On Farmers

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On Farmers Ground
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Introduction - Outline

• Quick review of project goals
• Phase 1 Survey
• Survey Results
• Phase 2 Field maps/Manure Tracking\
• How do manure management practices vary between
  farms that are located on different landscapes
  and different soil types?
• What are manure application rates Based on
  logging manure and sampling
• nutrient content of manure
• How much manure is actually collected and hauled
  to farm fields apparent manure recovery
• Phase 3 Work plan.

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Overview

• This study aims to improve our understanding how
  (and why) farmers make nutrient management
  decisions
• Consider challenges faced by farmers when making
  nutrient management decisions
• How these challenges are influenced various
  factors such as
• farm location
• soil type
• stocking density

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Overview - Phases

• Project split into 3 broad phases
• Phase one
• Farm overview and initial (retrospective) data
  collection by development of a survey tool.
• Phase two
• Active tracking of farm nutrient movements for a
  1year period and follow up surveys
• Phase three Feedback
• Farmers
• Policy makers

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Farm Locations
Number of Farms by County South West South
Central Vernon (1) Columbia (3) Crawford
(2) Dodge (3) Richland (2) Dane (4) Grant
(6) Jefferson (1) Iowa (3) Green (4) Lafayette
(2) Rock (2) North East Outagamie (2) Brown
(1) Kewaunee (2) Manitowoc (9) Sheboygan (2)
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Phase 1- Survey Structure

• Based on 2 main criteria
• 1999 PATS survey
• General Model input requirements
• DAFOSYM
• CROPWARE
• UW CROP
• P INDEX

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Phase 1- Survey Structure
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Selected herd characteristics and farmer
management practices
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Results - Farmer Characteristics
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Results - Storage and Feeding

• 90 of farms produce all their own forage
• 80 of farms produce all their own grain
  (including corn)
• Only 1.9 (1 farm) produce all their own protein
• 77 import all their protein

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Results Manure Handling

• 50 of farms have storage, 50 dont (28 are
  likely to build one in next 5 years)
• 40 only have storage for 6 months or less
• 50 dont incorporate within 24hrs (daily haul)
• 15 incorporate over half their manure in 24hrs
• 15 export some manure off farm
• 67 spread on rented land
• 17 regard the whether as the most important
  factor in determining when and where they spread

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Results - Manure Hauling Frequency
Hauling Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage
Daily haul year round 48.1 48.1
Daily haul all year except summer 5.8 53.9
Daily haul all year except winter 1.9 55.8
2-4 times a week 1.9 57.7
Liquids in spring and fall, solids daily 5.8 63.5
Liquids in spring and fall, solids weekly 17.3 80.8
Liquids in fall only, solids weekly /monthly 11.5 92.3
Only in spring and fall 5.8 98.1
fall only 1.9 100
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Results- Nutrient management

• If they have a nutrient management plan
• 80 do not have a nutrient management plan
• To what extent do they pay attention to the way
  nutrients are lost from their farm

Very much 41
Somewhat 50
Slightly 7
Not at all 2
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Phase 2- Manure tracking

• Manure books constructed for each farm using own
  farm maps
• Each farmer is tracking manure hauling practices
  for 1 year noting
• Location
• Quantity
• Type
• Factors affecting spreading

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Farm Boundaries and Cropping

• Crop production practice
• Tillage
• Fertilizer / Manure application
• Yields
• Areas of interest
• Exercise areas, location of milk cows, dry,
  heifers
• Soil type
• Soil tests
• do they
• can we get this info

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Identifying
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Tracing farm boundaries
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Manure Sampling

• Farmers sampling manure applied to the field
• Daily haul - every 2 months
• Storage when major pit empting
• Quantification of spreader size

In addition fecal samples are taken from the barn
floor
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Total Cropland 837 acres Herd Size 422
cows Acres/Cow 1.93
Total Cropland 223 acres Herd Size 61
cows Acres/Cow 3.66
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Total Cropland 837 acres Herd Size 422
cows Acres/Cow 1.93
Total Cropland 837 acres Herd Size 422
cows Acres/Cow 1.93
Total Cropland 223 acres Herd Size 61
cows Acres/Cow 3.66
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OFG8 3D ViewLafayette County
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OFG42 3D ViewManitowoc County
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Results- Actual manure collection
South Central collect 82 manure
South West collect 66 manure
North East collect 80 manure
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Work Plan

• Fall 03 (Oct-Nov) phase 2 (pt2) farm visits
• Check Maps and Manure Logs/Update Cropping
  Information 2003/4
• Photograph manure spreaders and get model numbers
• GPS and Photograph Exercise Areas
• Gather field-level Commercial Fertilizer
  application information
• Soil Sampling - Exercise Areas selected
  vulnerable fields
• Get weights on feed measures where missing (few
  farms)
• Collect any other missing data'
• Winter (January) phase 2 (pt3) farm visits
• Final manure sample/ log sheet collection
• Nutrient balance information yearly receipts for
  
• Imports, feed fertilizer etc
• Exports, milk, sold crops etc

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Work Plan

• Fall / Winter 03/04 written
• Summary report PATS publication phase 1 results
• Manure capture paper
• Heavy metal P loading rates to exercise areas
  paper
• Fall / Winter 03/04 Data analysis
• Run DAFOSYM for each farm (specific for each
  region)
• Run P Index on exercise areas
• General data input (manure tracking information
  etc.)

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Work Plan

• Spring-Summer 04 - Phase 3 (in progress)
• Final on-farm visits
• Share compiled and individual study results with
  farmers and possibly make nutrient balancing
  recommendations
• Determine how and why certain nutrient management
  decisions were made
• Identify barriers they perceive to nutrient
  management/ recommendations
• Difficulty in tracking manure spreading
• Nutrient balancing approach