an estimated value for that manure using up-to-date fertilizer prices the way he calculated here.

Natalie Rector, Michigan State University (MSU) nutrient management educator, agrees with Jarek that now is the time to “drain every drop of benefit out of your manure.” Grab a new manure sample before it goes to the field, she advises, recommending sampling each type of storage on your farm and testing the “top, middle and bottom of each system.”

“Know where the manure came from. On a dairy farm, roughly 85 percent of the phosphorus is found in the milking and dry cow herd manure. This has a huge impact on the application rate and which field should be receiving it,” says Rector, who says testing three manure samples will cost less than it’ll cost to fertilizer an acre of corn.

She advocates incorporating or injecting the same day. “Generally about half of the dairy manure is in a form that can volatilize, and that is too much to lose at today’s nitrogen prices,” says Rector, conceding that manure that’s been piled for some time or heavily bedded has lower N value and thus “less urgency” to incorporate.

Snow melt can relocate surface-applied manure nutrients, “and that’s money down the drain,” she warns of wise applications. “Beyond the monetary loss of nutrients, any runoff to surface waters, ditches, a neighbor’s property, can lead to unwanted visits from a regulatory agency representative.”

For a sense of comparison as to just how valuable manure has become, Jarek looks at the commercial fertilizer market. “Last year I encouraged producers to take advantage of December pre-pay for fertilizer prices, because all indicators pointed to the fact that we were going to be significantly higher in-season. Unfortunately prices went to levels that no one predicted. Those who had the resources to take advantage, however, saved 50 to 100 percent compared to in-season costs,” he says, noting that “2009 will be different.”

“Local suppliers and agri-business don’t have the opportunity to try to stay ahead of the curve like last year, and as a result, everyone is going to have to pay prices substantially higher than last year,” he notes. “While they are estimates and subject to change, it appears that these are what we are looking at for pricing at the end of 2008”: 46-0-0 urea, $850 to $950 a ton; 0-0-60 potash, $900 to $1,000 a ton; 18-46-0 DAP, $1,150 a ton; 11-52-0 MAP, $1,200 a ton; 9-23-30 starter, $1,100 a ton; 19-19-19 starter, $1,175 a ton.

He says fertility will have a much greater impact on what a producer is actually able to pay for land rents for 2009. Take corn for instance. If the ground being rented is in the “optimum” range for P and K, he’ll still need to apply 200 pounds of starter to keep up with removal rates n unless manure is being applied!

To grow a 2009 corn crop on rented ground without manure it’ll cost $110-plus per acre to make that application (using current prices). Last year, that same starter application could be made for $40 (December pre-pay) or $60 in season.

“The bottom line is that the fertility of the land being rented is going to have an impact like never before on production costs,” says Jarek, noting an increased expense of $50 to $70 per acre just of P and K in starter to have the potential to grow 150-bushel corn.

“There is an upside and downside to this equation,” he points out. “The reality is that because of the amount of dairy manure that has been available and applied to much of the land in this area (and throughout much of the state), we do have a lot of fields that are in the ‘optimum,’ ‘high,’ ‘very high,’ or ‘excessively high’ category when it comes to phosphorus n meaning that there are cases where little or not phosphate application is required to produce on some of that acreage.”

The downside is that it’s harder to find fields where there’s the same across-the-board trend for potassium levels, meaning, for many, supplemental potash will be needed.

Jarek tells growers who have soils that test high, very high or excessively high for P and K that this “certainly is the year” to take advantage of it.

“If you are in the high category and growing corn for grain (150 bushels) you will be able to get by with closer to 100 to 125 pounds of starter fertilizer, depending on the grade,” he notes, adding that on excessively high ground, none at all is needed.

Jarek cautions that he’s “not saying you can grow crops without fertilizer” but instead encouraging growers that not testing soil n and manure n to take full advantage of the nutrients in both “could be very costly in 2009.”

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