Manure Coverage

[Supa Dexta]

How much of your ground do you spread manure on yearly, or how often between applications and how much is split between hay land and pasture?

I wish there was a source for more manure around me, I'd use much more of it. As of now I just rotate my worst doing fields, and apply heavy each year. Newly planted fields will get a coat ploughed in, if they're close enough to apply it. But in reality I doubt much more than 10 or 15% of my ground gets manure a year, not counting what the cows leave behind.

But when I spread I put it on thick, cause I'm not sure when that field will see it again.

 

[TexasBred]

Being a small producer mine don't produce enough to accumulate in any one spot. Use to know a man that went into the business of cleaning corrals and pens at dairy barns. Charged to clean the place then hauled the manure to his place, composted it, bagged it and sold it to WalMart. Made a killing off of it even though it was probably 75% dirt.

 

[Nesikep]

I think I'm right around the same percentage as you Supa.. I put manure on about 5 acres of tilled field this year, it was everything I had, and I put it on thick.. it's mostly rock where I put it, and I need *something* in that ground to get the field going.. Last year I put it on a couple acres of poor doing hay land, and I can still see the tracks where I went with the spreader.. 3x the growth there... I'd like to get 50 truckloads a year, but there are no dairies around here anywhere

 

[Stocker Steve]

Land needs cattle. All my deeded land sees cattle unless it is a wet year.

Its easier to pile manure on thick, and I used to, but it not a good approach unless you have an unlimited supply. A thinner 3T per acre layer of manure juices up the soil biology about the same as a thick layer.
Heavy applications can also increase P to an inefficient level. We used to buy turkey litter and you had to get down to 1 to 2 T/acre to maximize the P value.

We are now grid testing soil chemistry and using variable rate bale grazing to deal with low fertility areas.

 

[Nesikep]

We're so short of phosphorus here we need all of it we can get.. Land DOES need cattle!

 

[Jogeephus]

Being a small producer mine don't produce enough to accumulate in any one spot. Use to know a man that went into the business of cleaning corrals and pens at dairy barns. Charged to clean the place then hauled the manure to his place, composted it, bagged it and sold it to WalMart. Made a killing off of it even though it was probably 75% dirt.

Good guess but you are probably too generous in your estimate. By law it only has to have 10% manure to be legally bagged and sold as manure.