Earlier this summer I caught up with Pennsylvania no-tiller Grant Troop and he filled me in on a unique Smart Manure Aeration System that puts dollars and time back in the pockets of no-tillers and he even refers to it as “a soil health dream.” Let’s check it out.
“Air comes up through and it'll circulate sections. So the whole thing's done does each section about a minute. And it keeps the manure constantly homogenized, oxidized, oxidize the compounds in the manure that are toxic like hydrogen sulfide, methane, gas, amonia. Those things all get oxidized so they're not a problem. There's no dangerous elements to hauling the manure anymore. With the oxidation, you remove about 90% of the odor of the manure. So if you're in an area where you have neighbors that don't like smelling manure, you really have something spread out now that's going to smell more like compost and manure, which makes it really nice. The nutrients are instantly available to the plant. So guys putting manure out to plant corn, no-till corn.”
“Historically we've worried about how long it's going to take for those nutrients to become plant available. With this system, the nutrients are instantly available to the new crop so you don't have that lag time. You can reduce the amount of nitrogen you put on that planting time and have a really prolific crop starting there. You don't have to do any agitation to haul the manure because it's in a constantly homogenized state all the time. If you got a growing crop in the summer hayfield in the spring, if you're growing forage crops, you can go and spread on those crops right away. Instant feed, it coats the crop in a different way than regular pit manure. Regular pit manure will leave a kind of a shiny, sticky coat on the crop. And oftentimes when you get to harvest, that bottom that you spread the manure on will still have a coating of manure.”
“It increases the ash content. You're taking in manure with the forage. With this material, you'll see that it flakes off, dries off, it flakes off the crop right away. Doesn't have that shiny sticky layer to it. So it goes straight to the soil and the nutrients instantly available in the oxidized form, which is where you want to increase the crop availability.”
Troop says users have reported about a 15% increase in just hay yields alone where they’re putting aerated manure on the crops. Well that’s all for this week’s Cover Crop Connection, until next time, I’m Mackane Vogel.
